Anna Song, assistant professor of music at Linfield College, will present “Updating Aural Skills Training and its Pedagogy” on Wednesday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in 201 Riley Hall at Linfield.
Song will discuss her research on the teaching and learning of musicianship and aural skills. Fluency in the language of music is largely defined by one’s ability to understand and respond to music heard aurally, and to hear and perform what is visually represented in musical notation. Formal music education programs in higher education invariably include courses in musicianship and aural skill development as core components in the curriculum. However, such courses have long been considered challenging to teach and intimidating for students. Until recently, aural skills pedagogy remained relatively neglected as an area of research in music education.
Song will also discuss the importance of integrating reflective writing, improvisation, cooperative learning and technology into musicianship courses in order to update teaching strategies and align pedagogy with contemporary learning theory.
Song joined the Linfield music faculty in 2008. She graduated with a bachelor’s of arts degree in composition from the University of California, Los Angeles and earned her master’s of music in conducting from the School of Music and the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University. She recently completed her doctoral studies in music education from Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition to teaching and conducting at Linfield, she is the co-founder and artistic director of In Mulieribus, a professional women’s ensemble that focuses on the performance of early music.
The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Linfield Department of Music at 503-883-2275.
