The following

featured clinicians will offer an array of compelling workshops at the 2011 Clinic/Convention. When the convention schedule is available, be sure to check for their clinics and add them to your personal schedule.

Band Division -

Orchestra Division -

Vocal Division -

Elementary Division -

College Division -

Band Division

Craig Kirchoff

Craig Kirchhoff is Professor of Conducting and Director of University Bands at the University of Minnesota where he conducts the wind ensemble. Kirchhoff coordinates the graduate program in wind ensemble/band conducting and guides all aspects of the University of Minnesota band program. Born and educated in Wisconsin, Kirchhoff brings to his position a wide knowledge of both traditional and contemporary literature. He has won critical acclaim from composers Warren Benson, Henry Brant, Michael Colgrass, Karel Husa, Libby Larsen, George Perle, Vincent Persichetti, Stephen Paulus, Verne Reynolds, Gunther Schuller, Joseph Schwantner, Steven Stucky, Elliott Schwartz, Chen Yi, and others.

Kirchhoff is Past-President of the College Band Directors National Association and is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the National Band Association, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and the Music Educators National Conference, and he served as the founding editor and principal advisor of the College Band Directors National Association Journal.

Kirchhoff has appeared as guest conductor, clinician, and lecturer throughout the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and Scandinavia. Kirchhoff is a frequent guest conductor of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra and has recorded with them on the Kosei Publishing label.

Orchestra Division

Daniel Long

Daniel Long is the Founding Director of the School for the Performing Arts-Ann Arbor Youth Symphony Orchestra. The Youth Symphony Orchestra has performed in Australia, Canada, and at the Midwest Clinic. Long is in demand as a conductor and clinician, has received many music education awards, and is active as an association leader and author. Long received the 2008 Midwest Clinic Medal of Honor—an honor given to conductors, composers, educators, and others whose unique service to music education and continuing influence on the development and improvement of bands and orchestras deserve special recognition.

Long began his teaching career in Nebraska. He then taught for 35 years in the Ann Arbor, Michigan, public schools. He is the recipient of the Elizabeth A. H. Green School Educator Award from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). He has been recognized as Teacher of the Year from the Michigan chapter of ASTA and the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association. He has been inducted into the Chadron State College Music Hall of Fame and awarded the Chadron State College’s Distinguished Service Award. Long has appeared as a conductor/clinician at the Midwest Clinic, Music Educators National Conference, and ASTA conferences. He has served as President of the ASTA’s Michigan chapter. Long has been a member of the editorial boards for Music Educators Journal and American String Journal and has authored articles for The Instrumentalist, Music Educators Journal, and American String Journal.

Vocal Division

Jerry Blackstone

Jerry Blackstone is Director of Choirs and Conducting Department Chair at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. He conducts the Chamber Choir, teaches conducting at the graduate level, and administers a choral program of eleven choirs. As chorus master for the critically acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, he received two Grammy awards in 2006 (for Best Choral Performance and Best Classical Album). Blackstone is considered one of the country’s leading conducting teachers, and his students have received first-place awards and been finalists in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions of the American Choral Directors Association biennial National Choral Conducting Awards competition.

Choirs prepared by Blackstone have appeared under the batons of Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, Michael Tilson Thomas, Leonard Slatkin, John Adams, Helmuth Rilling, Hans Graf, Sir Neville Marriner, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Peter Oundjian, and Yitzak Perlman. He has appeared as festival guest conductor and workshop presenter in more than 30 states as well as New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Australia. Guest appearances in 2010–2011 include festivals and conference presentations in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, and China.

Elementary Division

Mícheál Houlahan & Philip Tacka

Dr. Mícheál Houlahan is Chair of the Department of Music and Professor of Music Theory and Solfège at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, and Dr. Philip Tacka is an Associate Professor of Music Education at Millersville University.

Houlahan and Tacka will present workshops on teaching compound meter, teaching with minor music, sample listening lessons, and repertoire and techniques that link elementary music to secondary vocal music programs.

