About MC-AOSA

Planting the Seed of MC-AOSA

– From Dr. Heather Klossner, PhD, University of Memphis –

The history of the Memphis Chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association is very much woven into the story of the development of Orff music education in Memphis. In September of 1967, the Memphis City School Board presented $5,200 to Superintendent E. C. Stimbert to form a grant writing team that would seek Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title III funds to support music instruction taught by certified music teachers. With the support of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Memphis City Schools (MCS) hired music educator Nancy Ferguson to head this team.

Nancy Ferguson had a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Murray State University and a Master of Education degree from the Memphis State University. She was an experienced choir director and general music teacher at both the Junior and Senior High School levels. In addition to her public school teaching experience, Ferguson directed choirs at several churches. She maintained an active performing career recording jingles and as a vocalist in both jazz and classical musical venues. Ferguson was later referred to as “Mama Nancy” by the Memphis City Schools (MCS) elementary music teachers because of her support of their job security and encouragement in their teaching. Described as “not afraid of anything … confident, knowledgeable, and a fine musician,” the MCS teachers she later supervised spoke of her with reverent respect.

A month later, the MCS board hired Konnie Koonce (Saliba) to join the team as assistant coordinator. Koonce earned an undergraduate degree in Music Education from Illinois Wesleyan and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. While in Dallas, Koonce also served as accompanist with the Dallas Civic Chorus. Koonce had about six years of experience teaching middle and senior high school chorus, general music, and piano in both Dallas and Miami Dade County, Florida.

Ferguson and Koonce identified what they believed were the most innovative and creative music education approaches of the time as the Doolin Method, Kodály, and Orff Schulwerk, which they included in their Title III Grant proposal. They submitted their grant, “Developing an Innovative and Exemplary Music Curriculum for Memphis Elementary Schools,” to the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare on January 1, 1968. The project was accepted and received three years total funding of $336,608 beginning in the summer of 1968.

One condition of the Title III grant was collaboration with private schools, so the pilot program included six public schools––Alcy, Avon, Idlewild, Lincoln, Norris and Snowden––and three private schools––Immaculate Conception Cathedral School, St. Anne Catholic School, and Harding Academy. Memphis City Schools did not have certified music teachers, so Ferguson and Koonce sought out classroom teachers with strong musical backgrounds to be part of the pilot program.

Lynne Turley, who taught music at Avon and Lincoln Elementary Schools explained:

“They auditioned, I will say, teachers in the Memphis City Schools who were in regular classrooms but had a music degree. And they chose six teachers to do that and we were assigned to schools and then we met together every Friday afternoon as a group, the six of us and the two co-directors, and an assistant, the secretary, and we really developed a music curriculum for the Memphis City Schools in that first year.”

At these Friday meetings Turley states that teachers began to create a music curriculum for the schools of Memphis, but these meetings also served as music educator professional development opportunities. Teachers from each of the pilot schools would meet on Friday afternoons at Snowden Elementary where either Ferguson and Koonce or resident Orff consultant, Rida Davis, would instruct them further in the teaching methods of Orff Schulwerk. Throughout the school year, special guests presenters were brought to Memphis to provide further staff development. These guests included American Orff Schulwerk Association founding members such as Ruth Pollock Hamm, Isabel McNeill Carley, and Jacobeth Postl.

These Friday training sessions also allowed music teachers in the grant project to exchange pedagogical ideas, offer solutions for instructional problems, and share newly created teaching materials. At some of these sessions, the teachers would observe Ferguson and Koonce teaching groups of children. At other sessions, the teachers took turns demonstrating new lessons through peer teaching. The group then gave supportive feedback to their colleagues. Koonce summed up these Friday afternoon sessions, “Everybody would go away with enough stuff for the next week.”

These Friday afternoon inservice and collaboration meetings played an important role in the success of the Title III Grant’s implementation. Memphis music teacher Terry Starr characterized it this way: “We spent time with each other––on the phone together––we were a tight little cadre.”
In an effort to maintain a high level of collaboration and camaraderie, Nancy Ferguson and Konnie Koonce wanted to form a local chapter of the American Orff Schulwerk Association (AOSA). This would have the effect of keeping the original team of Title III Grant teachers together, while allowing other local music educators to join them.

As other local music teachers joined, interest in Orff Schulwerk education would also increase. Ferguson and Koonce submitted an application to AOSA to charter the group as the Memphis Chapter of AOSA (MC-AOSA). The chapter received its charter February 12, 1971 and became the twelfth AOSA chapter in the United States. Many teachers attended chapter workshops. As now retired Memphis Orff music educator Terry Starr laughingly recounted, “If you didn’t show up, god forbid, Nancy would be on your doorstep ringing the doorbell!” Ferguson required attendance by Memphis City Schools Orff music teachers at MC-AOSA workshops.