Welcome

cody_giffordWelcome to codygifford.us.

On this blog you’ll find some information about my professional life and an occasional post about music, teaching, and traveling. In addition to teaching instrumental music, I give lessons and workshops in Alexander Technique as a member of the American Society for the Alexander Technique. Learn more about the technique at http://www.amsatonline.org.

An Arkansas native, I have taught music in elementary, middle, and high school and university courses both in the United States and abroad for the past 17 years directing concert bands, jazz ensembles, marching band, pep band, string orchestra, youth symphony, mariachi ensemble, general music, and theater tech.

From 2010 to 2014, my wife, Melody, and I lead the music department at the Bayside campus of Shekou International School  in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China, where I taught band and orchestra classes, IB music, and a middle school theater tech elective. I was an eleventh grade advisor and co-sponsor of high school student council. In addition to teaching at SIS, I served the school community as facilitator of the Student Events and Resources School Improvement Team and as a member of the SIS Strategic Planning Core Team.

In the spring of 2013, Melody Gifford and I presented a workshop on writing to learn in music classes at the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) Annual Teachers’ Conference in Shanghai, China. In November 2013, we presented this workshop at the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) Music Educators’ Conference in Bangkok. At that conference, I presented or co-presented sessions on the Alexander Technique, starting a mini-concert program, and an IB music roundtable discussion.

In my spare time I enjoy traveling, reading, cooking, writing and playing music, and playing with my two daughters.

@ AISG Band Festival

Seven SIS instrumentalists from grades 8 and 9 travelled to Guangzhou for the AISG Band Festival on March 2 & 3, 2014. Along with students from other nearby international schools, these student musicians rehearsed for a performance and participated in masterclasses and sectionals with area professional musicians including Joke Tummers (woodwind specialist), Michael Garza (woodwind specialist), Wilson …

Read more

SIS musicians participate in Shenzhen Arirang

SIS musicians understand that music plays a powerful role in bringing communities together. At school, these students from all over the world learn to communicate and connect with each other as they create beautiful, meaningful sounds. As these students grow up far away from their parents’ home cultures, they also benefit from opportunities to connect …

Read more