Characteristics of Successful Inner-city Music Teachers: A Pilot Study at the Choir Academy of Chicago

Authors

  • Mary Lynn Doherty Northern Illinois University

Abstract

This descriptive study, performed in the spring of 2007, seeks to illustrate characteristics that are shared amongst successful inner-city music teachers at a choir school in Chicago, Illinois. Specifically, through both formal and informal interviews, the researcher will present data related to the classroom management practices, curricular choices, and educational philosophy of four teachers who teach music at the Choir Academy of Chicago Charter School, the only public choir school of its kind in the United States.

Author Biography

Mary Lynn Doherty, Northern Illinois University

MARY LYNN DOHERTY is a children’s music specialist and has taught in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois at the K-12 and university levels. She received her Master of Music degree and her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction in Music Education from the University of Wisconsin- Madison and her BA degree from Luther College (Iowa). As a student, Mary Lynn sang in the esteemed Nordic Choir, under the direction of Weston Noble. She is the former Artistic Director of the Northeast Iowa Area Youth Chorus as well as the former Interim Director of Music Education at Luther College. In the spring of 2000, she was invited to teach in Hornby and Lancaster, England, at the invitation of the College of St. Martins, Lancaster. Mary Lynn’s research has been on vocal health issues experienced by music teachers and she has presented her work both nationally and internationally. Most recently, Mary Lynn held the post of Director of Music Education and Associate Conductor of the Chicago Choir Academy, a charter school in Chicago. This choir school, founded by the Chicago Children’s Choir, is the only public choir school of its kind in the USA. During her time with the Academy, Mary Lynn prepared 120 young singers to perform with the Chicago Symphony in a production of Benjamin Britten’s Noyse Fludde. In addition, her fourth grade choir performed the opera Stone Soup, by Chicago composer Philip Seward.

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Published

2013-10-29

Issue

Vol. 6 (2007): The Phenomenon of Singing International Symposium VI

Section

Articles