MTL Faculty Activities

Teaching

In 2025-2026, Dr. Azzara’s international teaching engagements included curriculum consulting and instruction in Germany: the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg and the Berlin Cosmopolitan School. In April 2025, Azzara taught graduate and undergraduate students from the Hochschule in Hamburg, and in January 2026, he taught again at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, and faculty and students at the Berlin Cosmopolitan School. Azzara also taught throughout the United States, including professional learning workshops in Cape Henlopen, DE and in New York, NY, which included teaching and consulting in the five boroughs, culminating in a day-long workshop at Carnegie Hall’s Resnick Education Wing.

Musicianship and Performance

Dr. Azzara contributed as both performer and clinician at the St. Charles Community College Jazz Camp in St. Louis, Missouri. He performed as the pianist with the faculty big band, which featured distinguished artists such as Bijon Watson (trumpet), Mary Fettig (alto saxophone), Jim Martin (bass trombone), and Rick Haydon (guitar). In addition to his performance role, he taught improvisation classes for middle and high school students and delivered professional development workshops for local music educators in the St. Louis area.

Research and Scholarship

Dr. Azzara is co-author, with Professor Emeritus Richard Grunow, of Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series (JRI: TIS) for Winds and Percussion. He is currently leading work on the third edition of the curriculum, which will include 13 student books, recordings, and a comprehensive teacher’s guide, scheduled for publication in late 2025 or early 2026. The project features contributions from Eastman’s Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion faculty, Jazz Studies and Contemporary Media faculty, and members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Dr. Azzara serves as pianist and musical director, overseeing the development of recordings, lesson plans, piano accompaniments, and flexible arrangements that support a comprehensive approach to instrumental instruction.

Leadership and Teaching

Dr. Lisa Caravan served as Chair of the 2025 American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Conference Committee, where she played a pivotal role in shaping the conference’s structure and vision. In recognition of her outstanding service, she received ASTA’s Citation of Leadership and Merit, awarded at the 2025 national conference. ASTA President Dr. Karin S. Hendricks and Executive Director Lynn Tuttle praised her transformative leadership in a formal letter:

“Lisa, we are grateful for your thoughtful leadership while serving in this role. You have helped us rethink our proposal system, including building a rubric that we now share with those who apply, creating more transparency in the system, and being open to new ideas, such as collocating the conference with our Suzuki colleagues last year. In addition, you willingly took on more work on behalf of ASTA, incorporating the Virtual String Teachers Summit into the Conference Committee’s workload.”

In addition to her leadership, Dr. Caravan remains actively engaged in teacher education. At the ASTA Conference, she co-presented “Cultivating Teacher Mindset: Designing Field Experiences in the Orchestra Classroom” with PhD student Kelton Burnside, a session that explored innovative strategies for preparing preservice teachers through field-based experiences.

Research and Presentations

Dr. Caravan’s scholarly work focuses on equity, inclusion, and student empowerment in orchestral music education. At the 2025 ASTA Conference, she co-presented a poster session titled “Cultivating Belonging in Orchestra: Equity and Inclusion in Programming,” alongside doctoral students Jonathan Fleischman and Kelton Burnside. Additionally, she made her debut at the 2025 Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) Convention—one of the largest music education events in the nation—presenting “Goal Setting and Reflection for Student Autonomy” with Burnside. Her research and national presentations consistently support her vision of a responsive and reflective music classroom.

Performance

Complementing her roles as a teacher and researcher, Dr. Caravan remains an active performer. She continues to appear with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Chamber Music Society during the 2024–2025 season, contributing to performances of major works such as Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Golijov’s Tenebrae, Amy Beach’s Theme and Variations for flute and string quartet, and Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 4 in E minor. Her ongoing performance work enriches her comprehensive approach to music education, where pedagogy, scholarship, and artistry intersect.

