Melissa Grady

Melissa L. Grady serves as Associate Professor of Music Education and Associate Dean of Student Affairs in the School of Music at The University of Kansas. At KU, Dr. Grady teaches undergraduate courses in choral methods, choral conducting, diction for music educators, student teaching, and conducts the University Singers. She coordinates two community choir collaborations with KU: Rock Chalk Singers and the Lawrence Intergenerational Choir. Her graduate teaching duties comprise choral methods and conducting, vocal pedagogy, adolescent voices, history and philosophy of music education, musical values and aesthetics, and choral diction for the music educator.

An active researcher, Dr. Grady’s research interests include the effects of choral conducting gestures on choir sound, choral warm-ups, adolescent voices, choir spacing, and hearing dosage and hearing conservation in choir contexts. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education and the International Journal of Research in Choral Music. She holds multiple national and state leadership positions in the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

Dr. Grady received her Ph.D. in Choral Pedagogy from The University of Kansas (Lawrence, Kansas) and her undergraduate degree in music education and master’s in music education with an emphasis in choral conducting from Wichita State University (Wichita, Kansas). Kansas has served a significant role in Dr. Grady’s career. She taught eleven years of public school in Kansas, including elementary general music, middle level, and high school choirs.