Performing / Perserving African American Music
T (901) 396-2913
Email: info@naspaam.org
NASPAAM
1201 Mary Jane., Memphis, TN 38116
BOARD MEMBERS BIOS
DR. WILLIAM T. MCDANIEL
Dr. Ted McDaniel received his B.A. degree from Morehouse College and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in music from the University of Iowa. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, he previously taught at Morehouse College of North Carolina A & T State University. He retired in June 2015 after 35 years on The Ohio State University faculty but continues to be active as a scholar, teacher, arranger, conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in African American music and jazz education circles.
Professor of African American Music at The Ohio State University since 1981, he is a specialist in African American music, jazz history, and jazz performance. He holds joint faculty appointments in the School of Music, where he serves as Director of Jazz Studies, and in the Department of African American & African Studies, where he served as Department Chair from 1989-1996. His scholarly and creative writings represent various aspects of jazz and black music. He has lectured extensively throughout the United States and has been invited to present in Africa, Europe and China. Known for his analysis of the music of Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, he is the author of several works on black music. As a music arranger, he has written over 200 arrangements for jazz bands, R&B groups and marching bands. He has written music for the Sesame Street television show, as well as for several professional groups. Since 1981 he has been a music arranger for the OSU Marching Band, where his arrangements have been performed at virtually all of the Big Ten stadiums and at the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Liberty Bowl, Citrus Bowl, Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl. His arrangements of the Michael Jackson Show in 2013 performed by The Ohio State University Marching Band were viewed by over 10 million on YouTube.
He has directed the OSU Jazz Ensemble since 1990. Under his leadership, the OSU Jazz Ensemble has toured internationally with three European tours (1996, 2001 and 2007), where they were invited to perform at several of the most prestigious jazz festivals in Europe including the North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland), Montreux Jazz Festival and Brienz Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Vienna Jazz Festival (Austria), Vienne Jazz Festival (France), Tuscany Jazz Festival and Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy), in addition to other non-festival sites and cities. The Jazz Ensemble, under his direction, has performed throughout the state of Ohio and the US and at OMEA, MENC, and IAJE professional conferences. At Ohio State, he also directs the annual 4-day Jazz Festival, the 5-day Summer Jazz Camp, and the 2-day Jazz Symposium. In 2014 he led The Ohio State University Jazz Ensemble on a 10-day State Department-sponsored tour to China, where they performed in Beijing, Xinxiang, Wuhan, and Shanghai through the Center for American Culture.
Recognized for his contributions to the field of music, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Teaching Award in 1987 and the Distinguished Scholar Award in 1994 from the OSU School of Music. In 2000 he received the Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award and the Faculty Award for Distinguished University Service in 2011 from The Ohio State University. In 2011 he served as a music conductor and music arranger for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument in Washington DC at the Constitution Hall Concert. He also served as music consultant for the film on the MLK Monument entitled Building the Dream that debuted on Public Television stations nationally in summer 2013. He is a music scholar on
“blues and jazz” and consultant for the new African American Music Museum to be built in Nashville, TN.
His memberships with organizations are numerous: A founder, former president, and executive secretary of the National Black Music Caucus (now the National Association for the Study and Performance of American-American Music), he held membership in several professional associations including the Center for Black Music Research, National Association of Negro Musicians, National Association for Music Education, National Council for Black Studies, Association for the Study of Afro-American Life and History, International Association of Jazz Education and the Jazz Education Network. He is a Life Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (Boulé).
DR. MARSHA KINDALL-SMITH
For more than 40 years President, Life-Member Dr. Marsha Kindall-Smith’s mission has been to ensure an equitable music education for all students while teaching western artistic masterworks and multicultural music. Her article is a description of family, church, piano and other teachers who influenced this mission and her expertise in African American music, “On My Journey: Minority Teachers and Teaching Beyond the Curriculum,” 2004, Mountain Lake Reader. Also significant was a college work-study experience where her group built the first school in a Nigerian village. Preparation for Operation Crossroads Africa included writing a research paper; she chose West African drums/drumming. Participants were expected to give 50 talks about personal Crossroads experiences; she gave more than 100 sessions with artifacts/slides. She presented sessions at several NASPAAM conferences, served in other roles, and received the 2011 Ambassador Award from NASPAAM.
After graduating with majors in piano performance and music education (Oberlin College), and piano pedagogy and music education (Ohio State University), she was a pre K-12 general music/choral teacher. She created curriculum in a school for deaf students as a beginning music teacher in three Columbus, Ohio schools. In Massachusetts she taught at Elma Lewis School (Boston - for students bused from three freedom schools), Buckingham Browne and Nichols School (Cambridge), Hobbs Junior High (Medford), and was a Music Consultant for Natick Public Schools, and a Music Adjunct Professor at Lesley College (currently, University). IIn Wellesley schools she established a 24 station piano/keyboard lab with a keynote visualizer in general music classes, and also taught the child centered Orff approach with an instrumentarium. She received awards for developing interdisciplinary curriculum, directing/ accompanying (piano) her large children’s choruses singing challenging repertoire, and enabling African American students enrolled in the voluntary busing program to participate in all her music programs. As the Brookline K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator (Music/Dance/Drama) in the music department she developed equitable programming in Grades K through 8 schools, provided music teachers for kindergarten students, and created /conducted an intergenerational chorus with middle school students and senior citizens. She received the 1997 Lowell Mason Award from the Massachusetts affiliate of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).
