2019 Course Registration is Now Closed

2018 Summary Course Video
2017 Summary Course Video
Audio, video, print, electronic, and human resources are sampled in this intensive course, with the aim of learning as well as developing an understanding of ways to teach music of the world’s cultures. Attention is given to learning culture through songs, movement and dance experiences, instrumental music, and contextualized cultural components. Participants are guided through recordings and curricular materials from the Smithsonian Folkways archives that fit the needs of students in knowing music (and knowing culture through music). Musical experiences are tailored for use at various levels, including in classes for children, youth, and adults in university and community settings, with occasional small group sessions to decipher and discuss applications for particular teaching contexts and aims. Enrolled participants  join together to share particular means of teaching world music, and receive documentation from the Smithsonian Institution that certifies their specialized study in world music pedagogy.

Course faculty include traditional artist-musicians, culture-bearers, and experienced teachers: 

Marisol Berrios-Miranda (Puerto Rico)
Phyllis Byrdwell (African American Gospel Choir)
Patricia S. Campbell ( Bulgaria, North India, Pedagogy)
Thione Diop (Wolof Drumming of Senegal)
Shannon Dudley (Trinidad)
Srivani Jade (Vocal Music of North India)
Chris Mena (World Music for the Instrumental Ensemble)
Christopher Roberts (Turkey, Uganda, Pedagogy)
Amanda C. Soto (Conjunto, Social Justice, Technology, Pedagogy)

Plus Performance-Participatory Experiences in Indonesian Gamelan & Zimbabwean Marimbas!! 


Get to the grassroots of teaching and facilitating an understanding of music across world cultures. In its eighth year, the Smithsonian Folkways intensive course in World Music Pedagogy has trained and certified hundreds of musicians and teachers of various levels and contexts (including K-12 teachers and tertiary-level professors) to know more of the performance of the world’s musical traditions and how to teach them.