IVfME Webinar Series 2023-2024
The next IVfME Webinar Series kicks off on October 7, 2023, at 10 AM with Sowah Mensah & a session called “African Music and Music Education in the United States.” (click to register)
Mensah iis the Director of African Music at Macalester College, St Paul, Minnesota and directs the African Music Ensemble. He’s an ethnomusicologist, composer and “Master Drummer” from Ghana. He is also the director of the West African Music Ensemble at the University of Minnesota. He was “James Marsh Professor at Large” at the University of Vermont, Burlington from 2004-2010. Sowah has taught music in Ghana and Nigeria and played with the Ghana National Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he received the “Distinguished Yale Music Educator Award”. He enjoys an active performance career. In May 2000, he performed in Carnegie Hall, New York as a soloist in David Fanshawe’s African Sanctus. He has performed extensively in the United States, Africa, and in Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, and South America. As a composer, Sowah has compositions for Orchestra, Symphonic/Concert Band, Choirs, African Music Ensembles and works that combine the above ensembles. Sowah’s most recent work, N.N.O.A. for Symphonic Band, was commissioned by Roseville Area High School Bands, Roseville, MN and was premiered in May 2021.
Sowah has three solo albums and five books. He presents a series of workshops for music teachers every summer including World Music Drumming and workshops at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota. Sowah presents clinics, workshops, and residencies at colleges, elementary, and secondary schools in the United States as well as Europe, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean.
Resources from Recent IVfME Webinars
- Is It Worth It Rubric – from Jasmine Fripp, AKA The Passionate Black Educator
- Latin American Music for Young Wind Bands Handout – from Rubén Darío Gómez, DMA
Additional Resources for IVfME (Inclusive Vision for Music Education)
- Cook Ross Reports
- Multicultural Awareness Commission History
- Culturally Responsive Teaching by Dr. Connie McKoy
- Who Enrolls in High School Music?
- NCMEA Declaration of Intent
- Johnathan Hamiel President’s Message (See pp. 8-9)
- NCMEA Mentoring Program
- Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform
- Co-creating: students bring something in and the teacher ties it into the classroom (Jazzmone Sutton)
- Responding to Difference: Teaching Students How to Respond Internally to Something New (Jazzmone Sutton)
- “WOW, This is going to be awesome!”
- “This will be interesting”
- Take a Deep Breath
- VIDEOS: IVfME Webinar Series 2021-2022.
- VIDEO: Multiculturalism in the World of Chamber Music featuring Guest Lecturer Jonathan C. Kramer, Ph.D.
For more information, contact
IVfME Chair Lillie Allmond Harris
[email protected].