In Massachusetts and Wisconsin she was the elected vice president of state affiliates of NAfME and published 20 articles in state journals. Doctoral studies in teaching and curriculum at Boston University enhanced her emphasis on reflection in music performance with culturally connected music education. At University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee she was Co- Chair Music Education and researched/taught social justice in her courses created/taught a mentoring course for new music teachers (primarily from Milwaukee Public Schools) and an early childhood course, and received the 2003-2004 Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award. Her service includes the Education Committee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Board of Directors of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and adjudicating local/national NAACP Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological and Scientific Olympics. Her professional memberships have included National Association of Music Education, College Music Society, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, American Educational Research Association, American Choral Directors Association, Orff-Schulwerk Association, Urban Music Leadership Council, and Pi Lambda Theta International Honor and Professional Association.
Dr. Kindall-Smith sings in choirs and performs favorite piano literature by several composers including Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Joplin, Nathaniel Dett, and John Wesley Work III. She sings solos at churches - see They Met to Read the Bible about the massacre at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church on YouTube. Internationally she was a choral musician at a Mozart Festival in Salzburg, Austria, an administrator and duo piano accompanist for a choral tour in Japan, and an invited clinician in Hong Kong, and Sydney, Australia. She has presented multiple participatory workshops about the history/performance of spirituals including Ev’ry Time I Feel The Spirit: Singing Spirituals in Worship supported by Wisconsin United Methodist Church Foundation. Her national/international conference sessions include Orff -Schulwerk and keyboards in general music/chorus (at times with her students), and topics later published including musicals with production/perception/reflection, Music Educators Journal, 2010; music teacher education for urban schools, Music Educators Journal, 1970, 2004; a chapter in Teaching Music in the Urban Classroom II, 2006; social justice in music teacher education, National Journal of Urban Education & Practice, Winter 2008; Journal of Music Teacher Education, 2013, and co- author in International Journal of Music Teacher Education, 2011. She received the 2009-2010 Oberlin College Distinguished Alum Award in Music Education and a brick in her honor on the Walk of Fame at NAfME headquarters in Virginia.
FRANK SUGGS
Frank Suggs joined the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music (NASPAAM) in 1999, and the next year became Editor of Con Brio, the organization's newsletter. Between 2000 and 2013, he edited twenty-one issues that were immediately distributed. Con Brio was NASPAAM’s primary contact with its members. When Frank Suggs was elected NASPAAM President in 2004, he began his tenure by visiting members in Texas and Oklahoma in an effort to increase participation. After that initiative, NASPAAM had a board meeting at Langston University, the location of the organization’s archives.
In July 2005, he was the NASPAAM negotiator for one pre-session and three regular sessions of African American Music at the 2006 Music Educators National Conference (MENC, currently the National Association for Music Education, NAFME) in Salt Lake City. After his Presidency, he designed and distributed NASPAAM stationary, brochures, posters, flyers, and ads for state journals, printed programs, souvenir journals and mass mailings. For these activities he received the NASPAAM Service Award in 2013.
Suggs was educated at the University of Arizona and Indiana University. He is a retired Professor Emeritus of Music from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. While teaching at this university, he created ten courses in the Arts and developed three degree programs in the College of Fine Arts. He organized his rhythm-based performing ensemble, named Creative Arts, in the spring of 1970 to support new courses in African American music, and that ensemble performed at several professional events including the MENC Conference in Indianapolis and the Black Diaspora Conference in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Suggs also developed at Illinois State University the Music Industry major, a bachelor degree program, that combined musical performance, African American music, music and technology, and business. Successful graduates of this program have toured with Destiny’s Child, recorded with R. Kelly, and signed contracts with Jive Records.
Sugg’s research has focused on African American gospel music. Three of his publications are The Business Of Gospel (American Popular Culture Association), Gospel Music Curriculum Guide, K– 2 (McDonald’s Corporation), and The Impact of African American Church Music on the African American Community (New Star Press – the new millenniums bi-lingual reader, Chinese/ English). One workshop generated from his research was Black Sacred Music in the Integrated Church developed for the Illinois American Mennonite Association. While conducting a Gospel Music Extension course in an integrated, suburban Chicago Mennonite church, students described their internal conflicts about the music. The conflict, between Blacks and Whites, focused on performance practices of Black Gospel Music in Sunday morning worship services. When officials from the Illinois branch of the denomination requested his assistance with the musical conflict, he developed the workshop.
