The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

Shelly Cooper has been a music educator for 30 years. At the University of Arizona, she teaches music education courses, serves as area coordinator, and directs the Desert Skies Symposium. Cooper is editor of General Music Today and the Book/media Review Editor for the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education. She has choral arrangements published with Hal Leonard and was a contributing author for the Silver Burdett Making Music series. Cooper has given numberous workshops and research presentations at the state and national levels and teaches Kodály certification courses at Arizona State University.

Charles Tighe is a National Board Certified Teacher, and was honored by MENC's Teaching Music magazine as a Distinguished Teacher. He holds a BA in Political Philosophy from Kenyon College, a Masters of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and is currently a DMA Candidate in Music Education at Boston University. His teacher certification/endorsements are from Maryville College and the University of Tennessee, where he student taught under Joe Miller, currently director of choirs at the Westminster Choir College. He received his Orff training at the University of Memphis under teachers Jos Wuytack, Konnie Saliba, and Shirley McRae. Mr. Tighe apprenticed to train teachers in the Orff approach with Randy DeLelles and Jeff Kriske at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mr. Tighe has presented at national Orff conventions in both the United States and Canada, as well as at the Georgia Music Educators Association State Convention, the Georgia PTA State Convention, and for numerous regional associations.

Diana Brandt is an early childhood and elementary general/vocal music specialist. While teaching general/vocal music in public schools for grades K - 6, she also served as a teacher and consultant within the (K-1) Early Intervention reading program. After leaving public schools to raise her children, she has become an early childhood music educator at the Hartt School of Music as part of the First Steps in Music program. Within the program, Kodály-inspired methods and materials are used to teach children from birth to age five. She continues to be a guest lecturer and consultant for different universities throughout Connecticut, as well as an active clinician at local, state, and regional conferences. Topics include Kodály-based instruction in the K - 5 curricula, starting a Kodály program in a non-Kodály school, folk dancing as a community builder, learning centers in the music classroom and early childhood music instruction. She holds Kodály certification and served as president of the Kodály Educators of Southern New England (KESNE).