Featured Guest:
Merrilee Webb
(So, They’ve Asked you to Direct the Ward Choir, Ward Choir Rehearsal: How Much Can You Cram Into One Hour?, Unlocking the Power of Hymns, Keynote Address)
Back by popular demand! Due to a delayed flight we missed some of Merrilee’s planned 2011 presentation. She was so loved and so many attendees enthusiastically requested she return that we couldn’t say no.
Merrilee Webb earned Bachelor and Masters degrees in Music Education from Brigham Young University Provo where she was selected as the “Most Outstanding Musician” in 1983. Merrilee is often seen conducting combined choirs for Relief Society and Young Women general meetings.
She learned to play the piano using the RKM method when she was only 5 years old and studied piano with Reid Nibley at Brigham Young University. Merrilee just returned from teaching for three years at Brigham Young University Hawaii where she successfully used the RKM method to teach hundreds of students from all over the world to play the piano. She has served as Associate Director for “Young Americans” and owns the Infinity Business Ventures Recording Studio.
Visit readingkeyboardmusic.com for more information.
Additional Presenters
Sharla Dance | Eric McKirdy
Tom Pixton | Karen Porter
Sharla Dance
(Primary Music)
Sharla Dance has long been a favorite instructor at our workshops. She loves to teach children’s music. She is currently writing a book, "To Teach a Child a Song," and hopes to include principles and techniques that have worked well in the last 25 years of teaching. Her Bachelor of Music Education degree at BYU was a good start for post graduate studies in How the Child’s Brain Learns Music. Sharla is Kodaly and Orff Level trained, and she is currently studying how to teach children through improvisation at the piano with Forrest Kinney. She combines brain research, teaching research, and good plain fun as a way to teach teachers in her workshops. Her favorite workshops are those that combine gospel truths with the power of music to help each of us learn. Sharla has 5 children and an incredibly supportive husband. They live in the Seattle area.
Eric McKirdy
(Organ-izing the Hymns, Organ Q&A, Music Chair Boot Camp)
Eric McKirdy began playing the organ at an early age, and pursued it as a major in college, studying at the University of Oregon with Dr. Barbara Baird. Since that time, he has been honored to perform throughout the United States and Europe, both as a soloist and as organist for several choirs. He has written a number of arrangements for choir and organ, and for the last four years has taught extensively at the Portland Regional LDS Music Workshop. Eric serves on his chapter’s board of directors of the American Guild of Organists. He and his family live in Albany, where he recently completed his twentieth year as ward organist.
Tom Pixton
(Choral Reading, Conducting)
Tom Pixton has directed community and church choirs over a period of 35 years. He more recently founded and directed the West Linn Community Chorus for 6 years. Tom studied choral conducting at BYU, he has served as Stake Music Chair in three stakes and he regularly attends ACDA (American Choral Directors’ Association) choral workshops for continuing education. A lifelong musician and father of seven musically accomplished adult children, Tom masquerades daytimes as a lawyer but keeps a keyboard and banjo in the office.
Karen Porter
(Conducting)
Karen Porter received her Bachelor and Masters of Music degrees in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University, studying under Jeffrey Shumway and Paul Pollei. Karen was an instructor of group piano, private piano lessons and sight-singing at Brigham Young University, as well as an accompanist for BYU Women’s Chorus and vocal masterclasses. She is trained in the Kodály method and studied choral conducting at the graduate level with Dr. Ronald Staheli. Karen has sung under the baton of such acclaimed conductors as Craig Jessop, Mack Wilberg, Ronald Staheli, Jerrold Ottley and John Rutter. Karen is currently the Artistic Director of "Cántico: The Portland Chamber Singers." She lives in Sherwood, Oregon with her husband and four young children.
Learn more about Cántico.