Teaching Music in Waldorf Education
Each afternoon from 11:45 to 2:45 Pacific time music teachers will gather together for presentations and discussions specifically relevant to teaching music in Waldorf education.
Join us for a harvest of musical activities, teaching strategies, and repertoire that feel just right for the fifth grade child. We will explore ways to build music literacy skills and help students find their compositional voices. We will consider the importance of utilizing individualized and collaborative movement and will gain methods that are sure to bring both levity and gravity. We will share ideas about how making music with others inspires deep listening, empathy, and social responsibility. We will feel our way through lesson plan models that will help you optimize productivity, ease the flow of transitions, and build connections. Lastly, we will offer repertoire ideas that reflect the fifth grade curriculum, provide rich opportunities for harmonic singing and playing, and nourish the inner life of the fifth grade child.
Meet the Music Team!
We are honored to be working with an amazing team of music teachers who are teaching and leading this portion of the conference!
Melanie Whitney
Melanie is a song leader, composer, singing voice specialist, and music educator currently living in Western Massachusetts. She is a mom of two, director of the Spirit Song Singers, facilitator of various music share events in the Pioneer Valley, and teacher of K-12 music at The Hartsbrook School in Hadley, MA where she serves as the Music Department Chair. Melanie holds a BM in Music Education from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ and a certificate of Waldorf Music Education from the Sunbridge Institute in Chestnut Ridge, NY.
Music has always been a driving force in Melanie’s life and she is so immensely grateful for the meaningful and connective experiences she has been afforded because of its many gifts. Over time, she has come to know music as a wise and ever present healer, a dear friend, a distant memory, a soul salve, a humble teacher, a thought provoker, a truth seeker, a story teller, an expression of culture, and a manifestation of human evolution. Most importantly, she views music as a divine force that brings people together and brings us home to ourselves. Melanie feels blessed, daily, to be using music for healing and humanization in this broken world.
Jayanthi Bunyan
As the general music and chorus director at the Brooklyn Waldorf School, Jayanthi Bunyan teaches students of all ages, organizes student performances, and leads communities in song. Jayanthi’s curriculum strives for an embodied approach to music making through movement, play, and active listening. With over fifteen years of teaching experience, she has worked in public schools in Colorado, New York, and Kolkata, India. As a classically trained Western vocalist, Jayanthi has performed at numerous venues, including the Boettcher Concert Hall at the Denver Performing Arts Center and the Kolkata Jazz Festival. Jayanthi has a BA from SUNY Fredonia and an MA from CU Boulder, both in Music Education.
