NEWPORT, R.I. – Megan Hennessy, a 1992 Salve Regina graduate, has been named a recipient of the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award.
Presented biennially by the Yale School of Music, these awards honor 50 music educators from across the country selected for their outstanding accomplishments teaching music in public schools. Hennessy was cited by a professional panel for her “outstanding accomplishments and vision as a public school music teacher.”
As a part of Hennessy’s award, all her expenses for travel, lodging and attendance at the 2011 Symposium on Music in Schools, a three-day conference in New Haven, Conn. beginning on June 9, will be paid for by the Yale School of Music. She’ll be presented her award at the symposium.
“I am so honored and thrilled to be selected to participate in this symposium,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy teaches music in grades K-12 at the Block Island Public School in New Shoreham, including general music, beginning band, middle school band and high school electives that range from private voice and instrument study to concert choir.
“It’s a unique music teaching position in one of the most beautiful corners of America,” she said.
Hennessy recalled Salve Regina’s music department as a wonderful and nurturing place to develop a solid base in music studies. “Brother James Loxham was a great choral conductor,” she said. “Don St. Jean was a font of knowledge for voice studies and the ‘inside scoop’ on a performance career. He would always say, “there’s a lot of packing and unpacking.’ Peter Davis was the most patient theory teacher I have ever encountered.”
After graduating from Salve Regina, Hennessy went on to earn her master’s degree in music voice performance from Boston University. She sang semi-professionally in Europe for a year and upon returning to the U.S., she taught vocal and choral studies at Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart in Newton, Mass.
She began teaching at the Block Island school in 2007.