Karin Jean Nolan

Biography

Karin Nolan is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at The University of Arizona, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education, including student teaching seminars, band techniques, secondary methods, quantitative/qualitative reseacrch methods, and careers in music. She also directs the Office of Field Experiences, the Camerata Music Career Development Program, and the Outreach Middle School Honor Band. Through her career development series, she has made a name for herself as the guru for job-readiness materials for her music students (such as assisting with the idea of branding themselves, websites, resumes, cover letters, business cards, demo recordings, marketing materials, promo kits, etc.).

Nolan enjoys and seeks out community collaborations, often partnering with non-profit institutions and school districts around the state to assist them with their musical needs and outreach. She is currently partnering with faculty from the School of Speech and Hearing Sciences to continue the annual "Music & Health" seminar, dedicated to research in vocal and hearing health of musicians and music educators. Nolan works closely with the Tucson Desert Song Festival's education outreach, helping to put together the yearly K-12 Songwriting Competition. She is the music director of the Sonora Winds, a Tucson-based community wind ensemble. In the past, she has also developed music curriculum for the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Arizona Opera, Arizona Theatre Company, and the Tucson Museum of Art.

She received her PhD in Music Education with an emphasis in Educational Psychology in 2009 from The University of Arizona. Prior to joining the faculty at the UA College of Fine Arts and the Fred Fox School of Music in 2011, Nolan enjoyed a rewarding career teaching K-12 general music, band, orchestra, and choir in Tucson-area schools for ten years.

Nolan enjoys conducting the Sonora Winds Wind Ensemble in Tucson, AZ and has been an invited clinician and conductor in various Arizona Band and Orchestra Director’s Associations (ABODA)  and local school music festivals. In addition to waving the baton, she plays clarinet, euphonium, and timpani in local wind ensembles.

Her research includes topics related to student learning and instrument choice, technology in the music classroom, and has recently delved into the topic of music teacher health and longevity throughout their careers. Over the past two years, Nolan has been collecting and analyzing data related to music teachers' physical and mental health; this data has helped shape her teaching techniques and topics and has led to a further awareness of the need for teaching health and balance to music educators and professional musicians.

Also interested in the cognitive link between music and other areas of the curriculum, Nolan has a book published through Rowman and Littlefield Education and the National Association for Music Education, entitled Musi-Matics and is currently publishing a second arts-integration book for teachers, entitled Reading, Writing, and Rhythm Sticks. Her articles and research studies have been published in Journal of String Research, General Music Today, Edutopia, Journal of Historical Research in Music Education, Cadenza Music News, Arizona Music News, Teaching Music, The National Association for Music Education, Music Educators Journal, and Dreambox Learning.

She enjoys traveling to state, national, and international conferences to present her research and network with music professionals and educators around the globe.

Degrees

• Ph.D. Music Education, Educational Psychology
• The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
• American elementary music programs: Current instructional methods, goals, resources, and content standards by geographic region and grade level

Awards

• CFA Mentoring Award
• University of Arizona, Spring 2021