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Will Earhart (April 1, 1871 - April 23, 1960) was a pioneering American music educator.
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Will Earhart (April 1, 1871 - April 23, 1960) was a pioneering American music educator.
Born in Franklin, Ohio, Earhart studied violin, piano, counterpoint and harmony. He began teaching in Miamisburg, Ohio and later became music supervisor in the public schools of Greenville, Ohio.
Franklin is a city in Warren County, Ohio, United States. The population was 11,771 at the 2010 census.
Miamisburg is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. The population was 20,181 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Miamisburg is known for its large industry and retail factors commercial business area, which is partially located in Miami Township, but is probably most famous for being the home to the Miamisburg Mound. Miamisburg borders Miami Township, Springboro, and West Carrollton. The sister city of Miamisburg is Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada.
Greenville is a city in and the county seat of Darke County, Ohio, United States, located in southwestern Ohio about 33 miles northwest of Dayton. The population was 13,227 at the 2010 census.
In 1898, he moved to Richmond, Indiana to become Director of the Richmond High School Orchestra, believed to be the first complete high school symphony orchestra. He helped to found The Richmond Civic Orchestra, a forerunner of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.
Richmond is a city in east central Indiana, United States, bordering on Ohio. It is the county seat of Wayne County, and in the 2010 census had a population of 36,812. Situated largely within Wayne Township, its area includes a non-contiguous portion in nearby Boston Township, where the Richmond Municipal Airport is located.
Richmond High School is a public high school in Richmond, Indiana, United States. It is the home of the Richmond Red Devils, who are members of the North Central Conference of the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA). Prior to 1939, the school was known as Morton High School in honor of Indiana's Civil War Governor, Oliver P. Morton. The current principal of Richmond High is Rae Woolpy.
In 1912, Earhart became Director of Music in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, where he remained until his retirement in 1940. In 1913, he founded the Department of Public School Music at the University of Pittsburgh.
The University of Pittsburgh is a state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded as the Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on the edge of the American frontier. It developed and was renamed as Western University of Pennsylvania by a change to its charter in 1819. After surviving two devastating fires and various relocations within the area, the school moved to its current location in the Oakland neighborhood of the city; it was renamed as the University of Pittsburgh in 1908. Pitt was a private institution until 1966 when it became part of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.
He was a member of the Music Educators National Conference for nearly half a century and was its president in 1915. He is a member of the Music Educators Hall of Fame. He was also a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity, initiated as an honorary member in 1923 by the Iota chapter at Northwestern University.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America (ΦΜΑ) is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "who, through a love for music, can assist in the fulfillment of [its] Object and ideals either by adopting music as a profession, or by working to advance the cause of music in America." Phi Mu Alpha has initiated more than 260,000 members, known as Sinfonians, and the fraternity currently has over 7,000 active collegiate members in 249 collegiate chapters throughout the United States.
Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university based in Evanston, Illinois, United States, with other campuses located in Chicago and Doha, Qatar, and academic programs and facilities in Miami, Florida; Washington, D.C.; and San Francisco, California. Along with its undergraduate programs, Northwestern is known for its Kellogg School of Management, Pritzker School of Law, Feinberg School of Medicine, Bienen School of Music, Medill School of Journalism, and McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science.
He died in Portland, Oregon in 1960, aged 89.
Earhart believed strongly in the value of musical beauty. He advocated teaching music with an emphasis on creating pleasing sounds, deriding the "machine-like chug-chug-chug-chug" that he heard from amplified bass instruments in 1950s rock and roll. At the forefront of the aesthetic education movement in the 1940s, Earhart outlined the three appeals of music as sensory, mind, and feelings, and believed that all children had the ability to be musical if properly nurtured. According to Earhart, music in the schools was fully justified on aesthetic, intellectual and educational, and social grounds. He believed music should be studied by all children, not just who might choose it as a profession, so they might enjoy it for the rest of their lives. He encouraged all people to avoid placing too much emphasis on material objects at the expense of those things of significant beauty that required time and effort to appreciate.
