IU Jacobs School faculty help lead workshop in Kenya
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 7, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Led by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music faculty member Kimberly Carballo and Mpingo Studios Director Diana Smith Nixon, five Bloomington musicians will join their counterparts in Nairobi, Kenya, this month for a three-week teaching and performance workshop at schools in the area.
Diana Nixon (second from left), Kim Carballo (center) and Elizabeth Nixon (second from right) pose with music teachers in Nairobi.
The trip will also include teaching and performing at numerous venues in Kenya.
Carballo and Nixon will be joined by Jeffrey Gershman, associate director of the Jacobs Bands Department; Lisa Wong, a Jacobs alumna and assistant professor at The College of Wooster; and Elizabeth Nixon, a sophomore voice major at Jacobs who minors in African Studies and speaks Swahili.
The group also will facilitate connections between primary and secondary school children in Nairobi and at Bloomington's Arlington Heights Elementary School, Marlin Elementary School and The Project School.
The project, "Tunaweza Kimuziki" -- "Through Music All is Possible" in Swahili --is supported by the Fulbright Specialist Program, Jacobs School of Music, Hutton Honors College International Experiences Program and the Hutton Family Scholarship, Indiana Campus Compact, The College of Wooster, Roundabout Opera for Kids and Mpingo Studios.
Carballo, Nixon and her daughter Elizabeth led a similar workshop in Nairobi in March 2012.
Read more about the project and follow the blog from Kenya.
Carballo is coordinating opera coach for IU Opera Theater at the Jacobs School of Music.
Her previous positions include mainstage and young artists' program coach at the Compañía Lírica Nacional de Costa Rica, and instructor and vocal coach at the Conservatorio Musical de Alajuela, the Universidad de Costa Rica and the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica.
In addition to her duties at the Jacobs School, she maintains a private studio as a freelance coach, collaborator and piano teacher.
She is president of Roundabout Opera for Kids, a non-profit organization that introduces area children to opera through an engaging first experience as audience members and gives developing professional singers and instrumentalists an opportunity to hone their performance skills.
Clarinetist Nixon has been teaching music to all skill levels and ages of students for over 20 years, including having taught at the DePauw University School of Music.
She is an active clinician, giving performances and master classes at institutions at both pre-college and college levels, nationally and internationally. In addition to the United States and Kenya, she has visited schools around the world, including in Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica.
She is a member of the National Association of Music Education, the Music Teachers National Association and the College Music Society.
Nixon is vice president of Roundabout Opera for Kids and director of Mpingo Studios, a hybrid in-person and online music school.
