Music Education

Bio: Dr. John Wayman is the Associate Director of Choral Activities, Associate Professor, and Area Coordinator for Music Education at the University of Texas at Arlington. He conducts the University Singers and helps guide future choral music educators. He is in great demand as a conductor, adjudicator, and clinician. Dr. Wayman has appeared as a guest conductor and adjudicator at numerous state and regional events. He has given frequent clinics at the state, national, and international platforms on choral pedagogy for the maturing adolescent voice, programming, and rehearsal strategies for choral music educators. Much of Dr. Wayman’s research focuses on the changing male voice and teacher preparation. He has presented at the state (Alaska MEA, Georgia MEA, Louisiana MEA, New Mexico MEA, Oklahoma ACDA, Tennessee MEA, and Texas MEA), national (National Association for Music Educators, National American Choral Directors Association, Society of Research for Music Education, Society of Music Teacher Educators, Southwestern American Choral Association) and international venues (Greece, Brazil, England, Uganda, China and most recently in Scotland and Ireland). He has published in the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing, the Journal of Research in Music Education, the Teaching Music, Texas Music Educator Research, Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, Kansas Music Review, the Ala Breve: Alabama Music Education Journal, and Georgia Music News. Dr. Wayman also serves on the Editor Advisory Board for the national Music Educators Journal. In 2019, Dr. Wayman was selected as the 2019 Sunrise Rotary Professor of the Year Award for the College of Liberal Arts. Above all, he loves teaching and inspiring those who love to sing!

Bio: Dr. Chris Evans is the Associate Director of Bands and Director of the Maverick Marching Band at UTA. In addition to the marching band, Dr. Evans teaches the Symphonic Winds, Symphonic Band, Marching Band Techniques, and Instrumental Methods and Materials. Previously, Dr. Evans was the Associate Director of Bands at Flower Mound High School. While at Flower Mound, he primarily taught the Concert Band and the JV marching band while assisting with all other aspects of the program. Dr. Evans also served as Assistant Director of Bands at Juan Seguin High School and was a graduate assistant at the University of Oklahoma. While at OU he assisted with the concert ensembles, the Pride of Oklahoma marching band, and conducted the women’s basketball band for 2 years. Before graduate school, he taught middle school in Georgia for three years. Dr. Evans, a native of Birmingham, Alabama earned his Bachelors of Music Education from Auburn University. He earned his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Oklahoma. His professional associations include the Texas Music Educators Association, Kappa Kappa Psi, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (honorary), and Tau Beta Sigma (honorary).

Bio: Diane Lange is Professor and Music Program Director of Field Experience where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Early Childhood and Elementary Music Education. Dr. Lange received her Bachelor of Music in Education and Master of Music from Central Michigan University and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. Additionally, she taught elementary music for ten years in Michigan and Nevada. She received her Orff Levels at Memphis State University and Gordon Institute for Music Learning Levels from Michigan State University. She has presented several national and international pedagogical workshops. Her research interest includes combining Orff Schulwerk and Music Learning Theory, and developing curricular material for elementary-aged students. Dr. Lange has published three books, numerous book chapters and articles, and is a co-author for Jump Right In: The Elementary Music Curriculum, Grades Kindergarten and 5. Dr. Lange was president for the National Gordon Institute for Music Learning and North Texas chapter of American Orff Schulwerk Association, and was regional representative for Early Childhood Music and Movement Association where she hosted an Early Childhood Music Conference. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Lange’s service to the university has included Area Coordinator of Music Education, Associate Chair of the Music Department, Curriculum Chair, and currently she is the chair of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. Dr. Lange has received the Outstanding Educator Award from the Crawford AuSable School District and was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Arlington in spring 2019.

Bio: Margaret Brown is in the fifth year of her second career as Adjunct Assistant Music Professor at UT Arlington. She serves in the String Music Education Department and as University Supervisor of Music Education Clinical Teachers. Serving as the Sigma Alpha Iota faculty advisor has been a highlight of this time at UTA. Ms. Brown joined the UTA faculty in 2020, after retiring from 34 years as a public school teacher at high schools and middle schools in the Grand Prairie, Tyler, Lubbock and McKinney Independent School Districts. Ms. Brown had earned a Bachelor of Music Education from Texas Wesleyan University, where she studied with Dr. Robert McCashin. While in Lubbock, she added a Master of Music degree from Texas Tech University, studying with Dr. Virginia Kellogg. Ms. Brown served for two years as an Adjunct Music Professor at Texas Tech and as the Master Teacher for the Texas Tech String Project. She also was Conductor of the Lubbock Youth Symphony String Orchestra. A pioneer in bringing orchestral music to previously unserved schools, Ms. Brown began the Irons Junior High School Orchestra when the school opened in Lubbock in 1989. In 2005, she and Ruth Kurtis accepted the challenge of founding the McKinney ISD Orchestra. Dr. Deborah Perkins had begun the Cross Timbers Youth Orchestra, which created a need for the school orchestra program. As Director of Orchestras at both Irons Junior High and McKinney North High School, Ms. Brown quickly grew those into University Interscholastic League Sweepstakes Award-winning programs that included chamber music and full orchestras. She also instituted monthly Chamber Music Nights at McKinney North. At UTA, she continues to serve as the Camp Director of the Summer Strings Camp for middle and high school students, and performed in the Texas Conducting Workshop, Friends and Faculty Orchestra and serves as a faculty advisor for the Zeta Nu Collegiate Chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota. Ms. Brown has traveled extensively in Europe as a performer and conductor with the Texas Youth Orchestra and Choir under Dr. Perkins’s direction. The group performed in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, England, Wales, and Scotland. For five years, Ms. Brown served on the Executive Board of the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, including one year as president. She also was President and Treasurer of the Texas American String Teachers Association, and Secretary and Orchestra Chair for the Texas Music Educators Association Region 16. She is an active adjudicator for the Texas Music Adjudicators Association and a conductor and clinician for All-Region orchestras and orchestras across Texas. Her other memberships include Mu Omicron and Sigma Alpha Iota, a professional fraternity for women in the field of music. Ms. Brown has been honored and included in “Who’s Who Among American Women,” “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers,” “Who’s Who in Music,” and “Who’s Who Among American High School Students.” She is proud of her designation as PTA Lifetime Membership Honoree.

