Megan Clay Constantine, PhD
Lecturer, Music Education

Music & Communication Building, Room 331
m.e.clay@csuohio.edu   

Megan Clay Constantine began playing piano at age five, and has been performing professionally for over twenty years. In addition to mastering three instruments (piano, bass, and tuba), Constantine is an educator and conductor.

Dr. Constantine started out as a self-taught piano player and has developed into a classically trained musician and scholar. In the fall of 1993, she was granted a music scholarship at the University of Akron, where she graduated Cum Laude. Megan earned a Masters Degree at Cleveland State University in the Spring of 2006, where she was awarded Graduate Music Student of the year, 2006, and the Cleveland State University Jazz Award, 2005. Constantine also performed with the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus from 2002 - 2004. She earned her Ph.D. in music education at Case Western Reserve University, where she conducted the Case/University Circle Symphony Orchestra in Emmanuel Chabrier’s España at Severance Hall.

Her research interests focus on cultural relevancy in music education, gender issues, and learning practices of informal musicians. Most recently, she presented her paper, Popular Music in Higher Education: Implications for Music Teacher Education, at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London, England. She is also the author of The Lakewood Project: Rockin’ Out With Informal Music Learning!, a chapter in Ann Clements’ (Ed.) Alternative Approaches in Music Education.

A music educator for eight years, Constantine has taught band, choir, general music, and strings throughout northeast Ohio. She has been a lecturer in the Cleveland State University Department of Music since the fall of 2006, teaching classes in music education and aural skills. But Megan Constantine’s ‘first love’ is the piano, on which she has been professionally performing since age fourteen. Currently, she maintains an active performing schedule on the piano, and appears every weekend at Valerio’s in Little Italy.

Start date 08/2011