Teaching

In Fall 2024, Dr. Mara E. Culp (Associate Professor, Department of Music Teaching and Learning) partnered with Laura Turley, Director of the Early Childhood Music Program at the Eastman Community Music School, to lead the Early Childhood Music Labs. These sessions provided young children with play-based music-making experiences, while simultaneously offering Eastman students in the Early Childhood Music Methods course hands-on teaching opportunities. Designed to promote inclusion, accessibility, and educational outreach, the labs were offered tuition-free, with only a nominal $15 registration fee per child.

Professional Engagement

At the state level, Dr. Culp served as Research Committee Chair for the 2024 New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Winter Conference held in Rochester, NY. Her leadership included chairing oral presentation sessions, overseeing the research poster session, and facilitating a dynamic research committee meeting. She also co-presented a session alongside both current and former graduate students, fostering scholarly dialogue and mentorship within the field. Dr. Culp’s active role in NYSSMA underscores her ongoing contributions to professional development and music education leadership.

Research and Scholarship

Nationally, Dr. Culp contributed to the 2024 Biennial NAfME Music Research and Teacher Education Conference in Atlanta, GA, by co-authoring two sessions that addressed inclusion and accessibility in music education. The first, Preparing Preservice Music Teachers to Support K-12 Learners with Complex Communication Needs Using Assistive Technology, was an interactive session co-authored with Dr. Angela Guerriero and Lisa Pierce-Goldstein and presented by Dr. Guerriero and Dr. Jason Jones. The second session, co-authored with Dr. Karen Salvador, titled Preparing Preservice Music Teachers to Support Students with Dis/abilities in Elementary General Music, provided practical strategies for teacher educators. Through these national presentations, Dr. Culp advanced critical conversations on supporting diverse learners in music classrooms.

Research and Scholarship

In 2025, Dr. Sangmi Kang published two empirical studies examining cultural discourses in music teaching and learning. Her article in Music Education Research, titled Dialectic Tension: Music Education Majors’ Lived Experience in an International Choral Trip, explores the complexities of global music education experiences. Another study, forthcoming in the Journal of Research in Music Education and titled Adaptations, Code-Switching, and Novelty with Cultural Integrity, investigates how musicians perform and learn instruments across different musical traditions. Additionally, Dr. Kang is co-editing the Oxford Handbook of Artificial Intelligence in Music Education with Frank Abrahams (Professor Emeritus, Westminster Choir College) and Clint Randles (University of South Florida), contributing to emerging conversations on AI and music pedagogy.

In 2026, Dr. Kang’s phenomenological study, entitled “Adaptations, Code-Switching, and Novelty with Cultural Integrity,” appeared in the January issue of the Journal of Research in Music Education. She is co-editing The Oxford Handbook of Artificial Intelligence in Music Education with Frank Abrahams (Professor Emeritus, Westminster Choir College) and Clint Randles (Professor, University of South Florida), contributing to emerging conversations on AI and music pedagogy. Additionally, she was awarded a $15,000 grant for the SoundSpace project through the University of Rochester’s SoundSpace Transdisciplinary Institute, titled “Bringing Music Cultures to the Classroom Through Immersive and Interactive Virtual Reality.” Cross-Institutional Collaboration

Dr. Kang has led music education seminars in higher education nationally and internationally. In June 2025, she led a three-day music education seminar for Mongolian preservice and inservice teachers at Mongolian International University in Ulaanbaatar. In September 2025, she was invited as a presenter for the Sorel Visiting Artist Series at the State University of New York at Fredonia. In January 2026, she delivered a keynote address at the 2nd Academic Forum of the Interdisciplinary Program in Music Education at Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea. In April 2026, she led a session at a NAfME music education seminar at Nazareth University in Rochester, NY.

Teaching and Collaboration

Dr. Kang actively collaborates with doctoral students to support their development as scholars and educators. This work has resulted in two co-authored articles in the Music Educators Journal: Supporting Immigrant, Intercountry Adopted, and Refugee Students in Music Classrooms with Culturally Relevant and Responsive Approaches (appearing June 2025, with J. W. Lee), and Bulletin Boards and Classroom Decorations: A Visual Representation of Your Music Teaching Philosophy (2024, with R. Sanguinetti and S. Webber). These collaborative efforts reflect Dr. Kang’s dedication to integrating mentorship, research, and inclusive pedagogy.