He later became Multi-Cultural Awareness Chair for the Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA) Board of Directors in the 1980s. During this period many Illinois high school music teachers questioned the validity of black gospel music and performance practices in high school Regional Solo and Ensemble Contests. Supported by his gospel music research and his position on the board, he instituted a yearly workshop during IMEA meetings called Gospel Music for the High School Concert Choir.
Suggs received the following awards: the Orpheus Award from the Chicago chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia for contributions to African American classical music; Light of Unity Award from the Bahia Spiritual Assembly for religious connection support; Human Relations Award from McLean County (Illinois) for work in public service; and Outstanding Faculty Award from Illinois State University for service to students.
GWENDOLYN J CARROLL
Gwendolyn J. Carroll served NASPAAM as its 12th President from 1999-2001. During her years of service to the organization, she was instrumental in establishing the initiative to attract new and younger members. She presented a successful proposal to the Board to establish NASPAAM Collegiate Chapters on HBCU campuses, particularly in cities where the organization planned to convene its biennial professional conferences. Under her tutelage, four collegiate chapters were installed with plans to install many more in the future under new chairman. She has served the organization as First Vice President, President-Elect and currently as Secretary. She is also the current Constitution and Bylaws Chairman and has presented two major revisions of that document. She received the NASPAAM Service Award at their 2011 Biennial Professional Conference in Houston, Texas.
Mrs. Carroll earned a PD, a Professional Diploma degree in Schooland School District Administration from Long Island University Post (LIU) in 1977. She received the LIU Post Outstanding Adjunct Professor Award in 2011 and the Leadership and Gentle Guidance Recognition from the LIU Post Music Education Faculty. At LIU she teaches Keyboard Harmony, Musicianship for Music Teachers - a methods course in preparation for student teaching, and also serves as a University Supervisor to music prospective teachers during their field experiences.
Mrs. Carroll had a forty-year outstanding career in public school education beginning in 1961 as a choral and general music teacher at Booker Junior - Senior High School in Sarasota, Florida. Moving to New York in 1967, she continued as a music teacher at Franklin School, Hempstead, NY and later as choral director and drama teacher at Alverta B. Gray Schultz Middle School with administrative responsibilities as “Team Coordinator” for the then popular “Open Classroom.” In 1980 she became high school choral director at Hempstead HS, where she remained until becoming District Director of Music and Fine Arts in 1985.
In 1988 she served one year as Acting Assistant Superintendent for Secondary Curriculum and Instruction during the district’s emergency reorganization. Returning to her position thereafter, she decided to leave the district in 1990 and moved to Amityville School District, where she served as Director of Music and Fine Arts until her retirement in 2001. Today, after her public schools’ tenure, she is now in her 14th year as adjunct professor at Long Island University- Post Campus, a Long Island suburb university where she is on the faculty in the Music Department in the area of Music Education. She had the opportunity to serve as Acting Director of Music Education during the sabbatical leave of the current department chairman.
In addition to Mrs. Carroll’s professional career, she has balanced her work and public service as a member in several service organizations.She is a 59-year member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated/Theta Iota Omega Chapter, where she served in many positions including President, 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President, Parliamentarian, and Chaplain; a 31 year alumna status member of The Links, Incorporated/Long Island Chapter, where she served as Parliamentarian and Fund Raising Chairman; a charter member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women/Nassau County; and the organizer of Aquarius’ 74 Social Club, now in its 42nd year, where she held the longest reigning years as their president.
There are numerous awards to her credit for community service from New York local Nassau and Suffolk Counties County Executives, Mayors, and Congressmen, as displayed in her home. In 2007 she was recognized by the Hecksher Museum at the Juneteenth Celebration. In 2011 she was recognized at the Dr. Martin Luther King,Jr., Breakfast for her community service by the Hollywood Full Baptist Church. She is proud of the recognition from the schools and organizations she served.
FRANK SUGGS
Frank Suggs joined the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music (NASPAAM) in 1999, and the next year became Editor of Con Brio, the organization’s newsletter. Between 2000 and 2013, he edited twenty-one issues that were immediately distributed. Con Brio was NASPAAM’s primary contact with its members. When Frank Suggs was elected NASPAAM President in 2004, he began his tenure by visiting members in Texas and Oklahoma in an effort to increase participation. After that initiative, NASPAAM had a board meeting at Langston University, the location of the organization’s archives.
In July 2005, he was the NASPAAM negotiator for one pre-session and three regular sessions of African American Music at the 2006 Music Educators National Conference (MENC, currently the National Association for Music Education, NAFME) in Salt Lake City. After his Presidency, he designed and distributed NASPAAM stationary, brochures, posters, flyers, and ads for state journals, printed programs, souvenir journals and mass mailings. For these activities he received the NASPAAM Service Award in 2013.
