Session Proposals

Dr. John Martin Petzet is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Nebraska-Kearney (UNK). He has developed a national and international reputation as a conductor, teacher, and artist-scholar by being recognized as a National Finalist for the American Prize in Choral Performance with 2 different choirs. He has 5 publications in print and has presented 11 different interest sessions in almost 20 states. He has been invited to Mexico three separate times since 2018 to present sessions, conduct choirs, and as a clinician and he sang on Passion Week, a professional recording by the Kansas City Chorale and Phoenix Chorale that won a Grammy for Best Engineered Classical Album. He has presented at 1 national and 3 regional ACDA/NAfME conferences in the last 4 years, his choirs were invited 2 years in a row to perform at the Music by Women Festival in Columbus, Mississippi, and he will conduct the 2027 Oklahoma Choral Directors All-State Junior High Mixed Honor Choir. Since arriving at UNK in Fall 2019, the UNK Choraleers have been invited to sing for the South Dakota Music Educators Association Conference, the Festival Internacional De Coros-Tlaxcala Canta, and at the Nebraska Music Educators Association Conference. He resides in Kearney, Nebraska with his lovely wife Jennifer and his 3 children: Zachary, Andrew, and Catherine.

There are a million things to think about in preparing for your first year of teaching: field trips, performances, classroom rules, fundraising, sight-reading, purchasing sheet music, just to name a few. Considering the high rate of teacher burnout, we need our new teachers to be successful! This session will discuss tricks of the trade that you might not learn in college but could make or break your FIRST YEAR.

• Lower Elementary (Grades PreK-2)
• Upper Elementary/General Music (Grades 3-5)
• Band - Middle School
• Choral - Middle School
• Orchestra - Middle School
• Mentorship/Beginning Teachers