Bio: David Dunham is a retired Texas band director with 33 years of classroom teaching experience primarily at the middle school level. The last 19 years of his career were spent in Frisco ISD leading Clark MS and later Fowler MS until his retirement in May of 2019. His ensembles in Frisco ISD have received top awards “Sweepstakes” Award for the last 17 consecutive years and is a 4 time TMEA Honor Band State Finalist. In 2013, the Fowler MS Symphony won the Texas Music Educators Association Middle School Honor Full Orchestra, and in 2015 Fowler MS was the only Middle School Percussion Ensemble in the nation invited to perform and Percussive Arts Society Internal Conference (PASIC). Recently, the Fowler MS Symphonic Band was selected as the Outstanding Middle School Band and Outstanding Middle School Brass for the 2019 Dallas Wind Symphony Invitational Windband Festival. The Jazz program at Fowler MS is one of the the largest in the nation with three competing jazz bands and a 4th jazz band, the 55 member Beginning Jazz Band that starts rehearsing weekly each Spring. The Jazz Band at Fowler was the first ever national winner of the Foundation for Music Education’s Mark of Excellence National Jazz Honors in 2010. In 2018 the Fowler MS Jazz Band 1 won first ever State Champion in the state of Texas and performed in San Antonio as the first ever Invited Middle School Jazz Band in history of The Texas Music Educators Association. There are dozens of former students who achieved Texas All-State Band and Jazz Band, and dozens of former students teaching and/or performing in colleges and conservatories across the country, including three from the Eastman Conservatory of Music in New York, and a former student who has won a Grammy Award. In addition to teaching High Brass Methods at UTA, Mr. Dunham is an active band consultant, clinician, conductor, mentor, band recruiting specialist, national adjudicator, and a frequent contributor to The Instrumentalist national band and orchestra magazine, He is a proud graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, received his masters degree in music education from Baylor University, and has pursued classes towards a doctorate at the University of North Texas. He is a member of the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Band Masters Association, the American Band Association, Texas Jazz Educators Association, and an active member of the Texas Music Adjudicators Association, Originally from Austin, Texas Mr. Dunham has two grown sons and resides in an “empty nest” with his wife of 30 years Dr. Jocelyn Dunham in Flower Mound, Texas (a suburb of Dallas).

Bio: Michael Morrison was born in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Levelland, Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music/Performance degree, both with an emphasis in Jazz Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has performed in the UT Arlington Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Bill Snodgrass and Timothy Ishii, and has been a student of Mr. Timothy Ishii for many years. Also, he has performed in the UT Arlington Wind Ensemble as principle alto saxophone and as guest soloist with the UT Arlington Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Morrison has also served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Jazz Studies program at UT Arlington. His duties included teaching jazz combos, jazz history, and jazz theory. In addition, he presented lectures and performed for the Saxophone Master Class under the direction of Mr. Timothy Ishii. During his time at UT Arlington, Mr. Morrison has performed with many renowned artists; such as, Arturo Sandoval, Jon Faddis, Terell Stafford, Bob Mintzer, Dave Pietro, Linda Oh, Peter Erskine, Mike Williams, Denis DiBlasio, Roger Ingram, and Dave Hagedorn. Michael Morrison is a Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at the University of Texas at Arlington in addition to maintaining an active performing schedule in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. He is a member of the American Jazz Composers Orchestra, Mesquite Repertory Jazz Ensemble, Rebel Alliance Jazz Ensemble, and the Curtis Bradshaw Octet. Also, he performs with his jazz trio—Michael Morrison Trio—which has been the house jazz trio at Newport’s Restaurant for three years. They have also been the featured jazz group at the Mesquite Arts Center Summer Jazz Breaks in 2011. In addition to performing, he is an in demand private lesson instructor throughout the area, teaching classical saxophone repertoire as well as jazz saxophone, improvisation, theory, and beginning flute and clarinet.