Earhart was a pioneer in the expansion of the high school music program and the granting of credits to students enrolled in the classes. At the turn of the century, he developed a harmony course at Richmond High School and a course called "A Critical Study of Music." Through the study of sixteen composers from Bach to Wagner, Earhart emphasized the importance of context, form, and style. Since there were no recordings available, choruses formed the core materials, and Earhart made sure to have the best editions possible. In this early model for comprehensive musicianship, students sang and played the music, wrote essays, and took exams, receiving one half credit for each semester of work. In 1898 Earhart formed a school orchestra at Richmond, and although it usually met outside of school hours, these students also received a half credit each semester if they were deemed capable of public performance according to the high standards Earhart maintained for the group. The orchestra performed at many school events such as chapel services, commencements, and assemblies. Instrument gaps were filled with community members, alumni, and hired professionals when needed, but Earhart believed it was better to play good symphonic literature with thin instrumentation than to compromise the quality of the music. During this time Earhart also formed an adult chorus and the Richmond Civic Orchestra, and he organized annual festivals in which the school and community orchestras and choirs could perform together. Under the direction of Earhart, music education in the small town of Richmond, Indiana became so well known that music teachers made journeys to observe the programs, returning to implement the ideas in their own towns.
Earhart chaired a committee of prominent musicians consisting also of Walter Damrosch, Arnold J. Gantvoort, Oscar Sonneck and John Philip Sousa tasked with developing a singular, standard version of the Star Spangled Banner. The committee was formed by the U.S. Bureau of Education at the behest of President Woodrow Wilson to recommend the official version of the song that would become the national anthem of the United States. The standardized version that was voted upon by these five musicians premiered at Carnegie Hall on December 5, 1917.
Walter Johannes Damrosch was a German-born American conductor and composer. He is best remembered today as long-time director of the New York Symphony Orchestra and for conducting the world premiere performances of George Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F (1925) and An American in Paris (1928). Damrosch was also instrumental in the founding of Carnegie Hall.
Oscar George Theodore Sonneck was a U.S. librarian, editor, and musicologist.
John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to distinguish him from his British counterpart Kenneth J. Alford who is also known as "The March King". Among his best-known marches are "The Stars and Stripes Forever", "Semper Fidelis", "The Liberty Bell", "The Thunderer", and "The Washington Post".
Earhart was a visionary leader in the Music Supervisors National Conference (MSNC), ably articulating the philosophical foundations of the organization. He was active in MSNC for almost fifty years and was a founding member, although he missed the first meeting in Keokuk because of Easter church responsibilities. Despite doubts that it could be accomplished, Earhart organized and led an orchestra made up of conference members at the 1921 MSNC meeting, including Edward Bailey Birge on viola and Osbourne McConathy on French horn. He continued to serve his profession until the end of his life, helping young teachers who sought his advice and writing articles for the Music Supervisors Journal supporting aesthetic education.
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is a high school specializing in teaching visual arts and performing arts, situated near Lincoln Center in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of the Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, in the U.S. state of New York. Located at 100 Amsterdam Avenue between West 64th and 65th Streets, the school is operated by the New York City Department of Education, and resulted from the merger of the High School of Music & Art and the School of Performing Arts. The school has a dual mission of arts and academics, preparing students for a career in the arts or conservatory study as well as a pursuit of higher education.
Leroy Robertson was an American composer and music educator.
The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference is the world's largest instrumental music education conference, annually drawing approximately 17,000 attendees to Chicago from all 50 states and as many as forty countries. It is held every December in downtown Chicago. For the past several years, Midwest has used the following venues simultaneously: Hilton Chicago, Palmer House Hilton, Congress Plaza Hotel, and the Merle Reskin Theatre in downtown Chicago. In 2009, The Midwest Clinic moved to a new venue after spending the last 30 years at the Hilton. The conference is held at McCormick Place West - a state-of-the-art facility that opened in 2007 and is part of McCormick Place, a complex of convention space located about a mile south of the Hilton. A non-profit organization, the Midwest Clinic exists exclusively for educational purposes: to raise the standards of music education; to improve the methods employed in music education; to develop new teaching techniques; to disseminate to school music teachers, directors, supervisors, and others interested in music education information to assist in their professional work; to examine, analyze and appraise literature dealing with music; to hold clinics, lectures and demonstrations for the betterment of music education; and in general, to assist teachers and others interested in music education in better pursuing their profession.
John Barnes Chance was an American composer. Chance studied composition with Clifton Williams at the University of Texas, Austin, and is best known for his concert band works, which include Variations on a Korean Folk Song, Incantation and Dance, and Blue Lake Overture.
Princeton High School is a public, co-educational high school located in Sharonville, Ohio, United States. The school is a part of the Princeton City School District.
