After Hours: Conversations for Music Educators

This week we continue our look at using technology in music education, as Nick Averwater talks with Gillian Desmarais, who teaches Music Production and Engineering at Harmony Learning Center in Maplewood, MN.
Gillian is the founder of Sound Tech Ed, a website that provides resources for music programs that allow students to learn and grow with music technology. She has also been named to the 2024 Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of music educators, and was named 2024 Teacher Of The Year by TI:ME.
In this episode we'll be learning about Gillian's early interest in music technology, and how that influenced the way she teaches music. We'll also find out which software and web-based programs she uses. We have links to all of these resources below.
Our conversation was recorded August 12, 2024. We've broken it up into three episodes, and this is part one.
Here are the hardware, software, and web-based resources Gillian mentions:
Launchpad
Ableton
Soundtrap
drumbit
Groove Pizza
Chrome Music Lab

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 more about the concepts behind her book, Empowering Ensembles with Technology, which can be downloaded at the website for F-Flat Books.
Our conversation was recorded August 5, 2024. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part two.
Here are the online resources Theresa mentioned:
LyricLab
ChatGPT
Suno
Udio
ChordChord
Hookpad
Padlet
Music Snippet

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 Books.
Our conversation was recorded August 5, 2024. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part one.
Here's Theresa's website
Here's Theresa's "Pass The Baton" podcast

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 starting the year off right, including ways of defining success, setting realistic goals for yourself and your students, and more.

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 there's nothing like seeing it all in person, so if you're ever in Memphis, we hope you'll take some time to stop by. We would love to see you.

This week we have the second half of Nick Averwater's conversation with David Davis. The first part of the interview was posted back in May of 2024. David is a Music Teacher at Park Spanish Immersion Elementary School in St. Louis Park, MN, a city of around 50,000 people just west of Minneapolis. In 2023, David was named to the Yamaha 40 Under 40 list of Music Educators.

In this episode David shares his thoughts about music literacy and how it's defined. He'll also tell us what the first few weeks of school is like in his band room. And we'll learn more about the importance of diversity in terms of repertoire, ensembles, and instrumentation in his school's music program.

Here's our conversation with Dr. Anita Collins that was mentioned in the interview.

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 about some non-traditional approaches to keep students interested, and increase enrollment and retention in his music ensembles. 
Our conversation was recorded in January 2024. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part one. 

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. 
Our conversation was recorded in November, 2023. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part two. 

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 conversation was recorded in November, 2023. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part one. 

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 opportunities that influenced him as a student musician, his individualized approach to teaching students, the benefits of regularly recording the music ensembles, and more.
Our conversation was recorded in November, 2023. 

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 episode we learned about how being an athlete has influenced her as a music educator, and the way the music and athletics departments work well together in her schools. This week we'll find out how she approaches recruiting, what educators should look for when working with a local music store, and more. We'll also learn about the method book that she has written for intermediate string players.
Our conversation was recorded in October of 2023. We've broken it up into two episodes, and this is part two.