Clinician Bios

Dr. Christopher Azzara 

Pianist, arranger, author, and educator, Christopher Azzara has made important contributions to advancing the understanding of creativity and improvisation in the music learning process. An innovator in the area of music teaching and learning, Dr. Azzara is Professor and Chair of Music Education and Affiliate Faculty of Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music.

Teaching and performing internationally, he is the author of numerous articles, arrangements, and books, including Developing Musicianship Through Improvisation, Creativity In Improvisation, and Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series (GIA). His arrangements for instrumental and vocal ensembles include A la nanita nana for choir and chamber orchestra or piano (Oxford), and Concert Selections for Winds and Percussion (GIA). His research and publications are concerned with meaningful relationships among listening, creating, improvising, reading, composing and analyzing music in vocal and instrumental settings. Dr. Azzara’s work has appeared in journals such as the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Music Educators Journal, Early Childhood Connections, and in The New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning (MENC/Oxford). He performs as a soloist and in various ensembles, including the Chris Azzara Quartet, and has played on and produced many studio and educational recordings. In Rochester, he performs with free-lance musicians, members of the Eastman School of Music faculty, and members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. An active teacher and clinician, he has taught and performed extensively throughout the United States, and in Canada, the Caribbean, France, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Japan, and Australia. He has presented clinics and workshops in a variety of settings, including TEDxRochester, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and leading music schools in this country and abroad.

Christopher Azzara is a native of Virginia and attended public schools in Fairfax County. After receiving the Bachelor of Music degree from George Mason University, he taught instrumental music in the Fairfax County Public Schools and performed as a pianist in the Washington D.C. area. He later received a Master of Music and a Ph.D. in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. Prior to joining the Eastman faculty, Dr. Azzara was a professor at The Hartt School of Music, Dance, and Theatre of the University of Hartford, CT.

Dr. Sandra Doneski

Dr. Sandra Doneski has taught in the Department of Music at Gordon College since 1999. She has been a teacher of music to students in kindergarten through graduate school. She teaches courses in music education methods, learning theory, assessment, curriculum development. She also supervises student teachers and conducts the Gordon College Children's Choir. Dr. Doneski founded the Children's Choir in 2000 to give children in the community an opportunity to grow as musicians, and music education majors an opportunity to develop as teachers and conductors.

Dr. Doneski has also served on the facuty of the New England Conservatory (NEC) Preparatory School, where she was associate conductor of the Children's Choir Program. Under her guidance, NEC implemented choral programs for early elementary and middle school students that focused on vocal pedagogy and building musicianship. She has served as a conductor for events in the northeast sponsored by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), and is co-founder of Embracing the New Music Educator, a mentoring program for new music educators in Massachusetts.

In 2009 Dr. Doneski was the recipient of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) Lowell Mason Award and the Society for General Music in Massachusetts Excellence in General Music Award. In 2012 she received the MMEA Distinguished Service Award, and in 2013 she received the Administrators in Music Education Visionary Leadership Award.

Dr. Donesi has published articles and conducted workshops on choral literature and techniques, curriculum development, assessment and mentoring. She recently co-authored "Research on Elementary and Secondary School Singing" a chapter in the MENC Handbooj of Research on Teaching ad Learning in Music Education.

Lillie Feierabend

Lillie Feierabend is known for her work with young children and instilling a love of music within them. She has been an early childhood and general music educator for over thirty years and was conductor for the Connecticut Children's Chorus for eighteen. She has twice been honored with her respective district's Teacher of the Year Award for her inclusive and innovative music programs, and in 2008 also received the Outstanding Elementary Music Educator Award from the Connecticut Music Educators Association.  She is a frequent clinician at local, state and national conferences, and has presented over two hundred sessions on music and movement development. She conducts regional honors choirs and teaches weeklong workshops around the country including Anderson University (IN), Gordon College (MA), Silver Lake College (WI), and the University of Hartford (CT). Over the course of her career, Lille has mentored twenty-three student teachers and will forever be grateful for the opportunity.

Lillie is a founding and lifetime member of FAME. She is also a member of NAfME, OAKE, CMEA, and ACDA, where she served as the National Children's Honor Choir Chair for the 2010 Conference.  She is a member and former president of KESNE (Kodaly Educators of Southern New England and President-Elect of the regional chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, an international organization which supports and promotes excellence in education.

While Lillie taught First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege as they evolved, she became an endorsed Teacher Trainer in both curriculums in 2012.

Dr. Robert Hasty

Robert G. Hasty is the Music Director of the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra and the Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Central Florida School of Performing Arts. He is also Artistic Director of the International Schools Choral Music Society. For 22 years, Hasty conducted the Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonia at the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University where he also served as the Associate Director of Orchestras.

