Grace Kang
Dr. Grace Kang has had an active career as a music educator and performer. She has held tenured positions as Principal Horn with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra (under the direction of Barry Tuckwell), the Milwaukee Ballet Orchestra, the Millbrook Orchestra and the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra. Other groups with whom she has performed include the Millar Brass Ensemble, National Chamber Orchestra, Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Chicago's Navy Pier Orchestra, and the Contemporary Chamber Players (Chicago). She has performed throughout the United States and Europe, including tours with soloists Wynton Marsalis and Shurra Cherkassky, and can be heard on a CBS Masterworks recording with the Eastman Wind Ensemble and Wynton Marsalis. An active freelance musician, Dr. Kang performs regularly with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra and many orchestras throughout the southeast.
Dr. Kang has taught at Gettysburg College, Northwestern University, and Santa Fe College. Her teaching has included classes in applied horn and trumpet, brass pedagogy, music theory and music education research. For seven years, she taught instrumental music education (including concert bands, marching band, jazz ensemble, and orchestra) at the secondary level in Montgomery County, Maryland. She continues to maintain a private horn studio in Gainesville, Florida.
Dr. Kang received the Bachelor's Degree in horn performance and music education, as well as the Performer's Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music. She holds a Master of Music degree in horn performance and a PhD in music education from Northwestern University. Her dissertation is entitled Conceptual and Empirical Evidence for a Model of Applied Music Instruction Based on Cognitive Apprenticeship. In a cognitive apprenticeship, normally tacit processes used by the expert are made known to the learner through methods such as cognitive modeling, scaffolding, and reflection.
Her major horn teachers were Gail Williams, Verne Reynolds, and Peter Landgren. Other influences include: Vincent Cichowicz, Peter Webster, Bennett Reimer, William Karlins, John Buccheri, Ramona Wis, Richard Grunow, Roy Ernst, John Paynter, Donald Hunsberger and Peter Kurau.