Suggs was educated at the University of Arizona and Indiana University. He is a retired Professor Emeritus of Music from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. While teaching at this university, he created ten courses in the Arts and developed three degree programs in the College of Fine Arts. He organized his rhythm-based performing ensemble, named Creative Arts, in the spring of 1970 to support new courses in African American music, and that ensemble performed at several professional events including the MENC Conference in Indianapolis and the Black Diaspora Conference in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Suggs also developed at Illinois State University the Music Industry major, a bachelor degree program, that combined musical performance, African American music, music and technology, and business. Successful graduates of this program have toured with Destiny’s Child, recorded with R. Kelly, and signed contracts with Jive Records.
Sugg’s research has focused on African American gospel music. Three of his publications are The Business Of Gospel (American Popular Culture Association), Gospel Music Curriculum Guide, K– 2 (McDonald’s Corporation), and The Impact of African American Church Music on the African American Community (New Star Press – the new millenniums bi-lingual reader, Chinese/ English). One workshop generated from his research was Black Sacred Music in the Integrated Church developed for the Illinois American Mennonite Association. While conducting a Gospel Music Extension course in an integrated, suburban Chicago Mennonite church, students described their internal conflicts about the music. The conflict, between Blacks and Whites, focused on performance practices of Black Gospel Music in Sunday morning worship services. When officials from the Illinois branch of the denomination requested his assistance with the musical conflict, he developed the workshop.
He later became Multi-Cultural Awareness Chair for the Illinois Music Educators Association (IMEA) Board of Directors in the 1980s. During this period many Illinois high school music teachers questioned the validity of black gospel music and performance practices in high school Regional Solo and Ensemble Contests. Supported by his gospel music research and his position on the board, he instituted a yearly workshop during IMEA meetings called Gospel Music for the High School Concert Choir.
Suggs received the following awards: the Orpheus Award from the Chicago chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia for contributions to African American classical music; Light of Unity Award from the Bahia Spiritual Assembly for religious connection support; Human Relations Award from McLean County (Illinois) for work in public service; and Outstanding Faculty Award from Illinois State University for service to students.
WILLIAM E. BRACKEEN
William E. Brackeen holds a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Oklahoma City University and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Oklahoma. Three of his piano instructors were Clarence Burg, Robert Laughlin, and Digby Bell. He obtained an education certification in vocal/general music Grades Kindergarten through Twelve.
Mr. Brackeen is the Acting Chairman of the Music Department at Langston University in Oklahoma, where he also serves as the Director of Choir/ Chorale, and Instructor of Piano, Music Theory, and Music History. In addition, he is piano accompanist for numerous university events and various faculty/student recitals.
He continues to serve as a Music Clinician/Consultant in different areas of the United States. Previously Mr. Brackeen was a general music instructor for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Minister of Music in several churches throughout Oklahoma. Currently he is the Minister of Music at the Greater Shiloh Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and directs several choirs.
Mr. Brackeen is the Financial Secretary of the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music, where he is a well-known piano accompanist at their professional conferences. His other professional associations include the National Association for Music Education, Oklahoma Music Educators Association, Civic Music Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia.
DR. MARTHA CISTRUNK-BROWN
A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Dr. Martha Cistrunk-Brown received her elementary and secondary education in the public schools of Jackson. During her early school years she was active in all things musical. Her educational credentials include the Bachelor of Music Education Degree in Music Therapy from Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University, Master of Music Education Degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, the Master of Music Therapy Degree from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Music Education from the University of Southern California, where the faculty voted her Student of the Year in 1981.
Dr. Brown has been a Board Member of NASPAAM for over 25 years. She is the Treasurer, a Life Member, and previously served as Editor of Con Brio, the organization’s newsletter. In 2013 she received the NASPAAM Lifetime Award in Birmingham, Alabama.
For six years she worked as a Music Therapist at Kalamazoo State Hospital in Michigan. Upon locating to California she served the Los Angeles and Long Beach Unified School Districts for 32 years as a music specialist and music coordinator, and served as a church music director for many years. For many years she also taught in the Saturday Music Conservatory at Compton College. As a public school teacher, she was a mentor teacher and a demonstration teacher. She was awarded the Carpe Diem Award from the Long Beach District for her devotion to duty and innovative ideas. She served on numerous local school, district, and state education committees, and was Secretary to the California Music Educators Association, Southern Section. She is presently an adjunct teacher at California State University, Long Beach, where she supervises student teachers in music education.
DR. GEORGE E. ALLEN
Dr. George E. Allen is presently Adjunct Professor of Music at The Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Dr. Allen’s professional career includes the following: Department Chair of Art and Music at Overbrook High School in Philadelphia; Associate Professor of Music at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania; Adjunct Professor at Immaculate University and Saint Joseph’s University; Director of Music for Model Cities Cultural Arts Program; and Professor of Music and Jazz Band at Community College of Philadelphia.
Dr. Allen was a principal clarinetist throughout his performing years with the Philadelphia All City Band and Orchestra; district, regional, and state bands of Pennsylvania; West Chester State Teachers College Band and Orchestra; and The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra.
