click here for Kathleen's CV
(transcripts, documentation, and articulation of personal teaching philosophy available upon request)
First hired to teach horsemanship, while still a teenager, Kathleen progressed to teaching music and other subjects in various public schools, private schools, summer programs, and special educational programs, throughout the 70s and 80s. Her wildly diverse experiences included, for example
- using horsemanship classes to build confidence in students from Maryland School for the Blind
- teaching field ecology to Baltimore County chronic juvenile offenders
- teaching music at Baltimore Experimental High, and for Baltimore Free University
- teaching an introductory composition/improvisation course called Music As a Creative Language at Maryland Summer Center For The Arts at Goucher College
- volunteering to create and teach a music curriculum for a public k-12 Special Education school in Arkansas which otherwise had no music program whatsoever, and then the following year being asked to actually teach in the multiply-handicapped general classroom in that school.
Through all those years, Kathleen was also regularly collaboratively improvising accompaniment for academic ballet and modern dance classes, thus studying the teaching techniques of dozens of dance teachers, from her vantage point at the piano. Meanwhile, she was homeschooling, and studying educational theory and the writings of Kozol, Maslow, and others. All of these experiences coalesced into a passionate philosophy of teaching that always seeks positive relationship in every teaching moment, and assumes that all moments are potentially "teaching moments."
In the 90s, while continuing to teach in some of the private schools and summer programs, Kathleen increasingly created and taught college classroom courses. At Towson University, she taught (as an adjunct) up to 20 credits per year, including the "Music 101" Music Appreciation course twelve times at Towson, and the Women In Music course (which she designed herself) eight times, with occasional semesters teaching Music Fundamentals or Music for Dance (also Kathleen's original course design). During this time, she received very high student evaluations, and she inspired students who had simply signed up for something like Music 101 "because they had to, for their GenEd credits" to continue taking additional music courses.
Concurrently, she continued to teach music history and theory (including AP Theory) at Baltimore Actors Theater Conservatory, and was Head of Music Theory/Composition for The Preparatory Division at Towson University. Her music composition students won important competitions and honors, including monetary prizes and public performances of their works, and offers of advanced placement and substantial music department scholarships. Kathleen also taught the Music for Dance course at neighboring Goucher College during this time.
In 1999, Kathleen was honored with a Dean's Award for her work at Towson, was invited to contribute four entires to the Greenwood Press Women and Music in America since 1900: An Encyclopedia, and was an invited presenter on the topic of Women in Music at an American Musicological Society meeting.
Meanwhile, across all of these decades, Kathleen was also concurrently composing and performing music, particularly in her work as "musician for dance" in both the Towson and Goucher dance departments.
After relocating to Ohio in 2001, Kathleen taught numerous courses for the Denison University music department, including Music 101 repeatedly, Women in Music repeatedly, World Music, and Exploring New Media. After three years at Denison, Kathleen was invited to do a Guest Artist year at neighboring Kenyon College, and then spent two years full-time at Kent State, leaving Ohio for North Carolina in summer of 2007.
Kathleen's favorite teaching experience in North Carolina has been the 2008 "Exploring Musical Composition" course she created and taught as a volunteer at Asheville's unique Reuter Center on the UNCA campus.
Currently, Kathleen is accompanying dance at Elon University in Elon, NC. In summer, she accompanies for the Carolina Ballet Summer Dance intensive in Raleigh.
MM (Master of Music, Composition) Towson University, Towson, MD, 1992
4.0 GPA, Composition with Lawrence Crawford, Orchestration/Arranging and Advanced Theory with Theldon Myers, Bibliography/Research and Special Topics in History with James Anthony, Jazz Improvisation with Greg Hatza, and performance with Choral Society.
Additional Graduate Work (Electronic Music, Choreography)
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, 1982
4.0 GPA, Graduate Assistant, 1982, Electronic Composition (using a Buchla 300) with Dale Millen, Modern Dance Choreography with Terry Brusstar.
BA (Music) Goucher College, Towson, MD, 1971
Music Theory and Composition with Robert Hall Lewis, Music History, Bibliography and Research, and Conducting with Elliott Galkin, additional upper level coursework in sociology, comparative religion, Russian, and acoustics.
click here for Kathleen's CV
(more detailed CV, transcripts and documentation, and articulation of personal teaching philosophy available upon request)
to return to Kathleen's homepage, click HERE