Graduate Music Summer Workshops
For all music educators at any stage in their career.
July 13-17, 2026
Summer workshop participation is open to all music educators, no matter what your educational or professional background. Join us for inspiring and motivating professional development, while connecting and sharing valuable learning experiences with music education colleagues and clinicians.
Workshop participants have the option to earn graduate credit, which can be used to renew or re-certify teaching licenses, and to increase earnings with achieving a salary lane change. Credits earned also apply toward elective requirements in the Master of Music Education Program at Gordon. All programs take place in person, on campus at Gordon College.
Workshop Overviews
Sound, Score & Gesture: A Comprehensive Conducting Workshop
Dr. Robert Hasty
This immersive workshop is designed for conductors seeking to deepen their musical understanding, elevate their rehearsal craft, and expand their repertoire knowledge across whichever instrumental domain they teach. In addition to hands-on conducting labs, collaborative score study sessions, and focused discussions on repertoire and pedagogy, participants will actively share their own repertoire knowledge and ensemble experiences with one another. Through guided peer discussions, interactive listening exchanges, and collaborative score exploration, participants will build a collective pool of insights - broadening their artictic perspective while strengthening a community of learning that extends beyond the workshop itself. Learn more about this workshop.
Special Education Ins and Outs - Meeting the Needs of All Students in Music With Team Based Support
Michael Hildebrandt
Music Educators - your voice is essential when it comes to developing and executing a plan of meaningful inclusion for diverse learners including students with and without identified disabilities. This workshop will equip teachers with the knowledge and confidence to advocate for all students with a Team Based Approach - empowering music educators to engage side-by-side with paraprofessionals, co-teachers, IEP liaisons, administrators and families. Learn more about this workshop.
First Steps in Music
Lillie Feierabend
All people are born with the potential to become musical. With inappropriate or limited musical experiences in the early years, children consistently lose their intuitions for thinking tunes, feeling rhythms and responding to expressiveness in music. This course will provide a bridge from research to practice by demonstrating how a “natural” curriculum rich in the repertoire of traditional children’s songs, rhymes, games and dances can develop young children’s musical aptitude. A model of parents and children playing together in the years from birth to age three will be presented, as well as curriculum for three-to-eight-year-old children in classroom settings. Participants can earn certification in First Steps in Music by the Feierabend Association for Music Education. Learn more about this workshop.
Curriculum Deep Dive - Revisiting, Revising, Re-launching to Breathe Life Into Music Teaching and Learning
Led by Dr. Sandra Doneski and Guest Curriculum Coaches
Curriculum lives where content, practice, and people meet. It is more than a document and more than a series of activities. Strong curriculum work breathes life into teaching and learning. Knowledge, skills, and dispositions meet creating, performing and responding in this music curriculum workshop. Learn more about this workshop.
Choral Artistry: Elements for Success
Dr. Mary Ellen Junda
In this choral workshop we will explore the vital relationship between gesture and sound, emphasizing the intimate connections between conductors and the score, and between conductors and singers. Participants will be offered a framework for examining how their gestures (or lack ther-of) are refelcted in the choir's overall sound and interpretation. The workshop will address elements of effective score study, review essential conducting fundamentals, expand pedagogical expertise, invite reflection on cultural traditions, and explore the use of expressive conducting gestures in a variety of styles, The goal is to foster conductors' confidence in musical analysis and interpretation so that they can inspire singers to perform with artistry, cultural awareness, and heart. Learn more about this workshop.
Expanding Your General Music Curriculum with Ukulele, Guitar, and Bass
Kenneth Trapp
The general music class is rich with activities that include singing, dancing and play. This is how children learn melody, harmony, rhythm and form. This workshop will introduce ways to augment wonderful songs, already used in a music curriculum with ukulele, guitar and bass. Participants will learn how to create arrangements that can be used as accompaniment while songs and games are being performed. Many time students who are reluctant to sing and dance in a traditional way, can be motivated to engage with the class by learning simple instrumental parts. Learn more about this workshop.
Think IN Music: Practical Applications for Comprehensive Music Curriculum
Dr. Christopher Azzara
For teachers interested in:
- developmental scaffolded approach to improvisation
- improving reading skills and musical reflection through composition and arranging
For General, instrumental, choral music educators of every level. Bring your instruments/voice! This is a great workshop to do together with your colleagues, using Dr. Christopher Azzara's Developing Musicianship through Improvisation curriculum materials Books 1, 1B, 2 and 3. Learn more about this workshop.
Ready to get started?
We're here to help! We believe you were made to thrive, and we’re here to give you the tools to do just that. Get in touch with our graduate admissions team to guide you through the process.
Kristen Harrington
Program Coordinator