DR. T. MARSHALL JONES
Membership Chair, Life Member Dr. T. Marshall Jones was elected to serve as a Board member, representing the Southern Region of NASPAAM in 1979. He was appointed Membership Co-Chair for the Southern Region in 2000, later became Membership Chair in 2013. He has worked diligently to reclaim and increase membership – having sent special appeal letters to 105 HBCU Institutions – encouraging active and non-active members to renew their memberships. Additionally, new membership forms have been developed and visits have been made to several states in an effort to booster NASPAAM membership. His goal is to help us grow the “culture of our ancestry” that all humankind might be “enriched” as we move forward in the 21st Century.
He was appointed Director of Bands at Albany State (College) University (ASU) in 1963 and built a program of 32 members to 130 quality musicians in the Marching Band over a period of five years. He took a “Leave of Absences" to pursue the Doctorate degree at the University of Oklahoma from 1969 to 1972 and served as a Graduate/Teaching Assistant with both the University Bands and School of Music. He returned to Albany State and helped launch a Master’s Degree Program for the Music Department.
He was appointed to the Georgia Council for the Arts in 1975 and served at the pleasure of six Governors. He served as the first African American Chairman from 1986 – 1987 and was honored with a Governor’s Award in the Arts in 1990; he currently serves on the Georgia Humanities Council.
As a member of Georgia Music Educators Association, he served as State Advisor to 28 student chapters, was Chairman of the College Division, and was instrumental in forming the All-College Band as an annual performing ensemble at the conference. He received the GMEA Lifetime Service Award based on contributions to further music education, sheer volume of work, years of service and lives touched in his career.
He has served as Guest Conductor/Clinician/Adjudicator in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and South Carolina. He also presented lecture/performances at the State, Regional, and National Music Educators Conferences in Nashville, Atlantic City, Miami, and Anaheim, CA.
As Founder and Performer (Piano/Trombone) with the Albany State University (ASU) Jazz Quartet, the group was chosen to tour with the “First Georgia Festival of the Arts in Italy” in 1977, and performed 25 Concert in 17 cities - including Florence, Sulmona, Urbino, Pettorano, Silvi, Rimini, Fossombronne and Rome. His other international tours include West Germany, Czech Republic, Karlovy-Vary, Switzerland, and Paris.
His honors and awards include: ASU Teacher of the Year (1976 & 1983); citation by GA General Assembly for Outstanding Performances and Contributions Promoting Jazz as an Authentic Art Form; Chairman of University System of GA Fine and Applied Arts Academic Advisory Committee; and Southern Division Representative to the National Committee on Instruction of MENC (1979-82). He is a Board Member and first African-American President of the Albany Symphony Orchestra Association. He has been associated with the Celebration Concert Series by the Albany Symphony Orchestra at Mt. Zion Baptist Church showcasing the music of African-American composers and performers.
He was employed for thirty-three (33) years at ASU serving as Director of Bands, Chairman of the Music Department, and Professor and Chairman of the Fine Arts Department until retirement in June 1996. He was then asked to serve as Adjunct Professor of Music for 14 more years, retiring again in 2010 - rendering 47 years of service. He is a Deacon and serves as Minister of Music at Mt. Zion Baptist Church.
The T. Marshall Jones Lyceum and Performance Series at Albany State University was named in his honor in 2010.
DR. JEMMIE PEEVY HAWKINS
Dr. Jemmie Peevy Hawkins is assistant professor and Coordinator of Music at Miles College, Fairfield, Alabama. As Advisor of the Miles College Collegiate Chapter of the National Association For Music Educators, (NAfME) she and student members traveled to St Louis, MO to receive the 2012 NAfME Collegiate Chapter of Excellence Award for outstanding work in the areas of music program, professional development, recruitment techniques, and service projects. Under her advisement, the chapter was recognized for performing at the highest level of excellence.
She has also become known for her instructional leadership, arrangements, and twenty-plus years of collaborative planning of annual Birmingham City Schools All-City Christmas Music Festivals. As a result of her passion for music and learning, her church music hand bell music ministries became noted. A high-point for Dr. Hawkins and her students was their appearance on a CBS Television Special of Sunday Morning Live with Charles Kuralt, featuring her music classroom, and students performing during the Birmingham citywide celebration of Bach’s 100th birthday activities.
Her accomplishments include adjudication for the Leontyne Price Vocal Arts Competition, rehearsal piano accompanist for the Birmingham School Of Ballet at Birmingham Southern College, and Birmingham Civic Opera Company performances of Menotti’s The Medium and Invitations and Goodbyes. Dr. Hawkins has performed in recital as keyboard accompanist for many artists including the renown flutist Harold Jones, operatic tenor Vincent DeCorva, and Readers Digest Artist-in-Residence Gwendolyn Bradley, soprano. She has performed as a singer and accompanist with the Birmingham Community Chorale, as well as accompanist for the Magic City Boys and Girls Choirs. She has frequently performed with and for the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church Academy of Fine Arts and in its many collaborative productions that include Birmingham Southern College Presents, and The Divas Perform. During her service as Southern Area and National Assistant Director of Arts for the Links Incorporated, she performed in solo and duo piano recitals, and coordinated, facilitated, and presented arts and music-sponsored workshops through a variety of national and local organizations.
