UAC Residency and Personal Philosophy On Music in Schools

In the entrepreneurial world we live in today, improvisation is a vital skill. To most, this right brain skill seems elusive. Theresa Ellis will share and teach music improvisation using her nifty-looking Zeta electric fiddle along with the acoustic violin. Using visual art and body movement with music, the creative process becomes a natural result and rewarding experience.

Collaborating with teachers, projects and activities can be integrated with current classroom studies, core curriculums, or can be tailored to focus specific themes. Activities can include making instruments, dancing with live music, improv skits, create a music "festival", drawing the sounds of music, relaxation exercises, "radio music" impromptu studies, and sharing feelings with a combination of art, writing and music.

Training for teachers, leaders and students provides specific improv concepts such as rhythmic study, basic use of melodic and harmonic lines, imagery and pretend exercises, call and response, developing awareness and problem solving skills, and improvisation protocols like getting started and how to keep on going. Perhaps these skills will lead to a new invention or a life saved due to an unusual and improvised series of events. Ms. Ellis believes that music is essential to total understanding and knowledge, and it helps integrate the mind, body and spirit. Her hope is that through learning music improvisation, balance can be achieved for solving life's puzzles and coping through great stress.

Theresa Ellis plays Americana fiddling styles, Celtic music, classical, country, jazz, pop, experimental and other dance music. She has a BM degree, developed her improvisational skills in Music City, Nashville, TN., and has taught violin and fiddling for more than 30 years. Performance of her original music with ELLIS & FRANKLIN can be available for community block bookings, assemblies or in conjunction with residency culmination concerts.

Ms. Ellis has unique experience working with "at risk" or troubled and emotionally challenged kids. She has excellent skills in behavior modification and has been recommended by the Utah Arts Council to work with these special children and their families. She likes to work with grade school aged kids, but can work with teens, the elderly, educators and family groups as well.

Preferences and Requirements:
Activities: residencies, teacher/leader training, extended projects, short-term workshops, and collaborations with other artists
Technical/space requirements: a sound system for large rooms and/or audiences; a boom box or stereo player with a CD player for smaller classroom settings