Lisa Marien Voice Collective

Elementary arts specialists (music, art, theatre, dance et al) have a unique set of challenges. They may teach 35+ class groups per week of varying grade levels and likely only see each class once a week.  Their classrooms must operate efficiently with smooth transitions, a welcoming climate and engaging instructional presentation, which can be a challenge.  These are the areas of Lisa Marien's expertise.  She will meet with staff and admin to assess needs, then do classroom observations.  Lisa will present strategies to apply and continue to support their implementation.  Pricing for her services can be hourly or part of a package.

Lisa spent 35 years teaching music to students in grades K-12 in public and private schools in Norwich and New London, Connecticut. In addition to K-5 general music, she taught grade 4/5 chorus, grade 6/7/8 chorus and HS emerging choir.  Lisa taught Will Schmid's World Music Drumming curriculum to students in grades 4 -8 and directed musicals for grade 4/5 students as well as grade 9-12 actors.  

Lisa has a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from The University of Rhode Island and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from Wesleyan University (CT).  She is a past multicultural music chair for CMEA, a past CT TEAM mentor, and was an active member of many committees during her teaching tenure.  Lisa's expertise is in strategies for classroom management and culture in the arts specialist/essentialist classroom.

A career highlight for Lisa came in 2016, when she was the recipient of a $5000 professional development fellowship from the Fund For Teachers.  With this fellowship she studied contemporary a cappella performance and arranging with Deke Sharon (Father of Contemporary A Cappella), Claude McKnight (founder/lead tenor, Take 6) , Tony Huerta (sound engineer, Take 6) and J.D. Frizzell (director, OneVoice).  With her new found knowledge, Lisa founded Nathan Hale A Cappella, one of the first elementary public school a cappella groups in the US.  The group performed in exhibition at NE Voices high school a cappella competition in Massachusetts four times. 

In 2019, Lisa attended the Lincoln Center Summer Forum, a two week immersion focused on skills to become a teaching artist.  Lisa and her arts essentialist colleagues brought these skills back to create meaningful arts integration curricula with their grade level colleagues.

Lisa has given lectures/presentations at HOTS Schools (CT), The National A Cappella Convention (TN) and at NLPS Convocations.