Bexley High School is a public high school located in Bexley, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. It is the only high school in Bexley City Schools. In 2019, U.S. News & World Report named BHS the top public high school in Central Ohio, 4th best in Ohio, and 132nd nationally.
The Maryland Music Educators Association (MMEA) is the Maryland state-level affiliate of MENC: The National Association for Music Education. MMEA is a professional association for school music educators in the U.S. state of Maryland. The mission of the Maryland Music Educators Association is to provide enriched musical opportunities for students, encourage student participation in music, and improve the quality of music instruction.
The Vocal Music Workshop (VMW) formerly the North American Choral Company is a choir based out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.
Erich Kunzel, Jr. was an American orchestra conductor. Called the "Prince of Pops" by the Chicago Tribune, he performed with a number of leading pops and symphony orchestras, especially the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra (CPO), which he led for 32 years.
The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, commonly known as the ASYO, is an organization featuring Atlanta's young instrumentalists, created in 1974. Every September, about 650 middle to high school instrumentalists go through one or more auditions for places in the ASYO. Only about 120 will be selected to participate in the season.
John Marshall High School is a public high school in Glen Dale, West Virginia, United States. It is one of two high schools in the Marshall County School District. Athletic teams compete as the John Marshall Monarchs in the WVSSAC Class AAA, as well as the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference.
Bowling Green High School (BGHS) is a public high school in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. It is the only high school in the Bowling Green Area School District. It serves the greater Bowling Green community, which includes the city and surrounding areas. As of 2009, the enrollment is around 1,076.
Kentucky Music Educators Association (KMEA) is the Kentucky state-level affiliate of The National Association for Music Education. KMEA consists of over 1,000 professional music educators at all levels from kindergarten to the university level. It serves as a voice for Kentucky's music educators, and it maintains an active involvement with groups such as the Kentucky Citizens for the Arts, The Kentucky Alliance for the Arts, and The Kentucky Coalition for the Arts.
Joseph Edgar Maddy was a pioneering American music educator and conductor.
Dr. Philip Jameson graduated from Wooster High School in 1959 and attended Baldwin Wallace College for one year. In the Fall of 1960 he was accepted by audition to The Juilliard School of Music on a full scholarship. He was subsequently appointed principal trombone with the Juilliard Orchestra, a position he held for the next five years. He graduated from Juilliard with a Bachelor of Music Degree in 1964 and a Master of Science degree in 1965. He then enrolled in Columbia University (NYC) and received a Master of Music Education Degree in 1967 and completed his Doctorate of Music in 1980. His PhD dissertation was entitled "The effect of timbre conditions on the prompted and simultaneous pitch matching of three ability groups of trombone performers". It is available from Dissertation Abstracts.
The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is an organization of American music educators dedicated to advancing and preserving music education as part of the core curriculum of schools in the United States. Founded in 1907 as the Music Supervisors National Conference (MSNC), the organization was known from 1934 to 1998 as the Music Educators National Conference. From 1998 to 2011 it was known as "MENC: The National Association for Music Education." On September 1, 2011, the organization changed its acronym from MENC to NAfME. On March 8, 2012, the organization's name legally became National Association for Music Education, using the acronym "NAfME". It has more than 130,000 members, and NAfME's headquarters are located in Reston, Virginia.
Dennis Hayslett is an American music educator, conductor, and performer, with a particular focus upon the Concert Band and Jazz idioms.
Keith Warren Bissell was a Canadian composer, conductor, and music educator. He was particularly known for his choral music, which often implemented elements of Canadian folk music. A passionate educator, he was a pupil of Carl Orff and was influential in popularizing the Orff Schulwerk methodology within North America. From 1957 to 1958 he was President of the Ontario Music Educators' Association. He was conductor and Artistic Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 1970–1971. He also was vice-president of the Canadian Music Council for several years and president of the Canadian Music Centre from 1975-1977.
Lloyd Edgar Blackman is a Canadian violinist, conductor, composer, and music educator.
Brazeal Dennard was an African-American singer, educator, Choral director, and musical arranger. He has been a significant contributor in the preservation and revitalization of the spiritual musical form. His efforts helped moved the African-American spiritual beyond the confines of the church, exposing not only the beauty of this music, but also its historical importance to a wider audience.
Mark, M.L. and Gary, C.L. (1999). A History of American Music Education. Reston: The National Association for Music Education.