After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Theresa Hoover , a music educator, clinician, author, and podcast host. In the last episode, we learned about how technology, particularly AI, can benefit music educators with things like writing lesson plans and recruitment. This week Theresa will talk about other AI resources that are useful to music educators. We'll also find out mor...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Theresa Hoover, a music educator, clinician, author, and podcast host. In this episode, we'll be learning about how technology, particularly AI, can benefit music educators with things like writing lesson plans, recruitment, and more. Theresa is the author of the book, Empowering Ensembles with Technology , which can be downloaded at the website for F-Flat...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Matthew Arau, Chair of the Music Education department at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and author of the book, Upbeat! Mindset, Mindfulness and Leadership in Music Education And Beyond , published by GIA Publications. Dr. Arau is also the founder of Upbeat Global . As the 2024-2025 school year gets underway, Dr. Arau will share his ideas for sta...

We've been away for a few weeks while we finished up a two-year renovation project here at Amro Music. We're thrilled with the results, and excited to serve our education partners more effectively than ever. We've posted a video on our YouTube channel that shows some of the improvements that we've made to the store, our repair shop, and our Director Services department, but the...

This week Nick Averwater talks with David Davis, Music Teacher at Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School in St. Louis Park, MN, a city of around 50,000 people just west of Minneapolis. David was named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators . In this episode we'll learn about the people and experiences that inspired him to become a music educator, and we'll find out abou...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Dr. Emily Williams Burch , Professor of Music at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. Dr. Burch was also named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators . In this episode we'll learn about the work she has done with the American Choral Directors Association to provide advocacy resources to fellow educators. ...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Emily Williams Burch , Professor of Music at Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. Dr. Burch was also named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators . In this episode we'll learn about  the book that she co-authored with Alex Gartner called The Business Of Choir, A Choral Leader's Guide For Organizational Growth . Our co...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Timothy Sexton, Associate Director of Bands for Tarpon Springs Leadership Conservatory For The Arts in Tarpon Springs, Florida, a city of around 25,000 located 25 miles northwest of Tampa. Dr. Sexton has also recently been named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators .  In this episode we'll learn about the music educators and performing...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Johanna Kitchell, Orchestra Director for Riverside Intermediate and Junior High Schools in Fishers, Indiana, a northeastern suburb of Indianapolis with a population of nearly 100,000. Johanna is also a conductor with the Indianapolis Youth Orchestra , and has been named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators . In the last epi...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Johanna Kitchell, Orchestra Director for Riverside Intermediate and Junior High Schools in Fishers, IN, a northeastern suburb of Indianapolis with a population of around 95,000. Johanna is also a conductor with the Indianapolis Youth Orchestra , and has been named to the 2023 Yamaha 40 Under 40 List of Music Educators . In this episode we'll learn more abou...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Matthew Arau , Chair of the Music Education department at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Dr. Arau was our guest on two episodes in April 2023, but we realized that there was much more to talk about that we couldn't fit into those two episodes, so we've invited him back to share his thoughts about the state of music education after the...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Dr. Bruce Faske , Associate Professor of Trombone at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro . In the last episode Dr. Faske shared ideas for band directors who are non-trombonists, but are teaching the instrument at the beginning and middle school levels. This week we'll have a similar conversation, but we'll focus on musicians and...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Bruce Faske , Associate Professor of Trombone at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. He has taught at the University since 2014, and in this episode we'll learn more about the path that brought him to Northeast Arkansas, and he'll also share some helpful tips for band directors at the middle school level who have little or no experience playing...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Franklin Willis , Community Impact Director for the Country Music Association Foundation . He has been with the foundation since August of 2022 after 13 years as a music educator. In this episode we'll learn more about his early influences as an educator, the foundation's Music Teachers of Excellence Program , and some of the ways a music program can h...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with author & educator Scott Lang about the fourth version of the State Of Music Education Survey. The survey started in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, and version 5 expected later in 2023.  Version 4 is broken up into six categories. Last week Nick and Scott talked about three of those categories: instructional time, student learning, and...

This week Nick Averwater talks with author & educator Scott Lang . We last spoke with Scott in December 2020 about the State of Music Education survey, which started as a result of the pandemic.  The survey is now in its fourth version, with version 5 expected later in 2023, so we thought it was time to check back in to see what has changed in the music education world, post-pandemic. Our conv...

This week Nick Averwater hosts a Back-to-School conversation focusing on maximizing the start of the school year. Our three guests include Lindsey Williams from Paducah Middle School in Paducah, KY, Lauren Duncan from Lafayette Middle School and High School in Oxford, MS, and Evan Burton from Page Middle School in Franklin, TN. Our conversation was recorded on August 2, 2023.

This week Nick Averwater hosts a Back-to-School webinar focusing on recruitment and retention. Our guests include Kaitlin Roll from Annie Camp Junior High School in Jonesboro, AR, Vanessa Cobb from Montgomery Central High School in Cunningham, TN, and Dr. Mike Yopp from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, TN.  The conversation was recorded August 1, 2023.

This week, Nick Averwater talks with Cody Price, Orchestra Director at Arlington Middle School in Arlington, TN, a town of around 15,000 people located just northeast of Memphis.  In this episode we'll learn more about Cody's approach to teaching, which is based on the idea of teaching life skills through music. She'll also share some tips for getting string players to properly tune...

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Glen Schneider, an instructor at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, and creator of musicmastery.band , a personalized online teaching resource designed for students for whom private lessons aren't an option.  Glen has over 20 years of experience as a band director, and in the last episode we learned all about musicmastery.band, but...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Glen Schneider , an instructor at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, and creator of musicmastery.band , a personalized online teaching resource designed for students for whom private lessons aren't an option. Our conversation was recorded in January 2023. It's broken up in to two episodes, and this is part 1.

This week Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Dr. James Weaver, Director of Performing Arts and Sports for the National Federation of State High School Associations , an organization based in Indianapolis that serves more than 19,000 high schools.  In this episode we'll learn about how the NFHS works to advocate for arts education at the national level, and as a former orchestra di...

This week Nick Averwater talks with Dr. James Weaver, a former band director, and Director of Performing Arts and Sports for the National Federation of State High School Associations , an organization based in Indianapolis that serves more than 19,000 high schools.  In this episode we'll learn about NFHS's leadership role in the International Coalition Performing Arts Aerosol Study at th...

This week, Nick Averwater continues his conversation with Dr. Mike Yopp, Director of Bands at Middleton High School in Middleton, TN, a town of just a few hundred people in the southwestern part of the state. The high school serves Middleton and several surrounding communities as part of the Hardeman County School District. In March of 2023, a few weeks after this conversation, it was announced th...

This week, Nick Averwater talks with Dr. Mike Yopp, Director of Bands at Middleton High School in Middleton, TN. Middleton is a town of just a few hundred people in the southwestern part of the state, but the high school serves several surrounding communities as part of the Hardeman County School District . In March of 2023, a few weeks after this conversation, it was announced that Dr. Yopp will...