Other awards include Outstanding Music Teacher from the Birmingham Alumni Chapter of Stillman College, Excellence in Teaching from the Birmingham Rotary Club, and the nomination by Channel 42 Television to receive its Golden APPLE Award for Instructional Excellence. As a postgraduate student, she received the Samford University School of Education Award for Administrative Leadership. She earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Birmingham Southern College, and her Masters, Education Specialist, and Doctor of Education degrees from Samford University. She has studied also at Manhattan School of Music and Roosevelt University, Chicago Musical College.
When Dr. Hawkins recently became a NASPAAM board member, she accepted the position of Collegiate Chair and developed a plan that the board accepted with accolades. She is the Advisor of the NASPAAM Miles College Collegiate Chapter. Not only did she secure faculty musicians from Miles College to perform at Dr. Jesse McCarroll's Birmingham memorial service (between semesters), but also, The Nappaa Collegiate Singers, a quartet of student charter members, sang Stephen DeCesare’s Lamb of God (from Children's Mass). Dr. McCarroll met Miles College students when they received theNAfME Award, and thereafter frequently encouraged their educational endeavors. Thus, students were eager to provide a musical tribute in his honor.
DR. MARK W. PHILLIPS
Mark W. Phillips, a native of Petersburg, Virginia, received the Bachelor of Music, Cum-laude and Master of Education degrees from Virginia State University. He received the Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of Oklahoma and studied further at the University of Virginia, University of North Carolina, and Vandercook College of Music in Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. Phillips’ teaching career began in the public schools of Virginia where he was band director and chairman of the Fine Arts Department for Prince Edward High School. He left this position to become director of bands at Livingstone College. He taught ten years at Prairie View A&M University before assuming the position of Chairman and Director of Bands in the Department of Music, Art and Design at Virginia State University. Currently, Dr. Phillips is the Head of the Department of Music and Theatre at Prairie View A&M University where he started August 2015.
Dr. Phillips has been a musician with the Petersburg Symphony, Salisbury Symphony, Catawba Brass Ensemble, Texas University Trombone Teachers Ensemble, and the Oklahoma Sackbutt Ensemble. Dr. Phillips holds membership in many professional and honorary organizations that include Music Educators’ National Conference, Kappa Kappa Psi, Tau Beta Sigma, Phi Delta Kappa, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Dr. Phillips has been President of the Intercollegiate Music Association, the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music (NASPAAM), and the Petersburg Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors. He is currently the Treasurer of the HBCU National Band Directors’ Consortium and the Advisory Chair for membership of NASPAAM. Dr. Phillips has also been a member of the Southside Virginia Community Concert Association and the Petersburg Boys Choir Board. Dr. Phillips is also a VIP of the Conn-Selmer Division of Education.
Dr. Phillips conducted the brass ensemble at Prairie View A&M University that performed throughout the eastern United States. His ensemble was also featured live on the Classical radio station of Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Dr. Phillips, who was selected for inclusion in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, and the recipient of the Bank of America Outstanding Teaching Award, teaches low brass, conducts the low brass ensemble, and teaches Instrumental Literature.
DR. ALVIN E. AMOS
Dr. Amos, a native of New Orleans, has served the NASPAAM board actively for nearly three decades as the photographer, previous Membership Chair, and Media CoChair with service nationally, as well as in the Eastern and Southern regions. He received the NASPAAM Distinguished Service to Music and Music Education in 1995. Devoted to music at the university level, he chose an eclectic style of teaching, performing, research, and service during a 42-year career.
His serious and diverse study of music began in earnest in middle school and continued through high school. He played multiple woodwind instruments in many types of bands throughout this period including small church ensembles, school marching and concert bands, and piano accompaniments for neighborhood “doo-wop” groups. This comprehensive foundation served him well. While at Xavier he began playing with a rhythm & blues-light jazz group called the Orbiteers, (“Swiss Movement”). The Orbiteers performed often at nightclubs in New Orleans. In 1969 they were discovered by the Temptations and consequently secured engagements at the “20 Grand,” one of Detroit's most famous and esteemed nightclubs. The Orbiteers followed “greats” on the 20 Grand stage including The Parliaments and the Funkadelic Revue, Stevie Wonder, and B.B. King.
