Dalcroze at the 2026 OAKE Conference
Back in 2022, while serving as Board Chair of the Dalcroze Society of America, I was invited to attend the OAKE (Organization of American Kodály Educators) conference when it was held in my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. I went somewhat on a whim, mainly because it was local, and I didn’t expect much in return. I was surprised to find such a vibrant, creative, and welcoming community! There was a noticeable openness to movement, and curiosity about other approaches beyond Kodály, and I immediately felt valued as a guest. I made several friendships that have endured, and that visit helped spark a period of goodwill and collaboration between our organizations.
When I was invited to present at OAKE 2026 in Chicago, IL, I jumped at the opportunity to share our approach and build bridges between communities of educators.
OAKE Conferences and the Palmer House
The OAKE conference has taken place at the same facility in Chicago, The Palmer House, for the past two years, and organizers plan to keep it there for several more. It’s an interesting approach: holding the conference in a consistent location builds a sense of routine and familiarity for attendees. At one point the DSA explored a similar idea, though we ultimately maintained the tradition of moving our conference to different cities each year.
The Palmer House itself is a spectacular historic hotel. Built in 1871, it burned during the Chicago Fire and was rebuilt in 1873. When you consider that this was during the very period when Jaques-Dalcroze was developing his work in Geneva and Hellerau, it’s hard not to imagine him feeling quite at home there. The hotel’s owners were known Francophiles, and Claude Monet was even commissioned to provide artwork for the building. Standing in that ballroom, preparing to lead a eurhythmics session, I couldn’t help but feel a certain historical resonance, like a time traveler.
Conference Activities
Before my session on Friday morning, I was invited to an informal breakfast gathering in the hotel’s penthouse suite. It was a luxurious space, apparently a favorite residence of Frank Sinatra when he visited Chicago. The company included several prominent leaders in the field of music education, and the conversation was lively and thoughtful. The current president of OAKE, Tom Michalek, was among those present.
Tom and I actually met in an amusing way back in 2022. During my first visit to the OAKE conference, I wandered into what turned out to be a choral rehearsal. Unbeknownst to me, the singers had been preparing the music for months for a conference performance. I quietly slipped into the tenor section and asked the person next to me if I could share his music. That person happened to be Tom. Fortunately my sight-reading was good enough that I didn’t embarrass myself. Only later did Tom realize who I was. Years later he became OAKE president and we were reacquainted, proof that you never quite know who’s listening!
After breakfast we heard a keynote address from Sr. Lorna Zemke, who founded OAKE in 1974. Now in her 90s, she remains a remarkable presence. Her story was inspiring, and her passionate insistence that music education should be accessible to all children is something Dalcrozians would enthusiastically support.
Following the keynote, we gathered for a Presidents’ Roundtable discussion about the state of music education and our respective organizations. Many of the leaders who were present at the breakfast had the opportunity to share their perspectives, bringing up many topics of mutual interest across our field. These included social-emotional learning, teacher burnout, work-life balance, and many other ideas. At one point Sr. Lorna stood and expressed concern about the increasing reliance on technology in music classrooms. The room erupted in applause. At that moment I felt quite aligned with this community and its philosophical commitments.
My Eurhythmics Session
Soon afterward it was time for my session. I moved into the ballroom, set up the technology, and tried to center myself before participants began arriving. The focus of my presentation was solfège—an area about which Kodály educators are famously passionate. About seventy-five teachers attended the session. Some were familiar faces, but many were encountering my work for the first time. I began with a somewhat playful greeting: “I come in peace.” That line earned a few laughs, but it also helped establish the spirit of the workshop. I explained that some ideas I would share came directly from Dalcroze, some from my own teaching practice, and none from Kodály. My goal wasn’t comparison but conversation.
We began with routines designed to establish sensations around tonal concepts. Participants explored how different tonalities and harmonic progressions might be experienced physically and emotionally through movement. I was delighted by how open everyone was to this approach. True to Kodály tradition, the singers in the room were exceptional. Their voices filled the ballroom and created some genuinely beautiful Eurhythmics moments.
At one point I addressed what I consider a common misconception surrounding fixed-do and movable-do systems. I’ve written about this topic elsewhere, but my view is fairly simple: this debate is largely a non-controversy. Most musicians ultimately use both approaches in various contexts. Whether a teacher prefers one or the other often comes down to sequence and terminology rather than fundamentally different musical principles. For the purposes of our workshop we used movable-do, but the activities themselves would work just as well with another system.
Connections Among the Music Education Community
After the session I spent some time at the GIA Publications booth signing books and meeting more teachers. I was struck again by how Kodály educators combine a strong commitment to their own traditions with a genuine curiosity about adjacent practices like Dalcroze eurhythmics. It made me optimistic that the days of rigid methodological boundaries may be fading.
Music educators today face many shared challenges, and the deeper instincts that unite us—our belief that children deserve meaningful, active engagement with music—are far more significant than our methodological differences. Whether we’re debating which folk songs to teach or when to transition from pentatonic to diatonic materials, we ultimately share a common purpose.
For fellow Dalcroze practitioners, I would encourage you to consider submitting proposals to conferences hosted by our sister organizations, Orff, Kodály, Gordon, FAME, and others. Our perspective is welcomed, and we benefit greatly from learning from theirs. Our traditions are more interconnected than we sometimes realize, and opportunities for collaboration continue to grow.