Dr. Alice Hammel

Grammy Award-nominated music educator Dr. Alice Hammel was the 2023 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Lowell Mason Fellow, Virginia (USA) Outstanding Music Educator of the Year in 2018 and current Past-President of the Virginia Music Educators Association. A widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse, she is a member of the faculty of The University of Arkansas, and has many years of experience teaching instrumental and choral music in public and private schools. She also teaches online courses through many institutions throughout the United States.

Dr. Hammel travels widely to universities during the school year to serve as in-residence scholar in the area of students with differences and disabilities. This travel, combined with state, national, and international conference headline and keynote presentations keeps Dr. Hammel well informed of the needs of both pre-service and in-service music educators. During summer months, she teaches in graduate programs for music educators around the United States. Her expertise ranges from musicianship, pedagogy, and teaching students who learn differently. This wide demand places her in close collaboration with PK-12 music educators who are seeking to become better teachers and musicians.

Dr. Hammel has put these varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author of five texts: "Universal Design for Learning in Music Education," "Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities: A Label-free Approach" (third edition), "Teaching Music to Students with Autism" (second edition), "Winding It Back: Teaching to Individual Differences in Music Classroom and Ensemble Settings," and "Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities: A Practical Resource" (second edition) available through Oxford University Press. She has also published through Conway Productions, Universal Design for Learning in Music Education. Dr. Hammel has contributed chapters to several other Oxford University Press publications and has also written chapters for GIA and Routledge Publication resources. She is a contributing author to a variety of resources available through the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and has published widely in music, arts, special, and general education journals.

Dr. Hammel has been affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for several years and has presented multiple workshops for arts educators and arts administrators through this association. She has served on the committee for the Kennedy Center National Forum: Examining the Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education, and served on the planning committee for their annual national conference. She is a member of the Equity Committee and the National Executive Board for the National Association for Music Education, The Music Teacher Professional Initiative Committee. She was on the Editorial Board of the Council for Exceptional Children - Division for the Arts, was a member of the Teacher Education and Editorial Board Committees, and is a former Member at Large for the Organization of American Kodály Educators. In addition, she has served as an expert with the National Association for Music Education’s Solutions Music Group and is a Conn-Selmer Clinician.

Dr. Hammel is a Past-President of the Council for Exceptional Children – Division for the Arts and was recently awarded their Past President Award for Excellence. A proud alumna of Shenandoah Conservatory and Florida State University, she holds post-doctoral certifications from the Organization of American Kodály Educators and the Gordon Institute for Music Learning.

Dr. Hammel is a multiple award recipient honoring her commitment to music education and music teacher education. In 2016, Shenandoah University honored her with their Alumnae of Excellence Award. In 2017, James Madison University created a named award in her honor celebrating her years of scholarship and service dedicated to the inclusion of all students in music education. She is a proponent of Music Will and the Modern Band movement.