Melodies on the Move: Experiences of Traveling Musicians

Dr. Keith W. Hodgson is a music educator, clinician, and conductor whose teaching career includes 26 years as a high school band director in New Jersey, and eight years as a professor of Music Education and Coordinator of Student Teaching at the University of The Arts in Philadelphia. Mr. Hodgson is a Conn-Selmer Educational Clinician, the Director of Education for Zeswitz Music Company, Conductor and Artistic Director of the South Jersey Area Wind Ensemble, and a Head Director of American Music Abroad’s summer tours to Europe for over 25 years. Mr. Hodgson is a Past President to the Eastern Division and past Chair of the Professional Learning and Partnerships Committee for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), a Past-President of the New Jersey Music Educator's Association, a National Board Certified Teacher, the recipient of the 2014 New Jersey Governor's Award in the Arts for Leadership in Music, and was honored with the 2016 Distinguished Service Award by the New Jersey Music Educators Association for Leadership in Music.

Mrs. Gail Brechting is in her twenty-ninth year as the conductor of the award-winning West Michigan Concert WINDS. Under her direction, the WINDS received the John Phillip Sousa Foundation’s Sudler Silver Scroll Award. She has organized six international tours with the WINDS, taking them this past summer to Scotland and Ireland. She has had the privilege of conducting the WINDS in Chicago’s Symphony Hall, as well as the historic Carnegie Hall in New York City. The WINDS have performed in three ACB Conventions. Mrs. Brechting is the Past President of the Association of Concert Bands. She is the Chairwoman of the Sudler Silver Scroll Award committee, part of the John Philip Sousa Foundation. She is the Lifelong Arts Program Director at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. She holds a BME from Central Michigan University and a MA from West Michigan University. Mrs. Brechting has been on the music faculty of Muskegon Community College and recently retired after a 40-year music education career, 34 of those with the Reeths-Puffer Schools. She lives in Spring Lake, MI, with her engineer/pianist husband Frank. Their daughter Annelise is a Physician Assistant in Greenville, SC.