Music Division
Music Education
Elizabethtown College Music Education graduates benefit from hands-on experiences throughout all semesters of their education at the College. Beginning in the first year, our students are out in the field observing practicing music teachers as well as engaging in peer-teaching activities. The Music Education program at Elizabethtown College prepares graduates to earn a Pennsylvania Department of Education Certification in Music K–12 instrumental and vocal. Course work for all students in the program includes methods courses in brass, woodwind, string, percussion, and voice. All music majors also complete a rigorous course of study which includes music theory, music history, aural skills, conducting, composing/arranging, and applied lessons.

For additional information about the Music Education program at Elizabethtown College, contact Dr. Karendra Devroop, director of Music Education Studies:
devroopk@etown.edu; 717-361-1532.
blocks_image
Students Laura Getz (far left) and Kim Sandifer (2nd from left) help uncrate donated instruments on a recent trip to South Africa.

Read more...

South African Musical Outreach Program

During the 2008 Spring Break, a group of faculty and students from the Department of Fine and Performing Arts and Psychology from Elizabethtown College took a trip to South Africa where they established an instrumental music program at a disadvantaged school. The trip which was led by Dr. Karendra Devroop is the culmination of several months of work where Devroop and music education student, Kim Sandifer embarked on a mission to collect donated instruments from across four states. The donated instruments were repaired and shipped to South Africa in December together with equipment and supplies necessary to start a fully functional concert band.

During Spring Break, the team consisting of Dr. Karendra Devroop (Assistant Professor of Music), Kim Sandifer (senior music education student), Laura Getz (music and psychology double major) and Dr. Michael Roy (Assistant Professor of Psychology) spent the week teaching students in sectionals and full band settings. The team focused on the fundamentals of instrumental performance, reading music and functioning cohesively in an ensemble setting. At the end of the week, students performed a concert of several short exercises and one grade level concert band arrangement for an audience of approximately 1400 people that included students, faculty, education and government officials and community leaders. The team partnered with faculty from two universities in South Africa, the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of South Africa.

The project had two major components, a service and a research component which was supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The research component sought to determine the efficacy of the intervention on student’s lives. According to Devroop, students in South Africa face unprecedented challenges on a daily basis including crime, poverty, hunger and AIDS. Thirty percent of the schools population is orphaned by one or both parents and approximately forty percent of the students have either one or both parents living with AIDS. The team wanted to determine what impact the newly formed program had on student’s social, psychological and emotional well-being. With little to no music in the public school system, this program was viewed as a landmark event which hopefully paves the way for subsequent programs in the public school system in South Africa.