“Start with the way that you structure your rehearsal, your classroom, your feedback. In terms of feedback, we talk about not giving people more than three pieces of information to work on. Working memory is affected by ADHD in particular. ‘Here's what you're doing well, here's what you can improve on, here's how you can improve it.’ That structure helps with their ability to anticipate what you're going to say and quickly implement that into their own music making.”

Dr. Peter Haley serves as Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Ohio University, where he conducts the Ohio University Singers and Singing Men of Ohio and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting, choral literature, and music education. He previously spent seven years as a high school choir director in North Carolina where his students were consistently chosen for honor choirs on the local, state, and regional level, while being immersed in a program that stressed collaborative music-making and artistic excellence.

Dr. Haley’s research interests include pedagogy for neurodivergent learners in the choral rehearsal, and Arvo Pärt’s sacred choral music. He has been invited to present at state and regional ACDA and MEA conferences and served as a clinician or adjudicator in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, and South Carolina. He has served as a pastoral musician for Baptist, Presbyterian, Reformed Jewish, and United Methodist congregations and held leadership roles on the Executive Board of the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and the Southern Region Conference of the American Choral Directors Association.

Dr. Haley holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of South Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Music from Wingate University and an M.M. in Church Music from Samford University. He has the honor of being the second-best teacher in his house, behind his wife, Ashley, and is a proud parent to Patrick and Libby Kay.

To get in touch with Peter, you can e-mail him at [email protected] or find him on Instagram: (@peterallenhaley).

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Photo in episode artwork by Trace Hudson