Rhona Brink

Rhona Brink recently retired from public school music education with twenty-six years of experience. She has held workshops in many Texas school districts and education service centers. She has served as presenter for the Texas Music Educators Association and the Organization of American Kodály Educators. Brink is currently an instructor of music education at the University of Houston, Moores School of Music, the Aldine Independent School District Kodály Training Program, and the Kodály Institute of Houston. She holds degrees from the University of Houston and Sam Houston State University and Kodály certification from the Round Top program through the University of Texas at Austin.

Kofi Gbolonyo

Dr. J. S. Kofi Gbolonyo, a Ghanaian musician and educator, grew up in some of the remote villages along the Ghana–Togo border in West Africa. He is now a visiting Assistant Professor of Music in ethnomusicology and the Director of the African Ensemble at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. His primary research and educational interests are in West African music, dance, culture, and Orff-Afrique pedagogy. His scholarly research focuses on indigenous knowledge and cultural values in the musical practices of the Ewe and Fon of West Africa. He has taught in Ghana, Canada, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Taiwan, Germany, Austria, and the United States.

Judith Thompson-Barthwell

Mrs. Thompson-Barthwell teaches second through fifth grades at Emerson School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Formerly a public school music teacher, she has taught vocal and general music and dance to students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade. She has received Orff Certification from the University of Denver and Memphis State University and has trained for a year at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria. Thompson-Barthwell has taught in national and international Orff courses and has served on the national board for the American Orff Schulwerk Association. She was a contributing author for the 2005 Silver Burdett series Making Music.