Dr. Amos earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Xavier University of New Orleans, where he was a member of the University Opera Chorus, a leader in the university's Wind Ensemble and Jazz Ensemble, and he wrote a music column for the university newspaper. He also received the Sister Elsie Scholarship at Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH). In 1970 he accepted the Martin Luther King Fellowship to Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO) and earned a Master of Music degree. His final project included a clarinet recital featuring the works of Mozart, Staint-Saens, Dett and Poulenc. Immediately after completing his work at CSU he was offered a position as Instructor of Music at Central State University, Ohio. It was here that his career as a music educator truly began. Later he earned a Doctorate of Education in Music Education from the University of North Carolina Greensboro (NC, 1987). His dissertation topic was The Use of Keyboard Music in Black Baptist Churches in Central Piedmont North Carolina.
In his next appointment as Professor of Woodwinds, Jazz Education, and Chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Department at Lincoln University, Dr. Amos was charged with strengthening the academic programs, rebuilding the choral music program, and increasing the enrollment of vocal, instrumental and piano students. Select performances and accomplishments include: The Concert Choir (45+ members) was featured on stage at the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) in honor of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks; and the Jazz Ensemble, Concert Choir, and String Ensemble were featured several years at the Washington D.C. Hilton for the Annual National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education conferences of all HBCUs. The String Ensemble was also privileged to perform at the United States Capital in April, 1998. Additionally, the Concert Choir traveled to New York City twice to perform at the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Foundation celebration. The music ensemble enjoyed international recognition under the helm of Dr. Amos' leadership when he and the Jazz Ensemble toured Paris, France in April, 1997. The groundwork for that tour occurred during an earlier academic visit via participation in a workshop and conference at The Sorbonne in Paris, France. This endeavor was sponsored in part by Harvard University professor Henry L. Gates after celebrated artists received a special award from film music, producer, and philanthropic giant Quincy Jones in 1996.
Dr. Amos is the recipient of numerous awards during his tenure at Lincoln University including: Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Service, March 1996; Lincoln University Faculty Development Grant to study current church music practices in the Delaware Valley; 2000 Dean’s Award, April, 2000; Legacy Club Distinguished Commitment to Lincoln University 2002; and The LU President’s Gold Club Award 2003. He was Scholar and Moderator for the series “Looking at Jazz,” a six film-viewing project sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC). The series premiered in spring 2010 at Lincoln University and attracted a substantial audience of students faculty, and jazz enthusiasts from southern Chester County and the northern Delaware area. Dr. Amos served on the Kennett Symphony Orchestra Board Chester County, Pennsylvania for 10 years. He was an elected member of Philadelphia Orchestra Cultural Diversity Advisory Committee.
ELIZABETH ECCLES
A Norfolk, Virginia native, Elizabeth Vaughan Eccles is a retired music educator who taught classroom and choral music in the Norfolk City School System for 34 years, followed by five years as Music Education Coordinator in the Department of Music at Hampton University, Hampton, VA. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from Norfolk State (College) University, a Master of Music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Music Education from University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana. Her musical career has included music teaching positions at the pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, secondary, and university levels. Her career also has encompassed that of church organist, pianist/choir director, and soloist appointments.
Elizabeth Eccles has earned many accolades and awards during her career including voted Teacher of the Year in 1989 and 1996 by the Booker T. Washington High School faculty, a repeated recipient of the Norfolk Public School Bell Award for Excellence in Teaching, and named Who’s Who Among American Teachers in 1998, 2002, and 2004. In 1999, she was honored by the Norfolk State University Music Department as an Outstanding Music Alumna and on April 20, 2013, she was honored by the Norfolk State Alumni Association at its annual Noah F. and Georgia A. Ryder Commemorative Concert. One of the greatest achievements of her career was being selected Music Educator of the Year 1996-1997 by the Virginia Music Educators Association – the first and only African American to receive this prestigious honor.
She holds membership in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), Virginia Music Educators Association, American Choral Directors Association, Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society, Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity, National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music, where she has held office of Financial Secretary, President and is currently a member of the organization’s Council of Past-Presidents. Other memberships include The Hampton Roads Choir Directors’/Organists’ Guild, Tidewater Area Musicians Chapter of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Chesapeake-Virginia Beach Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and the Norfolk Chapter of Norfolk State University Alumni Association. She is the Music Director of the I. Sherman Greene Chorale, Inc. and past president of the Chorale’s Board of Directors. Elizabeth Eccles is a member of the Historic Bank Street Memorial Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia.
DR. ROSITA SANDS
Dr. Rosita M. Sands is currently Professor of Music and Interim Chair of the Music Department at Columbia College Chicago, where she teaches in the area of ethnomusicology, including courses on world music, African-American music, and Music Pedagogy. Prior to joining the Music Department, she served as Associate Director and Director of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College and its remote site, the Alton Augustus Adams Music Research Institute, in St. Thomas, USVI. Her research interests are the areas of African-American-Caribbean carnival traditions, multicultural music education, and the pedagogy of black music.
