Journal of Historical Research in Music Education

Pasquale “Pat” Ciricillo (1907-1978) was a twentieth-century musician-teacher who incorporated multiple musical approaches in his work. Born to an Italian family in Cleveland, Ohio, Ciricillo’s affinity for wide-ranging musicianship afforded him a storied career as a professional trumpet player in New York City. His success as a jazz, popular, and classical musician served as a catalyst for the latter part of his career, when he became a school music teacher who created innovative school curricula based on his extensive musical background. This biographical investigation features three distinct periods in Ciricillo’s career: early life in Cleveland, Ohio (1907-1929); life as a professional performer in New York City (1929-1956); and life as a school music teacher in The Bronx and the Rockland County (NY) Schools (1956-1976). Of special interest are the intersections between Ciricillo’s performer and teacher identities and the pedagogical practices that he enacted in the music classroom. Ciricillo’s life and career hold implications for current and future teaching practices in school music programs.

Mariachi programs entered the public schools in the Southwest in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the Chicano movement ushered in an awakening of pride in Mexican heritage. The purpose of this historical biography was to examine the life and career of mariachi educator Ezekiel (Zeke) Castro (b. 1939). Zeke Castro taught mariachi and orchestra in Texas for more than three decades. He influenced generations of mariachis and was a trailblazer in mariachi instruction within the field of music education. The contribution of mariachi educators to the history of music education is not well-documented and Zeke Castro’s story is significant. The culmination of Zeke’s work contributed to the establishment of several public-school mariachi programs and to mariachi becoming a sanctioned University Interscholastic League event in Texas.

Jane Frazee, an American music educator, administrator, and author has contributed to music education in the United States. This article surveys the impact of her efforts from 1960 to 2015. A pioneer member and past president of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA), she taught music to children and adults using the Orff approach and has presented at workshops, clinics, and conferences throughout the United States, as well as internationally. She authored several books and Orff arrangement collections, and her articles have been published in prestigious professional journals and other publications. This paper addresses Frazee’s early life, training, influential individuals, teaching of children and adults, and her work with AOSA. Her roles in the founding and administration of Orff certification and graduate programs in music education in Minnesota are discussed. Lastly, Frazee’s role as an author and the influences of her publications on music educators in the United States were also examined. Although retired from teaching and administration, Frazee continues to publish and inspires current and future generations of music educators.

The Tygerberg Children’s Choir (TCC) is rooted in South Africa’s Afrikaner culture. Its transition to a multicultural children’s choir, within a drastically changed political dispensation, furnished a rich subject for a historiographic choir identity investigation. From its establishment in 1972 until 2019, Hendrik D. Loock was the conductor. Since then the choir has continued under Karina Erasmus. The TCC is one of the oldest existing mixed-gender regional children’s choirs in the country, directed by the longest serving conductor of such a choir. The choir’s identity and Loock’s forty-seven-year directorship are interwoven, his work perceived as a significant cultural contribution. With his late wife Theresa (TCC accompanist, choral trainer, and arranger of choir music for thirty-two years), Loock confirmed a uniquely familial leadership profile amongst children’s choirs. This qualitative biographic report about the life and contribution of Loock and the TCC merges thematically analysed data from the TCC’s archival collection, non-participant observations, face-to-face interviews, and contextual information.

Studio music teachers have always been constant in Australian society, rarely recognised beyond their immediate surrounds. Building a ‘connection’ of students required advertising, primarily by word-of-mouth or via local press announcements. Few teachers placed individual advertisements in local papers. This changed in 1911 with the establishment of monthly The Australian Musical News, intended to report and support musicians and music teachers. In its first edition, four studio music teachers placed advertisements, first to use this new opportunity. We unfold the stories of Mrs. Arthur Royce, Herr Franz O. Schieblich, James Ure, and J. Alfred Johnstone. By happenstance, their diverse careers capture the different ways of being a studio teacher in contemporary Australia. We note the unchanging nature of studio music teaching and suggest that, with the exception of technologies, the activities of these four teachers resonate with modern practice.