Workshops for Educators

Workshops are available in person or online. Each workshop is approximately 90 minutes, but can be tailored to fit your needs. Past presentations include: Oregon Music Teachers Association (OMTA) Annual Conference, chapters of OMTA (Oregon Music Teachers Association), chapters of Washington MTNA (Music Teachers National Association), Cascadia Composers, Iowa Composers Forum, chapters of National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and more. 

Cultivating Happiness as a Music Teacher

We all know how rewarding teaching music can be. But it can also be a challenging career that can easily spin into periods of exhaustion, overwork, and burnout. How can teachers cultivate happiness at a time when “selfcare” and “wellness” have become products and services for us to buy rather than ways to take back control of our lives? In this workshop, we will dig into the causes of burnout and discuss strategies to take back the reins of your time, energy, and talent as a teacher and as a whole human being, so that you can be the best, happiest music teacher and PERSON you can be. This session will be interactive and include the opportunity to discuss your concerns and ideas with the group!

Burnout Prevention Kit

Teaching one-on-one and managing your own studio can be rewarding, but it can also lead to exhaustion, overscheduled lives, and eventually the dreaded burnout. Meanwhile, “selfcare” and “wellness” have become products to buy and impossible images that we can never live up to, rather than ways to actually reclaim agency in our lives. This presentation will discuss causes of burnout for music teachers and explore practical solutions, including time management during lessons, establishing & maintaining boundaries, holding time for recreation and a social life, and the balance of supporting your students’ musical goals with nurturing your own artistic growth.​ 

Adapting to a Changing Online Landscape

If you’ve become accustomed to using social media and online tools to build your music studio, your online world might be getting a bit rocky at the moment. With people moving away from Facebook, the implosion of Twitter, the explosion of TikTok, and the popularity of short form video filtering into all platforms, it’s time for music teachers to rethink and rework their use of the worldwide web. This presentation will discuss the state of the internet and social media, options for using your online presence to connect with students who are a good fit, and have time for your questions.

The Sustainable Studio

This presentation will offer best practices for designing studio policies to ensure stable finances, protect your time and energy, and provide clarity and professionalism to your students and studio families. Topics will include tuition models, billing and scheduling, software, studio contracts and policies, the ever present ‘makeup lesson’ question, healthy and joyful boundaries, and more, plus time for your questions. 

Incorporating Composing into Your Studio Teaching

In this workshop, learn methods for incorporating composing in your studio lessons. We will discuss existing resources for teachers and ways to create your own composition assignments and prompts, as well as how to break down the process of composing a piece into small pieces that can be achieved using just a few minutes of lesson time each week.

Goal Setting & Year in Review Workshop

This workshop offers a space to come together in community and will lead you through a structure to:
  • Celebrate your wins
  • Acknowledge the tough stuff
  • Identify what you want to bring with you into the coming year and what you want to release
  • Set a course for the new year with clarity and focus
  • Identify what will best serve your artistic, career, and personal dreams in the coming year and beyond!

Designing Collaborative Processes

On the surface, collaboration seems ubiquitous in classical music. After all, it is an art form that involves many artists (composers, singers, instrumentalists, conductors) coming together to create a musical whole. But if we dig a little deeper how collaborative, ARE our processes of working together? How do we communicate our artistic visions and desires, and how do we respond to the needs of others? All too often, our art form leaves little time or space for true collaboration. Rather, each musician becomes responsible for their highly specialized area of creation and then must “stay in their lane.” The result: good but not great performances, professional but frustrated performers, new works that get premiered and then sit on the shelf for years without a second performance. In this workshop, we’ll talk about how to use the Neher Method to design collaborative processes that serve the artistic needs of all parties, fostering co-ownership of projects and equal “buy-in” from composers and performers alike.

Pitching Projects

Pitching projects might mean pitching yourself a a teacher to potential students, as a performer to get gives, or as a composer to get your work commissioned and performed. During the workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to learn strategies from successful musician entrepreneurs that will help you navigate the challenges of creating a thriving business.

Composing for Singers

Comprehensive need-to-know details about composing effectively for singers, including: range vs. tessitura, artistic and intelligible text setting, harmonic and pitch support, and select extended techniques.