Dr. Sands has contributed essays and chapters to African American Music (Burnim/Maultsby eds.), Multicultural Perspectives in Music, Kaleidoscope of Cultures: A Celebration of Multicultural Research and Practice, Critical Issues in Music Education, and several entries in The Encyclopedia of African- American Culture and History, edited by Henry Louis Gates. She is also published in the Journal of Music Teacher Education, The Black Perspective in Music, Black Music Research Journal, and Action, Criticism, and Theory in Music Education.
She has presented conference papers at the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives in Sydney, Australia; the Caribbean Studies Association in Kingston, Jamaica; the International Conference on Education, Research, and Innovation in Madrid, Spain; and the Inter- American Conference on Black Music Research in Trinidad, USWI. She has also presented her research at conferences of the College Music Society, Society for American Music, the National Association for the Study and Performance of African-American Music, and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC), now known as the National Association for Music Education.
Prior to her tenure at Columbia College, she served as Adjunct Faculty at the Berklee College of Music, Coordinator of Music Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, and Graduate Coordinator and Director of Music Education at California State University, Long Beach. She previously served as Higher Education Chair and President-Elect of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association, Chair of the California Council on Music Teacher Education, and Higher Education Board Member of the California Music Educators Association, and co-Chair of the National Symposium on Multicultural Music, founded by Dr. Marvelene Moore. As a board member of the National Association for the Study and Performance of African American Music, she was the Editor of Con Brio, the organization’s newsletter.
She is a participant in the Caribbean Repatriation Program of the Association for Cultural Equity, Alan Lomax Archives, and has presented teacher workshops in Chicago and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and pedagogy sessions at state Music Education conferences in Wisconsin, Connecticut, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
DR. FREDRICK TAYLOR
Dr. Frederick J. Taylor is a graduate of Kentucky State University (BS), University of Illinois (MS) and Temple University (DMA); he also took graduate courses at West Chester State University in Music Business
Administration. He taught in the public schools of Chicago, Philadelphia and free-lanced as an arranger, pianist, and session musician for small record labels. Dr. Taylor was the co-owner of Universal Verity Music
Publishing company in Philadelphia, Pa. He is a NASPAAM Life Member and the immediate past Executive Secretary. Also, he received the 2013 NASPAAM Ambassador Award in Birmingham.
Dr. Taylor has held the following academic positions in various colleges and universities: Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (Chair of the Department of Music, Assistant Director of Humanities); Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey (Coordinator of Student Teaching in Music Education); Assistant Professor of Music at Lincoln University of PA; Chair, Music Industry Management and Recording Technology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. He is also a published author with the following book publications to his credit: Marketing in the Music Industry, 5 th Edition, Pearson Publishing; Instructional Manual for Marketing in the Music Industry (Pearson); and Entrepreneurship in the Global Music Marketplace published by McGraw-Hill.
Dr. Taylor has published numerous articles in music education, music industry, business, and African American music including “Scat Singing,” General Music Today Journal; “Multicultural Education,” Southeastern Journal of Music Education; “Black Music in the Philadelphia Tribune, 1912-1920,” Black Perspective in Music, Harvard University; “The Atlanta Music Industry, Music Entertainment Industry Educators Association,” Music Entertainment Industry Educators Journal; “A Comparison of Five American Music Industry Centers of Commerce,” and Southern Business & Economics Journal.
Dr. Frederick J. Taylor has composed music for National Television Commercials: “Wally Gator,” Cartoon Network, Time Warner/Turner Broadcast Inc.; “Twelve Days of Christmas” Publix Supermarkets, Matlock and Associates Agency; “Happy Feet” Diabetes Foundation, Fricks & Associates Agency; “Puppys” UNICEF, Strickland, Kilgore, Jones, Kelley Agency; “Charities” Nationwide Insurance, Warren, Clark and Graham Agency; “ Cabbagetown” Tomorrow Pictures Inc., PBS Documentary.
Dr. Taylor has produced the following records/CD’s: Vocalist Linda Ransome with the Phil Morrison Trio, Dr. Mac Records, Allgood Studios, Atlanta; “Nubian Spirits” Sheets of Sound Recording Company, Allgood
Studios, Atlanta; “Ancestral Spirits” featuring Tenor Sax Bob Miles, Eddie Davis (Trumpet), Tarus Mateem (Bass), Edwin Williams (Congo), John Ormond (Congo), John Robertson & Louis Heriveaux (piano), and Woody Williams (Percussion) with Rock Bottom Jazz. Foreign Distributor (Holland) and Criss Cross (American Distributor) of the Flavor Of China, The Erhu meets Jazz, featuring Jieing Chen, Executive Producer- Frederick J. Taylor (Submitted to the Beijing Olympic Committee).
Frederick J. Taylor performs in the Atlanta area for various musical events and works part-time as a music consultant and composer of jingles for TomorrowPictures.com in Atlanta, GA. Dr. Taylor and Tomorrow Pictures prepared to submit proposals to the 2016 Olympic Committee. Visit TomorrowPictures.com for updates.