Grammy Award Nominated music educator, Dr. Alice Hammel, was the 2025 Virginia Music Educators Association and Shenandoah University Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, 2023 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Lowell Mason Fellow, Outstanding Music Educator of the Year (2018), and Shenandoah University honored her with their Alumnae of Excellence Award (2016). In 2017, James Madison University created a named award in her honor, celebrating her years of scholarship and service dedicated to the inclusion of all students in music education. She is also the current Past-President of the Virginia Music Educators Association. She is a widely known music educator, author, and clinician whose experience in music is extraordinarily diverse, and is a Disabilities Specialist. Dr. Hammel has many years of experience teaching instrumental and choral music in public and private schools. She also teaches online courses through many institutions throughout the United States. Dr. Hammel maintained a large, independent flute studio for over 35 years.

Dr. Hammel travels widely to universities to serve as an in-residence scholar in the area of students with differences and disabilities. This travel, combined with state, national, and international projects to teach teachers how to work with students who have differences and disabilities, conference headline and keynote presentations keep Dr. Hammel well informed of the needs of both pre-service and in-service music educators. This high demand places her in close collaboration with PK-12 music educators seeking to become better teachers and musicians.

Dr. Hammel has put these varied experiences to great use while compiling a large body of scholarly work. She is a co-author for: Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities: A Label-free Approach (third edition), Teaching Music to Students with Autism (second edition), Winding It Back: Teaching to Individual Differences in Music Classroom and Ensemble Settings, and Teaching Music to Students with Differences and Disabilities: A Practical Resource (second edition) available through Oxford University Press. She has also published through Conway Productions, Universal Design for Learning in Music Education, Q&A for Band Directors on Students with Differences and Disabilities, published by GIA Music, and has written two children’s books, focused on disability. Dr. Hammel has contributed chapters to several other Oxford University Press, GIA, and Routledge publications. She is a contributing author to a variety of resources available through the NAfME, and has published widely in music, arts, special, and general education journals.

Dr. Hammel was affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for over fifteen years and has presented multiple workshops for arts educators and administrators through this association. She has served on the Kennedy Center National Forum: Examining the Intersection of Arts Education and Special Education, and on the planning committee for their annual national conference. Dr. Hammel is a member of the NAfME Equity Committee and was part of the Music Teacher Professional Initiative Committee, the Editorial Board of the Council for Exceptional Children - Division for the Arts, was a member of the Teacher Education and Editorial Board Committees and is a former Member at Large for the Organization of American Kodály Educators. In addition, she has served as an expert with the NAfME’s Solutions Music Group and is a Conn-Selmer Clinician. Dr. Hammel is a Past-President of the Council for Exceptional Children – Division for the Arts and was recently awarded their Past President Award for Excellence.

Dr. Hammel is a proud alumna of Shenandoah Conservatory (BME – magna cum laude and DMA) and Florida State University (MME). She holds post-doctoral certifications from the Organization of American Kodály Educators and the Gordon Institute for Music Learning. Dr. Hammel is a multiple award recipient honoring her commitment to music education and music teacher education.

.

Request Dr. Alice Hammel