Registration opens January 26,2026.
Dates: July 6 - July 17, 2026
Where: University of Missouri-St. Louis, Creative Arts Building
Fee: Early Bird Fee - $750 by May 15; $775 after May 15.
Graduate credit hours available for an additional fee.
Housing is available for participants. Visit our Residential Life page for more information.
Workshop Information
This certification course is approved by the American Orff Schulwerk Association. (AOSA) and follows the guidelines of AOSA. There will be nightly assignments as part of the course requirements. Please allow a minimum of two hours each evening to complete your assignments. In addition, 100% attendance is required to earn credit and to move on to subsequent levels of training.
Level 1 – Instructor: Jason Glashauser
Level I is for those interested in exploring the music and movement pedagogy of the Schulwerk. Through the exploration of music that is Elemental, participants will sing, speak, move, play classroom instruments, and engage in the playful discovery of music through a wide variety of folk literature. This course is especially appropriate for elementary and middle school general music specialists serving children in school and church settings.
Level 2 – Instructor: David Row
Level II is for anyone who has successfully completed an AOSA-approved Level I course. Instruction will review Level I techniques emphasizing the teaching process. Students will expand understanding of instrumental and vocal improvisation, explore advanced orchestration, including introduction to modal harmony and studies in mixed meter, introduction to alto recorder and expressive movement.
Level 3 – Instructor: Deborah Zehler
Level III is for anyone who has successfully completed both the AOSA-approved Level I and Level II courses. This is an advanced course in music and movement pedagogy that satisfies partial requirements towards certification by the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. Level III explores group instruction through improvisation, speech, body percussion, singing, movement, and playing instruments. Students will work with non-cadential triadic accompaniments and move on to I-V, I-IV and I-IV-V functional progressions in major and minor modes. Recorder will include work with the sopranino, tenor, and bass recorders, developing playing and improvisational skills and further exploring pedagogy using all recorders.
Instructors
Movement – Instructor: Jessica Dunnick
Recorder – Instructor: Andy Goodman
For more information, contact Prof. Kim Warger (kimwarger@umsl.edu).
Jason Glashauser (Level I): Jason teaches pre-K to 6th-grade general music for Clinton City Schools in Clinton, Tennessee. Jason was named a CMA Foundation Music Teacher of Excellence in 2022 and 2023. In 2016, he received a Lilly Endowment Teacher Creativity Fellowship to study Polish in Krakow, Poland. Jason is certified as an American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) teacher educator and is also a member of the Tennessee Music Educators Association, the Eastern Tennessee General Music Educators Association, and the International Horn Society. He is currently the president of the Southern Appalachian AOSA. Jason holds a BM from the University of Toledo, an MM from Western Michigan University, and an MA in Educational Leadership from Austin Peay State University. Jason and his wife, violinist Zofia Glashauser, live in Powell, TN, along with their three children: Simon, Gabriella, and Susannah.
David Row (Level II): David loves teaching music to kids! A Nebraska native and Midwesterner at heart, David now lives and teaches in the Kansas City metro area for the DeSoto Unified School District. He holds a Master’s Degree in Music Education from the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory, Orff Schulwerk certification, and has extensive experience with critical thinking in the arts. David is an active clinician and has presented workshops at national, state, and local conventions across the United States and Canada. He is an AOSA-approved Orff Schulwerk teacher educator and teaches Pedagogy Levels I & 2 each summer in Orlando and St. Louis. On his blog, MakeMomentsMatter.org, and through his podcast David shares ideas about classroom content, management, lesson plans, critical thinking, and more. Catch up with David every week on his “Musical Mondays” LIVE videos on Facebook.
Deborah A. Zehler (Level III): Deborah has a BM Degree in Music Education, Applied Percussion, and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Her MA is from the University of St. Thomas with a concentration in Orff Schulwerk. Deborah is a recipient of the Classroom Music Teacher of the Year Award by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the Erie County Council for Music Educators. She’s performed at Carnegie Hall. She was also recognized by the NYSEC (English Council) as Educator of the Year for combining music and movement for children with picture books. She has three books of original songs published by Heritage Music Press (Lorenz Corp.), “We’re Gonna Play Today”, “Teach Me Something New Today”, and “Play-a-Palooza”. Many of her original songs and lessons can be found in Activate Magazine and other Lorenz Corp. publications. Schott Music Corporation has published Deborah’s book, “The Animal Cracker Suite and Other Poems”. She teaches PreK-5 general/vocal music, dance, drama, puppetry, and percussion technique at Heritage Heights Elementary School in the Sweet Home Central School District in Amherst, New York. She recently visited Accra, Ghana and taught children at the Merton International School as well as government schools with colleagues from Heritage Heights. Deborah is also a teacher-trainer in Orff-Schulwerk (Pedagogy, Recorder and Movement) and has presented numerous workshops at conferences throughout the USA and Canada.
Jessica Dunnick (Movement): Jessica Dunnick is the Music Specialist at Bowman Woods Elementary in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, part of the Linn-Mar Community School District. Jessica has her B.A. in Music Education from the University of Northern Iowa and her M.A. in Music Education with an Emphasis in Orff from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. She is a past President of the First Iowa Orff Chapter and is a certified Teacher Educator of Movement through the American Orff Schulwerk Association. She recently received the Yager Exemplary Teaching Recognition Award from the University of Northern Iowa. She also offers professional development workshops focused on movement and peer-mediated teaching.
Andy Goodman (Recorder): Dr. Andy Goodman is Coordinator of Music Education at the University of Missouri – St. Louis where he teaches a variety of courses in the teacher preparation program. With nearly 20 years of teaching experience in K-12 schools, he is an active clinician in music education, specifically the teacher preparation and the Orff approach to classroom music. He has taught recorder in Orff Schulwerk courses since 1999. His current research relates to success factors in online teaching.
