Julianna and Chris Gylseth
The Soaring Crow Sings
Folk Melodies from Scandinavia and Beyond
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
October 17, 2026
Highland Community Center
5378 West 10400 North
Highland, Utah 84002
Many Utah students have a rich Scandinavian and European heritage. Explore these cultures through authentic songs, games, folk tales, dances, traditions, and choral repertoire. Participants will experience Norway’s Kråkevisa, Sweden’s Troll Mother, and France’s variant of We Are Dancing in the Forest. This workshop will leave teachers with engaging repertoire and practical strategies for building a classroom singing culture, musicianship, cultural understanding, and ensemble skills in music classrooms and youth choirs.
Julianna Gylseth is a K-6 music specialist in the Provo City School District where she oversees the general music and choral program at Spring Creek Elementary, a Title 1 school. She also currently serves as a PCSD Instructional and Curriculum coach for the district Elementary Music Program. In the summer, she teaches pedagogy at the InterMuse Academy for Kodály Studies at Brigham Young University. She has presented workshops on various topics in Elementary Music Education throughout the state of Utah, as well as OAKE. Married to a Norwegian, Julianna’s home life is filled with Scandinavian traditions, and she is particularly interested in the folk music of Norway. B.M., Brigham Young University, M.M.E. Holy Names University, Endorsements: Instructional Coaching, Gifted and Talented Education.
Chris Gylseth was born and raised in Oslo, Norway. He brings his love for his people and culture to life within the walls of his home. He may be found singing a lullaby about baby trolls to his daughter, reading the tale of Three Billy Goats Gruff to his son, or dancing around the Christmas tree to welcome Julenissen. He will share his insight with us as a culture bearer and native Norwegian speaker
Logan McKinney
To Fling My Arms Wide
Western Art Music of Composers from Marginalized Populations
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
February 27, 2027
Highland Community Center
5378 West 10400 North
Highland, Utah 84002
It was never the wish of Zoltán Kodály that one culture be taught over another. Even in his refusal to espouse a specific methodology, Kodály was essentially refusing to place ideology before education. The vision of his philosophy of music education was always a well-trained teacher working with the students in front of them—delving deeply into the culture of the students to teach the language of music. Folk song (of the highest caliber, meticulously researched) would be the mother tongue, from which all musical understanding would initially spring.
What then is to be done with students from outside the dominant culture? What is the direction a teacher should take in a multiethnic classroom? Are students to sit quietly while an alien culture is built around them, learning to sing in a foreign tongue? How often has the “singing master in Kisvárda” silenced the love of music for students outside of the dominant culture by failing to represent them meaningfully in the music room?
While many music teachers are beginning to come to terms with this multicultural reality, the Western Classical Tradition is still in many ways dominated by White men. What good is it for a music teacher to provide representation in the primary grades through the use of musical materials from many cultures, only for the “director of the opera house” to block the compositions of marginalized composers from the stage? An entire rethinking of musical priorities is needed to create a true global harmony.
Logan McKinney is a graduate of Utah Valley University, where he earned degrees in Music and Philosophy, and holds a Master of Music Education with Kodály Emphasis degree from the Kodály Center at Holy Names University. With over 20 years of experience in private cello instruction, he continues to contribute to the string community as a conductor, coach, and adjudicator. After initially teaching at the secondary level, Logan now teaches elementary general music classes in the Provo City School District and directs an elementary choir. He is a past President of the Utah Fellowship of Local Kodály Specialists and has served as a Regional Representative for the Organization of American Kodály Educators. Logan has presented at national and international conferences and holds certification levels in Kodály, Orff, Suzuki, Conversational Solfege, Visible Thinking, and World Music Pedagogy.
Dr. Jerry L. Jaccard
Good, Better, Best
Choices for a Lifetime of Musical Growth
9:00 am – 12:00 pm
April 17, 2027
Highland Community Center
5378 West 10400 North
Highland, Utah 84002
Professor Emeritus Dr. Jerry-Louis Jaccard is the President of the International Kodály Society. He has continuously taught in the Kodály way since beginning his career in 1969. His teaching range includes singing and solfège; choral and instrumental ensembles; teacher education in developmental pedagogy and music literature research. On March 6, Dr. Jaccard was awarded the Pro Cultura Hungarica Prize by the Hungarian Ministry of Culture and Innovation. He continues to teach in the graduate-level InterMuse Academy for Kodály Certification he founded at Brigham Young University (BYU), and writes, presents, and publishes in several countries.
He is the author of A Tear in the Curtain: The Musical Diplomacy of Erzsébet Szőnyi: Musician, Composer, Teacher of Teachers (Peter Lang Publishing 2014, 2016) which has also been translated and published in Hungary as Dallamok és Disszonanciák—A Zene Nagykövete Szőnyi Erzsébet (Náp Kiadó 2016). Other honors include the OAKE Lifetime Achievement Award (2022) and OAKE National Outstanding Educator Award (2004); the BYU Continuing Education Faculty Teaching Award (2014) and BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications Annual Teaching Excellence Award (1998); and the US Senator Reed Smoot Educational Service Award (2007). Education: BMusEd University of Arizona (1965); MME with Kodály Emphasis Holy Names College (1976); EdD University of Massachusetts (1995 – Dissertation “with distinction”: A Conceptual Model for Literature-based Musical Education).