Summer 2023 MECA
Continuing Education Courses
Overview
Building on the skills acquired in Level II, this course includes arranging / composition using major / minor and other diatonic modes with appropriate ostinato and harmony-based accompaniments. Recorder ensemble experience and group composition in larger forms are also covered. Texts will be provided, but you must bring your own alto recorder (or tenor or bass recorder, if you have them).
All Orff Schulwerk Levels are a two-week course that meets Monday through Friday, July 10 -14 and Monday through Friday, July 17-21. Classes meet from 8 am-4 pm.
Housing Information
Requirements
Chat Session
Prerequisites
Required Text(s)
Participants will receive books on the first day of class.
Learning Platform Information - Online Courses Only
Schoology is a learning management system that allows you to interact directly with your instructors, fellow students, and members of the greater VanderCook community.
The evening before your class begins, be on the lookout for an email from Schoology with log-in instructions. Once you receive credentials, visit www.online.vandercook.edu to login.
Some courses have specific online chat meeting times (please see course descriptions), while others have a flexible meeting schedule. You can expect all courses to meet together in a live online chat. If a live meeting time doesn’t work, you can work with your instructor to make other arrangements.
More information about Schoology can be found at www.schoology.com
Please see specific software/hardware requirements in the course description.
Online course grades are available within two weeks of the course(s) completion. If you need a transcript, please CLICK HERE to access the online transcript request form. For a faster turnaround time, please submit the transcript request to the registrar prior to the end of your course(s).
Instructor
David Thaxton
David Thaxton is from Sparks, Nevada where he is currently in his 26th year teaching Elementary music to pre-K through 6th grade. He studied under Elizabeth Gilpatrick, and Judith Cole at Colorado State University, UNC Greeley and the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he received all three levels of Orff Certification, as well completing an apprenticeship with Kay Lehto at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. David has presented workshops and clinics at local, state and national levels and presents to Orff chapters throughout the country. As an AOSA certified teacher trainer for Level I, II and III pedagogy and Level I and II recorder, David teaches Summer Courses for the University of Nevada, Reno, the San Diego Summer Orff Course, and is now very excited to join the team at VanderCook School of music for Level III in 2021. He has served as President of the Sierra Nevada Chapter of AOSA, as well as on the editorial boards of The Echo and Reverberations journals of AOSA. He is currently the Treasurer for the American Center for Elemental Music and Movement, and has been the Lead clinician for the Four Corners Young Musicians Camp from 2015-19. David has recently published his new book “Making Tracks: Recorder Explorations, Creations and Improvisations” through Sweet Pipes.
Ben Torres
Ben Torres is in his 12th year in the Richardson (TX) school district and his fourth year as the K-6 music specialist at Brentfield Elementary in Dallas, where he also directs the Brentfield Singers, the Rhythm Cats Orff Ensemble and serves as the JJ Pearce Area Team Leader. Prior to this, he was the K-6 music specialist at Richland Elementary, where he also directed a choir and an Orff ensemble, the latter of which was selected to perform at the 2011 TMEA Convention. Torres received his bachelor’s degree in music education from West Texas A&M University in Canyon. He teaches movement in the Orff Schulwerk training course at Trinity University in San Antonio, movement and recorder in the Orff Schulwerk course at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, and other courses across the country. He is currently the president of the North Texas Chapter of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association.
Rachel Aupperle
Rachel Aupperle teaches K-12 general music, and choir at Ridgeview CUSD #19, in Central Illinois. Rachel holds a bachelor of music, master’s in music education, and certification in all three levels of Orff Schulwerk training. She is a Level I, II, and III movement and recorder instructor and has received training in Feierabend FAME Curriculum Certification: Conversational Solfege I and First Steps of Music.
Rachel currently serves as President of the Heart of Illinois Orff Chapter and President of the Elementary General Music Division for the Illinois Music Education Association. She is an active presenter and guest clinician who has presented at local, state, and national conferences. Mrs. Aupperle strives to share her love of music education with all teachers by providing a welcome, and safe learning environment for all.