Hasty began his career teaching music in the public schools in Southern California; this included tenure in administration as the District Music Coordinator of the Capistrano Unified School District where he supervised the K - 12 music education program and its staff of 39 teachers. He also served an elected term as Vice President in charge of String Education for the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association.

A noted researcher in music cognition, Hasty has been an author for two publications delivered at the 7th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition in Sydney, Australia. His research on conducting was published in 2005: "Critical Listening While Conducting." The European Society for Cognitive Sciences of Music invited him to speak at their conference in Portugal on these studies.

As a conductor, Hasty has appeared with dozens of orchestras - both youth and professional - nationally and internationally. He is sought after as an honor orchestra conductor, conducting groups across the United States. He is a member of the conducting and music education faculties at the UCF School of the Performing Arts.

Dr. Hasty holds a B.M. in Music Education from USC Thornton School of Music, M.M. in Orchestral Conducting from Northwestern University, and D.M.A in Orchestra Conducting from Northwestern University.

Dr. Michael Hildebrandt

Dr. Michael Hildebrandt moved to the North Shore of MA in 2004 to teach at Landmark School and pursue a master's degree in the area of moderate disabilities and literacy. He taught at Study Skills and Language Arts at Landmark until 2012 and continues to lead workshops and classes for students, parents, and teachers. Michael's doctiral work allowed him to develop his research and practice in the areas of self-regulated learning and executive function deficits into a private practive serving individuals and families. Michael has completed several studies on the experiences of individuals in periods of transition. His work explores the loss of identity, the need for community, narrative constructions of the selv/selves, and the reconstruction pursued through various sociocultural factors. Michael has taught Introduction to Exceptionality at Gordon College since 2011, and has also taught at Granite State College, Manchester (NH) Community College, and the University of New Hampshire.

Michael's academic scholarship has been funded by fellowships at the Ahimsa Institute for Nonviolence in California and the College of Liberal Arts at the University of New Hampshire. Michael's academic program development work has been funded through grants from the Davis Educational Foundation and from the Oak Foundation USA. He holds a B.A. from Colby College, M.S.Ed. from Simmons College and Ph.D from the University of New Hampshire.

Dr. Mary Ellen Junda

Mary Ellen Junda, Professor Emeritus at the University of Connecticur is a nationally recognized conductor, educator, scholar, and recording artist. She is the recipient of a number of grants for her research with Dr. Robert Stephens on the music and culture of the Gullcah people of the sea islands and is the co-director with Dr. Stephens for their landmark grant in history and culture, Gullah Voices: Traditions and Transformations, awarded $180,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2011, Dr. Junda was selected as a Summer Scholar for the National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on Global Music and Culture.

Dr. Junda is known for her exemplary work as a choral conductor. She was awarded a 2002 Howard Foundation Fellowship in Music Performance from Brown University, has conducted numerous festival choruses including the 2001 Organization of American Kodaly Educators National Treble Choir and presented sessions throughout the country on American folk music, rehearsal techniques, musical literacy and creativity. Her singing with Treblemakers recordings have earned four Parent's Choice Awards, including a coveted 2008 Parent's Choice Classic Award, and are used throughout the country as a model of artistry of children's singing voices. She authored the K-6 Vocal Development Sequence for the Silver Burdett Ginn c 2002 Making Music and recorded numerous songs for the series as conductor of the Treblemakers. From 2004-2011, Dr. Junda was founding artistic director of the Main Street Singers, a community children's choir in New Britain Connecticut that performed at civic events and conferences throughout the state.

The the University of Connecticut, Dr. Junda is known for her innovative concerts as director of the UConn Women's Choir. She is the recipient of two Provost Grants to develop Earthtones, the new world music vocal ensemble that performs the music of culturally diverse groups and Sing and Shout! a unique general education course that integrates history with communal singing and song writing. Teaching these courses reaffirms her belief in the power of singing to create community and as a means to develop a deeper understanding of and appreciation of cultural diversity.

Dr. Junda earned her B.M. from the Hartt School, University of Hartford, M.M.Ed. from Holy Names University and Ed.M and Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Kenneth Trapp

Kenneth Trapp teaches general music K-6 in Stratford, CT. He is also an adjunct Professor of Music Education at the Hartt School, University of Hartford, and at Gordon College in Wenham, MA. Ken has contributed chapters to two textbooks on the topic of developing aural skills; Engaging Music Practices; A Sourcebook for Middle School General Music, 2012, and The Development and Practical Application of Music Learning Theory, 2005. He is also a professional musician who performs in many ensembles both locally and nationally. Through years of study, Ken has used his knowledge of ensemble performance, harmonic awareness and improvisation to develop activities and materials for students of all ages to become successful playing the ukulele. He is committed to the challenge of bringing aural comprehension to young music learners.