Fall Conference

October 19th-20th, 2024
University of North Florida

Fall Conference Schedule 

Saturday, October 19th 

  • 12:00-1:00pm Check-in / Ice Cream Social Join us on the beautiful green outside UNF’s Fine Arts Center for ice cream and fellowship before the festivities begin!
  • 1:00-1:15pm Transition
  • 1:15-2:15pm Keynote: "If You Don't Know, I Can't Tell You!" with Dr. Peter Boonshaft
  • 2:15-2:30pm Icebreaker 
  • 2:30-3:30pm "Ways to Improve Every Class or Rehearsal Through Inspired Teaching" with Dr. Peter Boonshaft
This session will offer 24 ways you can immediately improve every rehearsal or class. Using time-tested wisdom, advances in modern technology, borrowed insights on how students learn, and the message held in a simple blue box we can inspire students to learn and flourish. Useful for teachers and conductors of any level and type of ensemble. 
  • ​3:30-3:45pm Break
  • 3:45-4:45pm "Warm-up and Ensemble Development Exercises that Work" with Dr. Peter Boonshaft
This session offers specific exercises you can use to develop ensemble performance. These focused warm-ups isolate and target improvement in the areas of balance, blend, intonation, rhythm, rhythmic subdivision, listening, articulation, dynamics and virtually every aspect of large ensemble playing. Useful for band and orchestra directors of any level: elementary school, middle school, and high school.
  • 3:45-4:45pm "Let’s Sing and Dance to Folk Songs from Overseas" with Dr. Julie Myung Ok Song
Pre-service teachers and novice music teachers often confront challenges when teaching unfamiliar music or finding a place for it in the curriculum. This session offers pedagogical strategies for teaching music through singing and dancing to Foreign Folk Songs. Using scaffolding instructions, pre- and in-service music teachers can discover how to engage their students to teach folk music from overseas and develop musical sensibility in K-12 music classrooms.
  • 4:45-5:00pm Break
  • 5:00-5:45pm “Your Support Ensemble: Building Strong Relationships In and Out of the Classroom” with Mr. Joshua Autrey
  • 5:45-6:45pm “Sound Before Symbols” with Dr. Timothy Groulx
Learn to implement a new method of music instruction for band/choir/orchestra that enables students to improvise, sing/play expressively, and understand theory organically from the very beginning. The Sound Before Symbols method puts “speaking” music before reading music, enabling each performer to learn to speak with a voice of their own. This method teaches students music holistically and naturally, the way we learn our first language as small children. By participating in this workshop, you will develop the skills to teach your students in a way that will enable them to not only perform the musical ideas of others, but to express their own musical ideas at any time, with any size group, to express any thoughts or feelings they wish to express. Students can continue performing the amazing body of repertoire developed for our ensembles but can also perform what is in their hearts, and form relationships with other musicians to develop their own unique ideas and styles. 
  • 6:45-8:00pm Dinner
  • 8:00-10:00pm Games / Scavenger Hunt
Don’t forget to bring your board games! Join us after dinner for games and an intense scavenger hunt around UNF’s campus.

Sunday, October 20th 

  • 9:00-9:45am "So you want to be a Music Educator? ... Lemme Holla at Ya" with Mr. Bernie Hendricks
An interactive "No-Cap" Conversation with long time music educator Bernie Hendricks. Let's Discuss the Highs and Not So Highs of being a music educator in today’s ever changing world!!!! 
  • 9:50-10:35am Advocacy Presentation 
  • ​10:40-11:25am “Navigating a New Area” Panel with Dr. Timothy Groulx, Mara Eichin, Tyler Kapinos, and more! 
Are you studying to be a choir director, but concerned that your first job might include teaching a string orchestra? Are you studying to be a band director, but worried that your first job might involve teaching musical theater? If so, this session is for you! Current music educators from different backgrounds will share their experience in teaching multiple areas and provide collegiate students with advice on how to succeed! 
  • 11:30-12:00m Break
Meet the County Supervisors!
  • 12:00pm-12:15pm Large Panel
  • 12:15-1:00pm Breakout Panels
This is your chance to ask the supervisors any question you may have! Sit down with them in small groups for a down-to-earth conversation about the challenges and joys that come with teaching in today’s world.
  • 1:00-2:00pm Lunch with Supervisors
  • 2:00-3:00pm Mock Interviews
Break into small groups while the supervisors ask real interview questions and help prepare you for the best interview experience possible!
(Examples at the bottom of the page)

