2025 Summer Music Institute - FAME Certification Tracks

The Summer Music Institute is the professional development opportunity you're looking for! We’re bringing together leaders in music, education, worship, and formation to offer an assortment of skill-building and enrichment workshops on subjects like choral rehearsal techniques, conducting, voice, pastoral music, leadership, organ, piano, and spirituality. Along with keynote addresses, secular and sacred choral music reading sessions, concerts, certification tracks, and special events, you won't want to miss this unique conference created for musicians in all settings!

The Summer Music Institute is excited to offer two certification tracks for music educators through the Feierabend Association for Music Education (FAME).

• Choose Conversational Solfege or First Steps in Music

• Tracks run from 7/8–7/11 (one day longer than the general Summer Music Institute)

• Certification attendees are also welcome to attend evening events and concerts (7/9 & 7/10) associated with the Summer Music Institute.

First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond provides activities for children as young as three but appropriate for any aged child that needs to further develop their tuneful, beatful, and artful abilities. Folk songs and rhymes as well as classical music are the primary source materials that are used to develop their musical minds and abilities.

Conversational Solfege™ is a pedagogical method to be used with children who have already developed their tuneful, beatful, and artful skills and are ready to develop a deeper understanding of melody and rhythm. Conversational Solfege™ develops an understanding of music through the use of rhythm syllables and solfege syllables at a conversational level, then gradually evolves into traditional notation. Through carefully sequenced activities, Conversational Solfege™ enables students to joyfully assimilate the skills and content necessary to be musically literate. Through various techniques, Conversational Solfege™ allows the acquisition of musical reading and writing, dictation, improvisation, and composition in an intuitive manner. This course is applicable to general music, choral, and instrumental teachers.

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