Music Education and Students with Disabilities and/or Living in Poverty: A NAfME Virtual Symposium

Where is the field of music in special education and the care of students who live in poverty heading in the next 10 years? How can we prepare to be the best teachers possible for our students? What enduring questions remain, and how will we fulfill the promises of an education based in equity and care for all students? As we finish our time together during this virtual symposium, we will also ask each Zoom group to share their questions and responses to provide closure for our day.

Organized by Alice Hammel and Joseph Abramo. Additional presenters will include Tina Beveridge, Adam Chitta, Eddy Ercilla, Erika Knapp, Melissa Lloyd, Erin Price Hamilton, Cody Puckett, Nerissa Rebagay, and Ramon Rivera.

There is no fee to attend this event. However, space is limited, and all attendees must register in advance.

Grammy Award Nominated Educator Alice Hammel was the 2023 NAfME Lowell Mason Fellow, Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Outstanding Educator (2018), and is the current Past-President of VMEA. She is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse. She is a Disabilities Specialist and has many years of experience teaching instrumental and choral music in public and private schools. Dr. Hammel has put these varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author for many texts: Q&A for Band Directors, Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities (A Label-free Approach and A Practical Resource), Teaching Music to Students with Autism, Winding It Back, and Universal Design for Learning in Music Education. Dr. Hammel is Past-President of the Council for Exceptional Children Division for Visual and Performing Arts Education and was awarded their Past President Award for Excellence. She has served NAfME as a member of the National Executive Board, the Equity Committee, and the Music Teacher Profession Initiative. She is a proponent of Music Will and the Modern Band movement.

Joseph Abramo is Associate Professor of Music Education in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. His areas of research include equity in music education, music teacher preparation, and popular music. Dr. Abramo has published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and books. He is the co-author of the book Music Teacher Evaluation: A Guide for Teachers in the U.S. published by Oxford University Press. He has also presented at various international, national, and regional conferences. Dr. Abramo currently serves on the National Association for Music Education’s (NAfME) Equity Committee and is also co-chair of the Connecticut Music Educators Association’s (CMEA) Equity and Advocacy Committee. He is also a Past Chair of the Philosophy Special Research Interest Group of NAfME and served as an early reviewer for the 2014 National Standards in Music. He served on the State Education Department’s Arts Leadership Team and as a co-editor of its on-line, peer-reviewed journal Gender, Education, Music, Society. Dr. Abramo records electronic music under the pseudonym Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things.