Each year, MENC awards the Caitlin Merie Hurrey Scholarship to a Collegiate member for professional development. The 2009 award is presented in memory of Shannon Kane.
Originally from Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, Shannon earned a Bachelor of Music in music education with performance honors from Syracuse University. She student taught at Westhill High School, where she conducted the wind ensemble and assisted with the percussion ensemble, brass ensemble, and jazz ensemble; and at Soule Road Middle School, where she conducted the seventh and eighth grade concert and jazz bands.
During her time at Syracuse, Shannon performed in several ensembles on flute, including the orchestra, wind ensemble, symphonic band, flute ensemble, marching band, Brazilian ensemble, and Syracuse University Woodwind Quintet. She also served as the Vice President of her college’s MENC chapter. She was an accompanist for the Lutheran Campus Ministry, a student ambassador in University 100 to help with admissions recruitment, and a member of Sigma Alpha Iota and Pi Kappa Lambda.
In May of 2008, as a member of the Renee Crown Honors Program at Syracuse University, Shannon completed a senior thesis project entitled “Tradition and Innovation: The Lives and Music of Women Composers,” which won an Honorable Mention in Humanities.
Shannon received numerous awards including 2007-2008 College of Visual and Performing Arts Scholar, Academic Music Award for outstanding work in research, and the Helen Falk-Julius Kahn Award to further music education.
Shannon was working on her Master of Music in instrumental conducting at the University of Florida from August 2008 until her untimely passing in February 2009. During her time as a graduate teaching assistant, Shannon was a conducting mentor, director of the volleyball pep-band, and a member of the UF Wind Symphony.
Caitlin Hurrey was nine years old and in the fourth grade at Huntingtown Elementary School in Huntingtown, Maryland, when she died; in 2009, she would have been the same age as Shannon Kane. She loved to play in the band, sing in the chorus, and wanted to be a teacher when she grew up. Including the Collegiate award, the Caitlin Scholarship Fund provides four scholarships each year. The 2009 Caitlin Hurrey Collegiate Professional Achievement Scholarship recipient is Audrey Rome of Williston Park, New York. To learn more, visit the Caitlin Merie Hurrey Scholarship page.
