Melonee Cooper and Diane Engle of DeQuincy taught a Kodály music education course offered for graduate credit during the month of June at Lamar University, Beaumont, Texas.
Cooper taught Solfege, also known as ear training and sight singing, Chamber Music, Conducting II and III, and directed the choir.
Engle taught Pedagogy, the systematic sequence of how to teach the Kodály approach to music education, Folk Song Research and Analysis, Conducting I, and Folk Dancing.
Both Diane and Melonee earned their Masters of Music Education as well as their specialized Kodály Certification at McNeese State University. They studied under Lamar Robertson, a nationally recognized Kodály educator, the late Éva Vendrai, a Hungarian Kodály educator.
Kodály music education started in the country of Hungary in the early 1900s. This specialized approach uses the folk songs of the land to teach music concepts. Hungarian music educators came to the U.S. in the early 1970s to help research and collect American folk songs and then taught at American Kodály institutes. Both Lamar Robertson and Éva Vendrei were two of the Kodály teachers in its beginning in the U.S.