Meet the Clinicians  

Dr. Julie Myung Ok Song

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Dr. Julie Myung Ok Song is a visiting faculty of music education at the University of North Florida where she teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses related to elementary methods, secondary choral methods, and research methods. She also supervises field experience students and student teachers. She is currently directing a Cantata Community Adult Choir in the Jacksonville Children’ Choir and serves as a clinician in the Jacksonville area. Dr. Song is a Kodaly and Vocology certified teacher. Dr. Song has published and presented her work regionally, nationally, and internationally. She currently serves on the Advisory Committee for the Music Educators Journal. Dr. Song is a member of NAfME, SMTE, FMEA, and ISME. ​

Dr. Peter Boonshaft 

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Called one of the most exciting and exhilarating voices in music education today, Peter Loel Boonshaft has been invited to speak and conduct in every state in the nation and around the world. Honored by the National Association for Music Education and Music For All as the first recipient of the “George M. Parks Award for Leadership in Music Education," Dr. Boonshaft is Director of Education for Jupiter Band Instruments. He is the author of the critically acclaimed best-selling books Teaching Music with Passion, Teaching Music with Purpose, and Teaching Music with Promise. He is also co-author of Alfred Music’s method book series Sound Innovations. As well, his weekly “Boonshaft’s Blog” for music educators continues to inspire teachers everywhere. He has received official proclamations from the Governors of five states and a Certificate of Appreciation from former President Ronald Reagan, as well as performing for former President and Mrs. George H. W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton, and for Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His honors also include being selected three times as a National Endowment for the Arts "Artist in Residence,” three times awarded Honorary Life Membership in the Tri-M Music Honor Society, receiving the Al G. Wright Award of Distinction from the Women Band Directors International, and being selected for the Center for Scholarly Research and Academic Excellence at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where he is Professor Emeritus of Music.

Dr. Timothy J. Groulx

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Dr. Timothy J. Groulx is Associate Professor of Music Education at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Florida since 2014. He earned his Ph.D. in music education from the University of South Florida in 2010, and earned his Bachelors and Master’s degrees from Oberlin Conservatory in 1999. He is also active as a band adjudicator, guest conductor, and clinician. He has published research in several journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, and the Journal of Band Research. He has presented at research and in-service conferences throughout the United States as well as in Austria, the United Kingdom, Finland, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand. His research interests include history and sociology of music education and has developed the Sound Before Symbols method, an instrumental music method focused on student creativity and expression prior to beginning music reading.

Dr. Bernie Hendricks Jr.

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Mr. Hendricks has served as director of bands at Ocoee High School since the school opened in 2005. He previously served as director of bands at Robinswood Middle School in Orlando, for eight years. Mr. Hendricks is a 1997 Magna Cum Laude Graduate of Florida A & M University, where he served as University Band President and percussion section leader of the Marching 100. He is an active member of the Florida Bandmasters Association for which he has served terms as district secretary and treasurer and just completed a 2-year term serving as President of FBA. He also served on the Orange County fine arts curriculum and leadership teams and the All County concert and jazz band committees. Mr. Hendricks has served the Florida Music Education Association as a state committee chairperson and member of the state executive board. Mr. Hendricks has received the honor of “Teacher of the Year” in 2000 at Robinswood Middle School, 2007 and 2017 at Ocoee High School. In 2017 he was a Finalist for Orange County Teacher of the Year.  He was also recognized by the School Band & Orchestra Magazine as the Florida representative for their “50 Most Influential Directors.” He is a recipient of the Sousa Foundations Legion of Honor and most recently noted as a Semi-Finalist for the Grammy Music Educator award. Mr. Hendricks is an active adjudicator and clinician throughout the state of Florida. He also serves the Orlando community as band leader and Life Group leader at Orlando World Outreach Church. Bernie is happily married to an educator and the proud father of three wonderful children. 

Mr. Joshua Autrey

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Joshua Autrey is the Director of Bands at Milwee Middle School in Longwood, FL. Bands under his direction have consistently been lauded for their excellence at FBA Music Performance Assessments, and his program has grown to include a high number of students enjoying the performance of quality band literature. Awards for Mr. Autrey include the FBA Tom Bishop Award for the growth of the Gateway High School Band program, the Linda Mann Five Year Superior Award, and Five Year Jazz Band Superior Award. In 2024, the Milwee Middle Symphonic Band performed at the FMEA President’s Concert. Mr. Autrey regularly works with other band programs in the Central Florida area and is a highly sought after adjudicator, guest teacher, and mentor to other young directors by regularly hosting student interns from Florida universities. Mr. Autrey received his BME from The Florida State University, where he was a member of Kappa Kappa Psi, and holds memberships in FMEA, FBA, and NAFME.

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