Why Music Education at Shenandoah Conservatory?
Founded in 1875, Shenandoah Conservatory has a tradition of excellence in music education. Our music education graduates are teachers, performers, composers and music supervisors across the country. We provide a hands-on, experiential curriculum to prepare you to do what you love—Teach Music!—while studying performance and pedagogy in a conservatory environment.
Music education faculty members are musician teachers. We work regularly as guest conductors and clinicians with music students in public schools and remain current in our field.
Our undergraduate music education degree can be completed in four years and fulfills all requirements for teacher licensure.
Our summers-only graduate degree is a 30-credit degree program and can be completed three years of summer study.
Undergraduate Programs
Graduate Programs
Community Outreach and Engagement
Through community outreach opportunities, Shenandoah Conservatory’s music education program enriches the lives of students and residents in the greater Winchester area while providing our students with significant service learning opportunities. Recent partnerships include an Anonymous 4 masterclass with area high school choruses, Wynton Marsalis at Winchester Public Schools and Blackbird, Fly workshops with area middle schoolers, as well as Making Music classes with our homeschool community.
Jazz trumpet legend Wynton Marsalis partnered with the Shenandoah Conservatory music education department to work with students in the West African Drumming Ensemble at John Kerr Elementary School in Winchester, Virginia.
Collins Learning Music Suite
The Collins Learning Music Suite, located in rooms 209 and 211 of Ruebush Hall, provides enhanced instruction and access to technology for music education students. Undergraduate and graduate music education students learn from each other via courses designed to take place in a collaborative setting. Equipped with multimedia capabilities, the learning suite includes a SMART Board and videocapture (a system for recording learning sessions) for students to document their lab teaching for future reflection and review. It also contains storage cabinets to house instruments specific to instrumental technique courses as well as a variety of Orff and classroom instruments for use in general music classes.
The Collins Learning Music Suite was dedicated on October 4, 2014, in honor of exemplary Shenandoah alumni, Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus Charlotte A. Collins ‘85, Ed.D., and Professor Emeritus Verne E. Collins ‘84, Ed.D. Learn more about the dedication.
Workshops In Music Education
Shenandoah Conservatory’s music education program embraces pedagogy. Our interactive workshops provide professional development opportunities for practicing music educators throughout the region. Through workshop offerings we explore diverse topics that inspire and enrich. Recent workshops include Music Advocacy, Core National Standards in the Arts, Music Literacy, Conducting Techniques, Orff Strategies in the Elementary General Music Classroom, and Interactive Technologies for Music Teaching and Learning.
