The Academy values the importance of our teacher’s professional development. The Faculty Enrichment Fund annually provides partial and full reimbursement for teachers to attend conferences, workshops, and teacher training sessions. 

Our piano and theory teaching artist, Dr. Radina Dosseva, attended the Workshops in Music Theory Pedagogy in June:

I am very grateful to the Mason Community Arts Academy for their support and encouragement of their teachers to pursue professional development opportunities. The Faculty Enrichment Fund Award allowed me to finally fulfill my dream of attending the Workshops in Music Theory Pedagogy on the beautiful campus of The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, this June. 

This week-long immersion in music was the perfect way to network with other like-minded musicians and dedicated teachers from all over the world. The first workshop was held in 2007, and the conference has taken place every three years since then. I was fortunate to have met the two co-directors of the workshops, professors Leigh VanHandel (University of British Columbia) and Gary Karpinski (University of Massachusetts-Amherst).

I got to know the other amazing presenters, professors Nancy Rogers (Florida State University), Jena Root (Brown University), Jenny Snodgrass (Lipscomb University), and Michael Callahan (Michigan State University). I made many new friends from all over the US and Canada, and had the pleasure of being introduced to another professor at the University of British Columbia, Laurel Parsons, who teaches music theory, aural skills, and film music analysis. Everyone at the conference was incredibly kind and willing to share all kinds of pedagogical information with other attendees.

I learned about fun technology to incorporate into the classroom, like Kahoot and Artusi music. I learned new ways of using musical dictation and improvisation/composition exercises when teaching aural skills. Many of the discussions revolved around aural skills acquisition and how important it is to develop a strong ear in order to become a well-rounded musician.

I learned about very interesting and new (to me) ways to analyze music, such as the Nashville Number System used in commercial music. Many session musicians and background singers have not heard the music before recording it. They are usually handed a lyric sheet at the sessions and have to quickly map out the melody line because they might only hear the music once before having to perform it. They need to have excellent aural skills and so they use the Nashville Number System as a shorthand to write down the scale degrees on which each chord of the song is built. They use numbers instead of Roman numerals to quickly create simple chord charts that help them navigate the song during session recordings.

In addition to all the musical knowledge I gained, I was also fortunate to be immersed in another culture. The Canadian people I met were extremely polite and nice. Young people would always give up their seat on the bus for elderly passengers. They would also stop their cars immediately, if they thought a pedestrian might be thinking of crossing the road.

I learned that the Indigenous people of the area, in particular the Musqueam, are a big part of university life and have a dedicated academic building on campus, called the First Nations Longhouse. We had important discussions on how to expose our students to the beautiful Indigenous music, while being mindful of not appropriating another peoples’ culture in the process. I was able to see many wooden sculptures and totem poles, and I got to hear a concert of Indigenous music on July 1st, Canada Day.

Words cannot describe the breathtaking beauty of the campus, with its giant fir trees and other native plants, as well as the serene views of the mountains and the ocean across the horizon, visible directly from campus, which also overlooks a stunning rose garden right next to the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

This conference taught me many new concepts, helped me rethink my teaching philosophy, and gave me new pedagogical ideas to incorporate into my private and group teaching. It also gave me a renewed sense of cultural awareness and helped me make a lot of new friends, who inspired me. It was a very refreshing and invaluable experience, and I am very grateful to Mason Community Arts Academy for making it possible. 

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Written by Dr. Radina Dosseva
Edited by Regina Schneider