Musicianship and Performance

As a performer, Dr. Kang remains actively engaged in presenting both Korean and Western musical traditions to diverse audiences. Highlights from the 2025–26 academic year include the Eastman Performing Arts Medicine (EPAM) Music Presentation with the Sori Korean Ensemble at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, NY (December 2025); a Korean music presentation for the World Relief Western Chapter (January 2026); and a sound bath session in collaboration with Sean Mulligan at the University of Rochester Mindfulness Retreat (April 2026). Through her performances, Dr. Kang continues to foster intercultural musical understanding and community engagement.

Teaching and Conducting

Since the Fall of 2024, Dr. Philip Silvey has taught chorus part time at the Young Women’s College Prep (YWCP) Charter School. In Spring 2026, Eastman School students enrolled in the Elementary and Middle School Choral Methods course participated in a semester-long teaching practicum at YWCP under his guidance. In the 2025-2026 academic year, 15 of the 20 works Dr. Silvey chose for the Eastman School / University of Rochester Treble Chorus to study and learn were created by female-identifying composers/arrangers. Dr. Silvey will be a featured composer/conductor for the Rochester Intergenerational Choir Day in November 2026. That month he will also serve as guest conductor for the Zone 2 Area All-State Treble Chorus at Canandaigua Academy.

Composition

Dr. Silvey was commissioned to write Here We Are, an original composition for the ENCORE chorus of the Eastman Community Music School, an intergenerational chorus serving people living with early-to-middle-stage dementia and their caregivers. The chorus will premiere the piece in May 2026. E. C. Schirmer Music and Hal Leonard published two new compositions for mixed and treble choruses. Both are settings of original lyrics written by Dr. Silvey to help students develop Social Emotional Learning competencies. Mixed Feelings includes links to free supplemental curricular resources he developed. Everywhere You Look, for SATB chorus, offers reflections on the effects of social media and Mixed Feelings, for 3-part treble and 3-part mixed voices, musicalizes the tension felt around making a difficult decision. Other commissions include a 3-part treble arrangement of the Pacific Northwest folk song Acres of Clams for the Seattle Children’s Chorus to be premiered in June 2026 and performed the next month at the Eisteddfod in Wales to compete in the folk song category. He has been named the NYSSMA All-State Choral Composer in Residence for 2027.

Professional Engagement

As a specialist in choral music education, Dr. Silvey developed and presented two new interest sessions in 2026. He offered a session on Developing Emotional Intelligence in Choral Classrooms at the California All-State Music Education Conference in Sacramento in January and presented Rethinking the Sacred/Secular Dichotomy in Choral Music at the Eastern Region Conference of the American Choral Directors Association in February. He will also present this second session at the 37th International Society for Music Education World Conference in July.

Research and Scholarship

Dr. Alden Snell continues to advance research at the intersection of music education, creativity, and digital innovation. He recently completed National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)-funded research comparing three instructional approaches to teaching creativity in instrumental music contexts. Central to his scholarly efforts is the ongoing development of musiccpr.org, a free web application offering standards-based activities inspired by students’ current repertoire. This work includes building participatory design partnerships, in which music educators contribute to the development of new content—ensuring the platform remains teacher-informed and pedagogically grounded.

Teaching and Development

Dr. Snell integrates his research directly into his teaching by incorporating content from musiccpr.org into preservice instrumental music courses. This approach allows students to engage with technology-enhanced pedagogy while exploring creativity and performance-based learning. As the platform evolves, he continues to develop resources tailored for classroom use, supporting future music educators with accessible, standards-aligned tools designed to enrich instrumental instruction.

Professional Engagement

Dr. Snell has shared his research and web application development at a range of national and international conferences. In Summer 2026, he presented at the International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference in Montreal, Canada. In Fall 2026, he will present new initiatives related to digital audio workstations (DAWs) and adaptive instruments within the web application at the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) National Research Conference in Long Beach, California. These presentations reflect Dr. Snell’s ongoing commitment to bridging scholarly inquiry, classroom practice, and digital innovation in music education.