Sorel Visiting Artist Series

Saturday, September 20, 2025:
Amplifying Equity and Inclusion in Music Education and Therapy is a mini-conference for preservice and in-service music teachers. Featuring Sorel guest speakers Dr. Connie McKoy, Dr. Marjoris Regus, Dr. Julie Derges, and Dr. Sangmi Kang.

Experts in music education will share thought-provoking, practical sessions that focus on culturally responsive approaches to teaching music in a variety of contexts. Mini-conference will run from 9am to 4pm on Saturday, September 20, 2025 on the SUNY Fredonia campus. The keynote talk will be given by Dr. Connie McKoy. 

Pre-registration by September 12 is required.

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Dr. Connie McKoy is the Marion Stedman Covington Distinguished Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the UNCG School of Music. Her research, which has been presented nationally and internationally, has focused on music teachers’ cross-cultural competence, and culturally responsive pedagogy in music. She is also co-author of Culturally Responsive Teaching in Music Education: From Understanding to Application, published by Routledge. 

Dr. Marjoris Regus is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Regus was previously a music educator in Salt Lake City (Utah) where she taught high school band, jazz band, choir, orchestra, music theory, piano, and music appreciation. Her research interests include secondary general music, ethnomusicological studies, and linguistic, behavioral, and musical codeswitching.

Dr. Sangmi Kang is an Associate Professor of Music Teaching and Learning at the Eastman School of Music. She is deeply committed to exploring how music teachers and students engage with diverse cultures and how to support underserved populations through culturally responsive and informed approaches in the music classroom.

Dr. Julie Derges is Associate Professor and Department Head of Music Education at the University of Houston. An active researcher, Derges Kastner studies popular music and culturally responsive approaches to music teaching and learning. She is certified in Orff-Schulwerk (levels 1-3) and Music Learning Theory (Early Childhood level I, Elementary levels I-II). 

Dr. Gray Baldwin (they/them) is a therapist with thirty years of experience providing therapy to children, adolescents, adults, and older adults. Their training was first in music therapy, earning a bachelors and masters degree in music therapy. They are trained additionally in Progressive Counting and Flash, two techniques used with trauma. Their work centers in humanism, queer theory, anti-oppressive practice, and social justice. They identify as transmasculine nonbinary and queer.

Dr. Amy Lewis is Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research is focused on systemic oppression, equity, and racism in music education. As a public music teacher, she taught K-1, 6-8 general music, beginning band, middle school choir, and jazz band in the Chicagoland suburbs. She received the 2022 Compass Visionary Award, the 2019 Black Faculty, Staff, and Administrators Association Emerging Leader Award, and was also named the 2015 Illinois Education Association Teacher of the Year.

Additional Residency Events & Guests:

These events are made possible by the generosity of the Claudette Sorel Endowment for Music. The fund honors pianist, educator, and philanthropist Claudette Sorel and the memory of her parents, Elizabeth and Michel Sorel.