On February 17th, MMI mentors attended a pedagogy seminar with Phyllis Clark, early childhood music teacher at Bard Conservatory Prep School. Pedagogy seminars are one of the regular benefits of teaching for MMI. We train our teachers to be both knowledgable musicians and teachers. Information on our guest speaker and the lecture recording can be found below:
Phyllis Clark lives in West Camp, NY with her husband Michael S. Brown and Corbie 2 Sox the Havanese (not in that order). She began making music and harmony with her family in Really Upstate, NY (northern Lake Ontario) before going to Boston University and to The Hague, the Netherlands to study opera and singing.
After returning to New York City to sing Bach, symphony choruses, and opera, Phyllis joined the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble and travelled the world performing their expansive repertoire. She further honed her craft as an a capella ensemble singer, arranger, teacher, song seeker and storyteller.
In 2001 Phyllis joined the faculty of the Saint David’s School in New York City to build the choral, theater, and liturgical music programs for K-8; incorporating methods from Kodaly, Dalcroze, and Starer with traditional music in her experiential curriculum.
Phyllis holds degrees in voice performance from the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Boston University and she has studied the Kodaly method at NYU and Dalcroze at the Kaufman Center. A multi-instrumentalist, Phyllis has also taught piano and recorders, and continues her studies on viola and bagpipes.
Phyllis is excited to join the faculty of the Bard Preparatory Division and bring her joy of movement and singing to every class!