Sam Reese

Bio

Sam Reese is Associate Professor Emeritus of Music Education at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where he taught courses in music education technology, middle school general music methods and philosophical foundations of music education. He earned his Doctor of Education degree from the University of Illinois in 1981.

Prior to joining the Illinois faculty in 1996, he served 24 years as a music teacher and administrator in four city and suburban public school districts in Illinois and Iowa. He served as Director of Fine Arts and Technology for Park Ridge-Niles School District 64 where he lead a two-year community-based long range planning process to update curriculum, instruction and assessment efforts for the district. Additionally, he was responsible for evaluation and supervision of music faculty and provided leadership for district staff development programs.

His publications include a book, Strategies for Teaching: Technology (co-editor) and over 30 articles in the Music Educators Journal, Journal of Aesthetic Education, Journal of Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Contributions to Music Education, Journal of Music Teacher Education, Journal of Technology in Music Learning, and American Music Teacher. His research focused on teacher professional development in music education technology and technology-based music composition instruction. Reese was a frequent presenter at national and international music education and technology conferences such as MENC National In-Service Conference, College Music Society, Association for Technology in Music Instruction, International Society for Music Education, International Association of Jazz Educators, and the Technology Institute for Music Educators.

Reese continues to be active as a teacher of jazz appreciation and history for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Illinois. Subsequent to retirement, he also served as Lead Software Trainer for Aspex Solutions, makers of AppliTrack – an online job application tracking system used by thousands of school districts in 38 states.

Reese was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by Illinois Music Educators Association in 2001.