Houlahan and Tacka’s latest publications are Kodály Today: A Cognitive Approach to Music Education and From Sound to Symbol: Fundamentals of Music published by Oxford University Press. Funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Zoltán Kodály: A Guide to Research was published by Garland in 1998. They are co-authors of the Zoltán Kodály article, bibliography and catalogue of compositions in the New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians. Publications have appeared in such journals as: Indiana Theory Review, Music Educators Journal, Kodály Envoy, Bulletin of the International Kodály Society, and the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy. Other research is contained in four volumes of Sound Thinking: Developing Musical Literacy, Vols. I and II, and Sound Thinking: Music for Sight-Singing and Ear Training, Vols. I and II. Houlahan and Tacka regularly present music pedagogy and musicianship workshops internationally. Currently they are providing Kodály certification training for El Paso, Austin, and Houston ISDs as well as Nashville public schools, and at Texas State University.

Beth Melin Nelson

Beth Melin Nelson teaches elementary music classes at St. Paul Academy and Summit School in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she also serves as the assistant principal. She earned a bachelor of arts in music education from the University of Minnesota and a master of arts in music education with an Orff-Schulwerk concentration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. In addition to her work with children, Melin Nelson is an adjunct faculty member and director of the Orff-Schulwerk Teacher Education Program at the University of St. Thomas and is a faculty member of the Orff-Schulwerk Teacher Education Course at Southern Methodist University. With over 20 years of experience, she has taught music and movement to students in early childhood classes, elementary schools, and high schools. Melin Nelson has presented and performed at national AOSA conferences, state MENC conferences, and is a frequent clinician at chapter workshops around the country.

Melin Nelson will present workshops at the 2011 convention on music and movement in the elementary music classroom and teaching rhythm through body percussion, drumming, and dancing.

College Division

Dr. Daniel Sher

Daniel Sher, Dean and Professor of Piano at the College of Music at Colorado University-Boulder since 1993, received his bachelor’s degree from the Oberlin Conservatory, master’s degree from the Juilliard School, and doctoral degree from the Teachers College of Columbia University. While on the faculty at the School of Music at Louisiana State University, he was the pianist with the Festival Arts Trio, which performed in recital in all of the southeastern states and in South America.

Twice his students were finalists in the MTNA Collegiate Artists Competition, and a piano trio he coached won the MTNA Chamber Music Competition. Sher has performed in chamber music and solo recitals in the U.S., Europe, Mexico, and Central America, and in duo piano recitals with his wife, Boyce Reid Sher throughout the U.S., including a debut recital at Alice Tully Hall at New York’s Lincoln Center.

Sher served as LSU School of Music Dean from 1984 to 1993. He is a Past-President of Pi Kappa Lambda, the national honor society for music, and he currently serves on that group’s board of regents. After serving in a variety of leadership positions with the National Association of Schools of Music, the accreditation organization for music in the U.S., this past year he completed a four-year term as President.

Professor Serona Elton

Serona Elton is an assistant professor in the Music Business and Entertainment Industries Program at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. She also serves as faculty advisor to the student-run record label, Cane Records. Elton holds a master’s degree in Music Media and Industry from the University of Miami, a juris doctor degree from Brooklyn Law School, and is a member of the New York and Florida Bar Associations. She worked for EMI Recorded Music, North America, for eight years where she held numerous positions including Mechanical Licensing and Repertoire Data Services Vice-President. During her time there she played an integral role in the successful implementation of a custom-designed artist royalty system, the design and launch of a global repertoire and rights project, and the development of new processes to support the digital distribution of recordings.

Elton also participated in the Music Industry Integrated Identifier Project, which is best known for developing a new and unique identifier for digital music-based products called the Global Release Identifier. In addition to teaching, Elton serves as a consultant for music industry clients such as Sony Music Entertainment. She has been published in numerous periodicals including the MEIEA Journal, Billboard Magazine, and The Florida Bar Journal. Her areas of expertise include contract interpretation, rights management, royalties, mechanical licensing, record company operations, and music industry information management.