The work of Professor Emeritus Doreen Hall has had a profound effect on music education in North America. Professor of music education from 1967-1985, she was the first teacher of Orff Method in North America.
In 1954 Doreen Hall became the first foreign student to study with Carl Orff in Salzburg. Following this, Prof Hall did the first English translation of Orff’s Musik für Kinder in 1956 and taught its methods to students in Canada and the United States.
Prof Hall coordinated the first ever public event held in the new Edward Johnson Building in July 1962.
Featuring composer and educator Carl Orff, the first International Conference on Elementary Music Education introduced Orff Schulwerk to over 160 participants.
Upon her retirement in 1985, Carl Orff Canada and friends and family of Doreen Hall established the Doreen Hall Scholarship, an award given annually to an outstanding undergraduate student preparing for a career in music education, particularly with children.
Doreen Hall was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2008.
Additional information:
The Evolution of Orff-Schulwerk in North America (1955-1969) by Patricia W. Hughes, The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Jul., 1993), pp. 73-91 (19 pages)