Generation What!?: Creating “We” in the Age of “Me”
By Nathan Dame and Ashley Delaney
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About the Authors:
Nathan Dame is in his ninth year of choral music education and serves as Coordinator of Vocal Music for the Denison ISD and Head Choral Director for Denison High School and Scott Middle School. Prior to his arrival at Denison, he served as a choral director at the elementary, middle, high school, and college levels. He most recently served as Instructor of Music Education & Music Therapy at the University of Kansas, where he served as a conductor for the Men’s Glee Club, Youth Chorus, and Rock Chalk Singers, as well as taught courses in conducting, choral music methods and techniques, and supervised student teachers. Choirs under his direction consistently earned Superior, Overall Outstanding, and Grand Champion awards in choral competitions throughout Texas. Recent honors include invitations to perform at the 2014 Southwestern ACDA Convention, Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Hall, the Texas and Kansas State Capitol Buildings, Allen Fieldhouse, and the Texas Motor Speedway. He received honors for Excellence in Teaching from Denton ISD and Plano ISD and was named North Texas Children’s Choir Teacher of the Year in 2012.
An active presenter, conductor, adjudicator, and clinician, he has published in Choral Journal, ChoralNet, Southwestern Musician, Texas Music Education Research, Kansas Music Review, and RBC Publications, which used his compositions for the Texas UIL Sight-Reading Contest. He has served as Coordinator of Choral Music for Denton ISD, TMEA MS/JH Vocal Chair for Region 2 and Vocal Tabulations Chair, and served as State President for Kansas NAfME Collegiate and President of KU Men’s Glee Club, NAfME Collegiate, and ACDA. Mr. Dame is a member of NAfME, TMEA, TCDA, ACDA, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Pi Kappa Lambda. He holds a B.M.E. from the University of Kansas, a M.A. in Music Education from Texas Woman’s University, and is pursuing his Ph.D. in Music Education (Choral Pedagogy) at the University of Kansas.
Ashley Delaney leads the Harpool Choral Department as Director of Choral Activities. At HMS, Ms. Delaney has experienced great joy in conducting the Longhorn Choirs and has been extremely blessed to work with some of the most dedicated, caring, and musically gifted students in the state of Texas! Most recently she co-conducted the HMS Kantorei Varsity Mixed Choir at their invitation performance in Little Rock, Arkansas at Southwest ACDA Convention. Prior to coming back home to Harpool, she served as Associate Director at Blalack Middle School in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. While at Blalack, Ms. Delaney conducted the 100-voice Concert Boys Choir, Women’s Chorale, and Women’s Select Choirs. Additionally, she served as co-conductor of the Varsity Men’s Chorus, which was named 2011-2012 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) State Honor Choir and American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Cambiata Institute Invitational Tenor-Bass Middle School Choir, 2012.
Her additional professional experiences include performing arts marketing and event coordination for both the Dallas Symphony Association and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. In 2009, she was awarded the DFW Corporate Concierge, Inc. Performing Arts Vendor of the Year. Ms. Delaney holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Mississippi College and a Master of Arts in Music Education from Texas Woman’s University, where she was named as the 2010-2011 recipient of the Perry R. Bass Fellowship and 2009-2010 Virginia Chandler Dykes Scholarship. In 2012, she received an Award of Teaching Excellence from Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. Most recently, Ms. Delaney received the Texas Choral Directors Association Young Director of Distinction Award for 2013 and has been named the 2013-2014 Young Alumnus of the Year from the Mississippi College Music Department. She currently serves as TMEA Region 2 Middle School/Junior High Treasurer. In 2013, she was a TMEA Poster Session Presenter on Selected Tenor-Bass UIL Literature Analysis and TMEA Clinician Presenter on “Keys to Successfully Teaching Music Theory in an Ensemble Rehearsal” for choir, band and orchestra divisions and TMEA Clinician Presenter on “Where the Wild Things Are: Coaching Middle School Males.” Her sessions demonstrated strategies for sequential scaffolding of musical elements relating to rhythm, pitch, terminology, and symbols and their efficient integration in a rehearsal setting as related to repertoire.
Nathan and Ashley will be presenting on this very topic at the 2015 NAfME National In-Service Conference this coming October in Nashville, TN! Don’t miss the Hotel Room Block Deadline: September 25!
Join us for more than 300 innovative professional development sessions, nightly entertainment, extraordinary performances from across the country, a wild time at the Give a Note Extravaganza, and tons of networking opportunities with over 3,000+ other music educators! Learn more and register today: http://bit.ly/Nafville2015
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Brendan McAloon, Marketing and Events Coordinator, September 18, 2015. © National Association for Music Education (NAfME.org).
