Education

Biography

Elisabeth Crabtree brings a wealth of experience to her role as an assistant professor of music education. Currently completing her PhD at the University of Washington, Elisabeth has 23 years of experience teaching Pre-K through 12th grade general music and electives, including choir, rock band, and musical theater. She is certified in Orff Schulwerk and is a graduate of the Special Course at the Orff Institute in Salzburg, Austria, holding a certificate in Advanced Studies in Music and Dance Education. Her passion for innovative and creative pedagogical approaches is evident in her dissertation on creative music pedagogy and her recently published book, Rediscovering the Keys of Orff-Schulwerk: Lullabies, Rhymes, and Seasonal Songs, which provides creative teaching models for pieces from Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman’s volumes of Music for Children. She has conducted research on the globalization of Orff Schulwerk and how educators are using the approach to decolonize music education in Ghana. She greatly looks forward to bringing her passion and expertise to the well-established and renowned Orff master's degree program at the University of Memphis.

In addition to her experience with Orff Schulwerk, Elisabeth holds an M.Ed. with certification in Kodály from Loyola University Maryland, where she also taught Kodály pedagogy to level I and III graduate students. She received a Bachelor's degree in music with an emphasis on harpsichord performance from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Elisabeth has been teaching and providing pedagogical models for the undergraduate pre-service music education students at the University of Washington for the last five years. She recently worked at Seattle Opera, where she conducted the youth opera choruses and musically directed an ensemble of 80 children (aged 6-18) in a Youth Opera Project. During her time at Seattle Opera, she conducted two research projects focusing on how the organization provides education access to marginalized youth in the community, and how the program inclusively works with groups of students with diverse ages and abilities. She also partnered with a nearby retirement facility, bringing the young singers to perform with and for residents with memory loss and researching how musical experiences impact the quality of life of seniors with dementia. These experiences deepened her understanding and commitment to fostering creative musical expression in community settings across a wide range of ages, abilities, and backgrounds. 

Outside of academia, Elisabeth's passions include performing in various music ensembles, including an early music recorder consort, an Americana rock cover band, and a Balinese gamelan.  Her interests also extend to world travel, sailing, and running 10K races and half marathons. As an avid Disney aficionado and movie buff, she finds inspiration in the intersection of music, culture, and storytelling.