Our First Commissioned Composer, 1994

Dr. Goetze is recognized for her work as a clinician, composer and conductor. Her arrangements and compositions for treble voices are published by Boosey & Hawkes in the Mary Goetze Choral Series.  She has published articles on children’s singing and children’s choirs and served as a coordinating author for Share the Music, a series book for grades K-6 published by Macmillan McGraw Hill.  In addition to degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music (B.M. Voice), Indiana University (M.M.), and certifications in Kodály and Orff Schulwerk, she holds a PhD from the University of Colorado (1985), where her dissertation entitled “Factors Affecting Accuracy in Children’s Singing” was named Outstanding Dissertation of 1985 by Music Educators National Conference and Council for Research in Music Education.  She has received a Distinguished Teaching Award from Indiana University, Distinguished Alumnus Award (1992) from the University of Colorado College of Music, and was named Outstanding Educator of the Year (1993) by the Organization of American Kodály Educators.  In 1996, she was awarded a grant from Indiana University for a project entitled “Multicultural Music Education” which allowed her to do research in Zimbabwe and South Africa in 1997 and 1998.

In addition to conducting the International Vocal Ensemble, an Indiana University School of Music chorus specializing in vocal music from the world’s cultural traditions, Dr. Goetze is Professor of Music at the Indiana University School of Music where she chairs the Music in General Studies department, teaches music education courses and acts as liaison to the IU Children’s Choir, which she founded and directed it until 1995.  Utilizing technology in the ensemble led to the development of innovative approaches that she shares in presentations at choral and music education conferences.  She and Jay Fern developed Global Voices in Song, a series of interactive CD-ROMs for transmitting music from diverse sources.  She is recognized internationally for her work with children’s choirs and is active as composer, clinician and guest conductor.  Other publications include numerous arrangements and compositions for treble voices.  She is co-chair of the bi-annual Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers of Music Methods and a member of the Mountain Lake Reader editorial board.

“Mary Goetze offers music and musical situations which delight, challenge, teach and inspire children ‘of all ages’, with whom she has an unmistakable affinity and solidarity.”—The Choral Journal

When Children Sing—commissioned for YNS in 1994