Research

Research Sessions

History Interest Group (HIG)

Friday, November 5, 2010; 6:30 – 7:45pm

This session will examine early teacher training in Orff Schulwerk in the United States and how the training currently in practice was initially developed. Since the first Orff teacher training, conducted by Gunild Keetman at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in 1953, teachers have been discovering how to adapt Orff processes to classrooms.  The purpose of this research is to chronicle the history of teacher training and the development of American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) certification in Orff Schulwerk in the United States; including why and how teacher training developed and was codified into a certification program.  We will discuss early Orff Schulwerk teacher education programs in the United States beginning with those offered in the late-1950s through the establishment of the first AOSA Certification Course Guidelines in 1980.  Presenter Joani Brandon wrote a grant and set off on a quest to speak with many of the pioneers of teacher training in the United States by phone and/or in person.  She has spent the last two years interviewing key leaders in teacher training, examining volumes of The Orff Echo and Music Educators Journals, and visiting sites with Orff archives, as well as examining videotaped interviews of Distinguished Service Award winners and videos of other historical sessions. Joani will share some of the information from her research on how the American teacher training program evolved.

Joani Brandon, is in her twelfth year as an associate professor of music education at Anderson University where she teaches music education general/choral methods courses and conducts the Women’s Chorus.  Additionally, Joani is director of the Anderson Area Children’s Choir Chorale. The nine years prior to her current assignment, Joani taught choral and general music at Clay Junior high School in Carmel, Indiana.  She previously taught choral and general music for three years at Wilmington Junior High School, in Wilmington, Ohio, where she received the Sallie Mae First Year Teacher of the Year award Joani completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education and Piano Performance, with honors in music and education, from Anderson University in 1987.  In 1995, she completed her Masters of Music Education from Butler University where she studied conducting and children’s choir methods with Henry Leck, director of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir.  Joani has also studied conducting with at the Choral Music Institute with Doreen Rao and Barbara Tagg.  Joani has Kodály Certification from the Hartt School, University of Hartford (Connecticut) and Orff Schulwerk Certification from Anderson University, where she also serves as the program director for the Orff Schulwerk program.  She is currently a doctoral candidate at Boston University.  She has worked with all ages of singers from early elementary to adults.  Joani is a member of the national and state chapters of the American Choral Directors Association, Music Educators National Conference, Organization of American Kodály Educators, American Orff-Schulwerk Association, and is past repertoire chair of the Elementary and Junior High Divisions for the Indiana School Music Association.  She is actively involved in church music at Park Place Church of God, where she serves as Sanctuary Choir director.  Joani has two sons, Jonathon and James.




 


The American Orff-Schulwerk Association is a professional organization dedicated to the creative teaching approach developed by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman. We are united by our belief that music and movement – to speak, sing and play; to listen and understand; to move and create – should be an active and joyful experience.