Band Division

Dr. Charles T. Menghini, VanderCook College of Music
Prior to his appointment as VanderCook College of Music President in August of 2004, Charles Menghini served as Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Bands. He began his teaching at VanderCook in 1994. His teaching has included conducting, organization and administration, curriculum and supervision, brass methods, and rehearsal techniques. Menghini brought with his appointment to VanderCook 18 years of successful high school band experience in Missouri and Kansas. Bands under his direction received consistent Division I ratings in regional, state, and national music festivals, performed at various state music educator conventions, and performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade, Orange Bowl Parade, Bands of America International Festival, and the XV Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Menghini attended Northern Michigan University and the University of Missouri/Columbia where he earned his Bachelor of Science degree in music education. He also holds a master's degree in education from the University of Missouri/Kansas City and a Doctorate of Arts in wind conducting from the University of Missouri/Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Menghini has written for professional journals and magazines including The Instrumentalist where he serves as a contributing editor. He is also co-author of the Essential Elements 2000 Band Method, published by the Hal Leonard Corporation.

Menghini has conducted all-state ensembles in Wisconsin, North Dakota, Georgia, South Carolina, Nebraska, and New York and frequently serves as a clinician and adjudicator in the U.S. and in many other countries around the world.

Orchestra Division

Kirt Mosier, Featured Clinician
Kirt N. Mosier is in his twenty-sixth year of teaching. He is currently teaching for the Leeʼs Summit R-7 School District in Missouri and is the director of orchestras at Leeʼs Summit West HS. Mosier is also an adjunct professor for the University of Missouri/Kansas City where he teaches arranging for music education and masters degree candidates. He was previously an adjunct professor for Baker University where he taught music history. Mosier holds a Bachelor of Music Education and a Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Missouri/Kansas City.

During his teaching career, Mosierʼs groups have consistently received the highest honor ratings and have performed throughout the United States. He is an active clinician, adjudicator, and composer with over 60 published works for orchestra. In 1993, Mosier’s piece “Baltic Dance” won the National School Orchestra Association Composition Contest. That same year, he was commissioned by the Missouri chapter of ASTA to write the All-State Orchestra piece, “Revelation.”

Mosier is a sought-after clinician and has conducted clinics and honor groups throughout the U.S., including all-state and region groups in Montana, Tennessee, Texas, Kansas, and Missouri. He is currently directing the Digital Media Technology Center of Excellence for the Leeʼs Summit R-7 School District.

Vocal Division

Patrick Freer, Georgia State University
Patrick K. Freer is Associate Professor of Choral Music Education at Georgia State University where he conducts the GSU Men’s Chorus. He holds degrees from Westminster Choir College and Teachers College, Columbia University. Freer is a frequent guest conductor for all-state choruses and has made over 85 presentations in 34 states and ten countries. His international work has included seminars and conducting masterclasses at the Rotterdam Conservatory, the Gehrels Muziededucatie, Aristotle University, the University of Alcalá de Henares, and the Universidad Autónoma de Chihauahua.

Freer is Academic Editor and Chair of the Editorial Board for Music Educators Journal. Publications include Getting Started with Middle School Chorus (named Outstanding Academic Title by Choice) and the critically acclaimed DVD series Success for Adolescent Singers. His articles are published in most of the field’s leading national and international journals. His current research includes interviews with boys in many different countries about their experience as singers in school music programs.

Elementary Division

Brent Gault, Jacobs School of Music
Brent Gault has taught elementary and early childhood music courses in Texas, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. He specializes in elementary general music education, early childhood music education, and Kodály-inspired methodology. Gault also has training in both the Orff and Dalcroze approaches to music education. He has presented sessions and research at conferences of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, the Dalcroze Society of America, the International Kodály Society, the International Society for Music Education, the Organization of American Kodály Educators, and MENC. In addition, he has served as a presenter and guest lecturer for colleges and music education organizations in the U.S., Canada, and China.

Articles by Gault have been published in various music education periodicals, including the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, the Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, General Music Today, the Kodály Envoy, the Orff Echo, and the American Dalcroze Journal. In addition to his duties with the Music Education Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Gault serves as the program director for the Indiana University Children's Choir, where he conducts the Allegro Choir. He is a past president of the Organization of
American Kodály Educators.

Artie Almeida, Bear Lake Elementary
Dr. Artie Almeida is the music specialist at Bear Lake Elementary school in Orlando Fla., where she teaches 1,150 K–5 students. Her dynamic performing groups have performed for MENC, AOSA, and on the NBC “Today Show.”

Almeida was chosen as Florida Music Educator of the Year, and was also selected as an International Educator 2006 by the Cambridge England Biographical Society. She was a Teacher of the Year at the school level six times and was recently chosen as a University of Central Florida College of Education Alumni of the Decade. In addition to her public school teaching duties, Almeida is an adjunct professor at the University of Central Florida, teaches applied saxophone lessons, and performs on historical winds with the early music ensemble Ars Antiqua.

College Division

John Benham, Northwestern College
Dr. John Benham is author of Music Advocacy: Moving from Survival to Vision. His area of expertise is saving and restoring music programs in the face of budget cuts. With over 30 years as a music educator and six years on a school board, his personal knowledge and experience provide unique understanding to help teachers go before a school board and administration with language they understand. His methods are responsible for saving over $72 million in budgetary cuts to music programs, leading to the restoration of over 2,000 teaching positions and the continuation of music programs for over 500,000 students. In addition to his work as consultant, he has been featured as a speaker at conferences throughout North America. He is a member of the ACDA and ASTA advocacy committees, and the MENC Task Force on advocacy.

His successes in saving school music programs have been documented in the Music Educators Journal, Music, Inc., the Wind Instrument Retailer, and The Instrumentalist. He is the recipient of the state and national Distinguished Service Award by the Minnesota Music Educators Association in 1994, and the Music Educators National Conference in 1998. In 2003 he was elected to the inaugural class as a Lowell Mason Fellow by MENC for his efforts in music advocacy. In 2010 the American String Teachers Association presented him with the National Advocacy Award.

In addition to his formal presentations, Benham will be available for face-to-face opportunities for members to discuss practical solutions to individual situations where financial challenges exist. We believe that this additional occasion to interact with him will be an incredible service to arm our members with nuts-and-bolts information they can use immediately upon returning to their classrooms.

Steve Morrison, University of Washington School of Music
Steven Morrison is Associate Professor and Chair of Music Education at the University of Washington. An instrumental music specialist, Morrison teaches courses in music education, classroom management, and research methodology, and conducts the UW Symphonic Band. He has taught at the elementary, junior high, and senior high levels in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Louisiana and has conducted and arranged for bands, orchestras, and chamber groups throughout the U.S.· Morrison is director of the Laboratory for Music Cognition, Culture and Learning, investigating neurological responses to music listening, perceptual and performance aspects of pitch-matching and intonation, and use of expressive gesture and modeling in ensemble teaching. His research also includes music preference and the variability of musical responses across diverse cultural contexts.

Morrison's articles have appeared in Music Educators Journal, Journal of Research in Music Education, Bulletin for the Council of Research in Music Education, Music Perception, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, Southwestern Musician, Recorder: Ontario Music Educators Association Journal, College Music Society Newsletter, and Southern Folklore. Along with colleague Steven M. Demorest, his research into music and brain function has appeared in Neuroimage, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Progress in Brain Research and The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Morrison will present sessions relating to the interaction between conducting gesture and the ways that we experience music, his recent research on how students in a musically and culturally diverse society process musical meaning, specific strategies for developing students' problem-solving skills in the ensemble setting, and his insight regarding planning for a career in higher education.