JASON VODICKA

"Independence Choir"

 

Jason Vodicka is a versatile conductor and music educator known for his engaging personality and attention to musical detail. He is Assistant Professor of Music and Coordinator of Music Education at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. where he teaches undergraduate courses in music education and conducts two choral ensembles. He is the director of the Susquehanna High School Summer Choral Institute. Now in its fifth year, this program is open to talented students entering grades 9-12. Dr. Vodicka is also Music Director of the Harrisburg Choral Society. Founded in 1895, this community ensemble specializes in the presentation of choral masterworks with orchestral accompaniment, and presents four unique concert programs annually.

 

For nine years, Dr. Vodicka was a vocal music instructor at Pennsbury High School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. During his tenure, the Pennsbury choirs performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, toured internationally on four occasions, and were invited to sing at conventions of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association and the Eastern Division of the American Choral Directors Association. Dr. Vodicka has also served as a church musician in various capacities including music director and organist.

 

Dr. Vodicka received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Georgia where he conducted the UGA Women’s Glee Club and the UGA Opera Ensemble. He is the recipient of the University of Georgia Presidential Graduate Fellowship, the University’s most competitive scholarship. Dr. Vodicka also holds two degrees in music education from Westminster Choir College where he was principal accompanist for the Chapel Choir and Schola Cantorum and sang for two years as a member of the Westminster Choir as an undergraduate. He is a 2017 inductee into the Westminster Music Education Hall of Fame, awarded for his service to the college and for his achievements in the field of music education, and is a member of the Westminster Summer Session faculty where he has taught conducting, musical theater, and pedagogy courses for students and in-service teachers for the past thirteen years.

 

Dr. Vodicka has directed numerous honor choirs including PMEA District and Regional Choruses, the Dauphin County Music Educators Association Honors Chorus, the West Shore School District Honors Chorus, and the ACDA-PA endorsed “Vocal Thunder” workshop for young male singers. He has presented sessions at ACDA, PMEA, and NJMEA conferences, at the International Conference of the Concepts and Practices of Choral Singing, at Westminster Choir College, Florida International University, The University of Georgia, The University at Buffalo, and for school districts in the northeast including the New York City Department of Education.

 

Dr. Vodicka has contributed to the journal Visions of Research in Music Education, Planning Instruction in Music by Frank Abrahams and Ryan John, the Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy as co-author with Simon Carrington, and James Jordan’s Inside the Choral Rehearsal: A Harmonically Based Application of the Music Learning Theory of Edwin Gordon. Dr. Vodicka’s teaching guide for Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque” incorporating Group Vocal Technique, Music Learning Theory, and Critical Pedagogy was published this fall, and he is currently working on teaching guides for elementary and middle school choral ensembles.