Wheaton College Music Education Workshop

Online registration ONLY. Registration fee is $25. College students are free with school ID. Spaces are limited, register ahead of time. After purchasing a ticket, please register at this .

2021 Professional Development Workshop

Wheaton College Conservatory of Music would like to invite you to the Professional Development Workshop for ensemble directors, classroom music teachers, music education majors, and college/university professors. Music teachers can receive two professional development hours at this workshop.

Workshop Title: "Music Is Essential: Creating a Compelling Narrative about the Value of Music and Music Education"

Description: Musicians know that music is so much more than just a nice break in a student's day. Music is an essential component of a comprehensive education. How do music teachers help parents understand the wealth of benefits that formal music instruction brings to children of all ages? How do musicians convince policy makers that music instruction helps students develop life skills, improves social and emotional health and gives students the competitive edge when applying for college? Musicians at all levels (music ed majors, private lesson teachers, professional performers, early childhood teachers, public school teachers and arts professors) will build a stronger music advocacy vocabulary by attending this workshop.

Guest Speaker: Charles Staley, ARTSpeaks Founder and President and Merit School of Music Wind Symphony Conductor

Charles Staley is an award-winning band director and Fine Arts Department Chair who taught 35 years in Illinois public schools. Under his leadership, the Neuqua Valley High School music program earned widespread recognition and twice gained GRAMMY National Signature School status as "the best high school music program in the country." He also founded ARTSpeaks, an advocacy group for arts in education. He is dedicated to excellence in teaching and education - whatever the subject, wherever the school - to develop well-rounded, confident young people and vibrant, resilient communities.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin - Madison and the University of Illinois - Urbana/Champaign, Staley is the recipient of the ASBDA Distinguished Band Director Award, the ILMEA Mary Hoffman Excellence in Teaching Award, the CYSO Music Inspiration Award, the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Sudler Flag of Honor and the John Paynter Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Staley was awarded the Doctor of Music Honoris Causa by VanderCook College of Music.

Staley’s bands and orchestras have performed at the Midwest Clinic, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, and at venues in the People’s Republic of China, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Staley conducted the ILMEA All-State Band in 2017. In 2019, the Merit School of Music Wind Symphony performed at the ILMEA Conference and shared a concert with the University of Illinois Wind Symphony in the Foellinger Great Hall.

Staley conducts the Wind Symphony at the Merit School of Music in Chicago and facilitates the "Alive Inside" Outreach program in Naperville. Staley teaches graduate classes for VanderCook College of Music and supervises student teachers for Roosevelt University.

Host or Publisher Gina Yi and Wheaton College NAfME Chapter