Affirming and Supporting Minoritized Students in Tangible, Actionable Ways – ACCESS MIDWEST: A VIP Backstage Tour
Clinic Synopsis:
This session empowers minoritized students by equipping them with professional resources to help them advance their music careers. The founders of I See You-Affirming Representation in Music and Lift Music Fund partner in this program designed to set our VIP students up for success, both at the MidWest Clinic and globally in their development. Educators will walk away with resources and tactics to foster a more equitable learning environment for their students.
William L. Lake, Jr.
- Biographical Information
Dr. William L. Lake, Jr., (b. 1984) is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at the Crane School of Music (SUNY-Potsdam) and Associate Director of Bands. His additional academic responsibilities include conducting the Crane Concert Band and Community Band, teaching conducting, and supervisor of instrumental music education majors in their pre-field experiences. Dr. Lake is co-conductor of Northern Symphonic Winds, and guest conducts the Crane Wind Ensemble regularly. Dr. Lake earned his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Instrumental Conducting from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro under the mentorship of Drs. John R. Locke and Kevin Geraldi.
Dr. Lake is the recipient of two master’s degrees, the first from Boston University in Music Education (2011), and the second from the University of Maryland, College Park in Wind Conducting (2014) under the mentorship of Dr. Michael Votta, Jr. In May 2006, Dr. Lake received the Bachelor of Music Liberal Arts -Jazz Studies Piano Performance Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park as a student of Jon Ozment and Christopher Vadala.
LaToya A. Webb - Biographical Information
Dr. LaToya A. Webb serves as
Assistant Professor of Practice in Conducting and Assistant Director of Bands
at The University of Texas at Austin. Her responsibilities include teaching
instrumental conducting, wind band literature, and directing the Longhorn Band
(marching and concert) and Longhorn Pep Band. Before joining the UT faculty,
Dr. Webb served as an instructor of wind conducting at Auburn and Grambling
State universities. She holds degrees from Norfolk State University,
George Mason University, and Auburn University, and currently serves as the Tau
Beta Sigma National Vice President for Professional Relations.
A
versatile educator and conductor, Dr. Webb is an active researcher and
presenter appearing at state, national, and international conferences. She is
published in the Music Educators
Journal, the Teaching
Music Magazine, and the Podium (the National Publication of Kappa Kappa Psi and
Tau Beta Sigma). Dr. Webb has the distinct honor of being a conducting
fellow in the 2019 U.S. Army Band Conductors' Workshop and the 2019 Midwest
Clinic Reynolds Conducting Institute.
As
a passionate advocate for improving educational opportunities through
diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, Dr. Webb is the Special Projects
Manager for United Sound, Inc.
She also maintains the William P.
Foster Project website and serves on the Southwestern Division
Committee. She is the co-founder of I
See You: Affirming Representation in Music, and a frequent lecturer
on diversity, equity, inclusion, and access topics for state and local music
programs of all levels.
Emily Mariko Eng - Biographical Information
Originally from New Hampshire, Emily Mariko Eng is a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia, studying conducting with Dr. Cynthia Johnston Turner. Her research focuses on comprehensive musicianship pedagogy in the collegiate wind ensemble. Prior to coming to UGA, Emily earned a Master of Music in Conducting with honors from New England Conservatory, studying with Charles Peltz. In 2014, she graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and Music Composition, where she was a composition student of David Rakowski.
As conductor, Emily’s experience ranges from wind ensemble to orchestra, opera to musical theater. At UGA, she leads various department and recital ensembles and is an active collaborator with student composers. She is also Music Director at Princeton United Methodist Church in Athens, where she leads the choir and coordinates all musical activity. Prior to moving to Georgia, she worked with the NEC Wind Ensemble, NEC Symphonic Winds, the North End Music and Performing Arts Center’s Opera Project (MA), the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra (MA), Needham Community Theater (MA), and Brandeis University Undergraduate Theater Collective. Highlights include conducting the world premiere of Michael Gandolfi’s Polymath, a fanfare written to commemorate NEC’s 150th Anniversary year.
Emily is Executive Director and Founder of Lift Music Fund, a nonprofit organization that makes achievement in music more accessible and equitable by awarding microgrants every month to underrepresented student musicians.
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