Faculty
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Danai Gagné
Ms. Gagné is the Director of OCP at the Trevor Institute,
holds a diploma from the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria,
and is a direct link to Carl Orff and Gunhild Keetman. She also
holds diplomas from the Yvonne De Kirko Modern Dance School and
the Hellenic Conservatory in Advanced piano studies in Athens,
Greece, and is a graduate of Empire State College.
Danai is a well-known presenter at numerous workshops throughout
the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, including the national
conferences for the American Orff Schulwerk Association. She
has been on the faculty at numerous Orff Certification Programs
around the country. Her strong background in ethnic, folk and
modern dance brings a unique quality and diversity to her teaching.
She has co-authored A Seasonal Kaleidoscope, Dramas in Elemental
Scales and is currently working on a book on Greek dances. Danai
also contributed many musical arrangements of folk songs to the
Silver Burdett / Scott Foresman music series. She is currently
the Music Coordinator of Grades 1-5 at Trevor Day School in Manhattan.
Judith Thomas
Ms. Thomas is a well-known Orff Schulwerk teacher of all levels
of certification courses and has been a music education professor
at many US and Canadian universities, most recently at West Chester
University in Pennsylvania and Mills College in California. She
has co-directed international courses in Orff Schulwerk at the
Orff Institute in Austria and England. For many years she was
a K-6 Orff Schulwerk specialist and Arts Coordinator in the Nyack,
NY School District, bringing music and movement to the general
classroom as well as the music room. She has co-authored material
in all American editions of Music for Children and Teaching Creatively
by Working the Word: Language, Music and Movement in the Classroom
(Brookes Baltimore, with Judith Katz) and is an author and consultant
for the Silver Burdett / Scott Foresman Making Music series.
Ms. Thomas holds an M.M. in piano from the University of Illinois
and the Special Year Certificate from the Orff Institute in Salzburg,
Austria. She has served as the President and Conference Co-Chair
of the National American Orff Schulwerk Association and is a
frequent presenter at national conferences.
Laura Koulish
Ms. Koulish has been a music specialist at public and private
music schools in New York City for many years, teaching recorder
ensembles, recorder, and Orff classes. She integrates recorder
with percussion, movement, and drama. She received her B.A. in
music from Oberlin College and studied Orff with Danai Gagné
in New York. As a faculty member at the Bloomingdale School of
Music, she taught recorder in its Orff Certification Program.
She taught music education at Stern College (Yeshiva University)
and has presented workshops for Orff chapters and teacher organizations
and the 2004 Orff national conference. Laura has been a cooperating
teacher for the New York University education program, supervising
student teachers. A co-author of A Seasonal Kaleidoscope and
Melodic Weavings, she has also contributed original songs and
arrangements to Music and You and Share the Music series for
Macmillan. Laura is a past president of the NYC Orff Chapter.
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