Rachel Brashier is the Chair of Music Education at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. Originally from Illinois, Brashier earned her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Education at Eastern Illinois University and then taught K-12 music (general, vocal, and instrumental) full-time in the Chicago area for over 12 years. She also holds Master of Music degrees in Music History from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and in Ethnomusicology from the Eastman School of Music, and completed her PhD in Music Education at the Eastman School of Music. Brashier was previously the Director of Music Education at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and was formerly a member of the faculty at Westminster Choir College and Rowan University. She is currently doing research in the areas of integrative music education, informal music learning, and musiking in communities of praxis. Brashier is interested in curriculum development, and has recently taught music methods courses as well as graduate seminars focused on critical pedagogy and social justice in music education.

Brashier is also a contralto and trained Greek Orthodox chanter who performs and conducts choral music regularly. She holds the T. Temple Tuttle Prize (Society for Ethnomusicology) and has been invited to present at conferences for the Society for Music Teacher Education (SMTE), Narrative Inquiry in Music Education, the Mountain Lake Colloquium, the MayDay group, the International Symposium on the Sociology of Music Education, the Society for Ethnomusicology – Niagara Conference, the Feminist Theory in Music Conference, and multiple times at the Wisconsin, New York, and New Jersey School Music Association State Conferences. In addition, Brashier is the founder of the annual Active and Integrative Music Education (AIME) conference and journal. She is regularly a clinician for general music educators and school choirs of all ages, and has conducted clinics for the Mid-Eastern and Chicago Federations of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians. Brashier is the editor of the Active and Integrative Music Education (AIME) journal and has published in the Journal of General Music Education, Ethnomusicology Review, and the journal Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education (ACT).

Affiliations

• AIME – Active and Integrative Music Education Conference, founder, journal editor, and board member 2020-present.
• NAfME – The National Association for Music Education (formerly MENC), 1995-present.
• NFGOCM – National Federation of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians, 2003-present.

Education

• PhD – Music Education
  Eastman School of Music
• MM – Ethnomusicology
  Eastman School of Music
• MM – Music History
  Southern Illinois University
• BM – Vocal Performance, Music Education
  Eastern Illinois University

Publications

Brashier, R., Editor (2024, in press). Active and Integrative Music Education (AIME) Volume 4: Connecting Community, Fall 2024.

Brashier, R., Editor (2023). Active and Integrative Music Education (AIME) Volume 3: Inspiring Innovation, Fall 2023.

Brashier, R., Editor (2022). Active and Integrative Music Education (AIME) Volume 2: Cultivating Curiosity, Fall 2022.

Bucura, E. and R. Brashier (2022). Transformational Learning Strategies for the Secondary General Music Classroom, Journal of General Music Education, 35(3), 6-11.

Brashier, R., Editor (2021). Active and Integrative Music Education (AIME) Volume 1: Overcoming Obstacles, Fall 2021.

Brashier, R. (2019). Identity Politics and Politics of Identity: A Semiotic Approach to the Negotiation and Contestation of Music Teacher Identity among Early Career Music Teachers (Doctoral dissertation). Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. 10978840)

Brashier, R. (2016). “Just keep going, stay together, and sing out”: Learning Byzantine music in an informal and situated community of practice, Action, Criticism, Theory 15:3.

Brashier, R. (2014). Soma Christou: Becoming the social Body through chanting Byzantine music at Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church. (Thesis).

Brashier, R. (2013). “In gamelan you have to become one ‘feeling’”: Sensory embodiment and transfer of musical knowledge. Ethnomusicology Review 18.

Brashier, R. (2012). Voice of women in Byzantine music within the Greek Orthodox churches in America (Thesis). Retrieved from OpenSIUC (Paper 834).