Keitha Lucas Hamann

Associate Professor: Music Education

Keitha Lucas Hamann serves as Director of Graduate Studies/Associate Director of the School of Music where she approves student milestones and works with the school administration to improve the experience of graduate students. Among her duties are working with the Graduate Student Council to understand challenges that students face, overseeing professional development for graduate students, and admissions for new graduate students.

A choral music education specialist, Hamann teaches courses in Foundations of Music Education, Advanced Teaching Pedagogy, Curriculum Development, and Research Methods, and she supervises choral student teachers. Before joining the University of Minnesota faculty in 2001, Hamann was Associate Professor of Music Education at Kent State University where she also served as Coordinator of Graduate Studies. She has also taught at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia.

With Michele Henry, Hamann is the author of Level Up! An Interactive System for Vocal Sight-Reading (GIA Publications), volumes 1, 2, & 3. Building on their 50 years of research and teaching experience, Henry and Hamann have built a sequence skills-based system targeted for secondary school singers that progressively builds notation reading skills using sound pedagogical practices. 

With Ari Agha and Laura Hynes, Hamann's recent research includes an exploration of empathy in a social justice performance project. Key of T tells the real-life story of an adult singer who decided to begin testosterone therapy to address ongoing gender dysphoria. The project began as a research project into vocal transition that was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The initial performance (September 2019) sought to understand how participants, organizational partners, and audience members perceived the quality of the performance, but what has begun to emerge is the ways that participants experience and express empathy in a social justice performance context. 

Keitha Lucas Hamann's research focuses on procedural skills in music performance, vocal sight-reading, music assessment, and community engagement. Her articles have appeared in the top-tier journals in music Education: Journal of Research in Music Education, the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, and Contributions to Music Education in addition to other peer-reviewed national and regional journals. She has presented research nationally at the National Association for Music Education Biennial National Conference and the College Music Society Annual Meeting in addition to numerous regional presentations and workshops. 

Hamann earned a BM degree from Western Michigan University in 1981 and then moved to Texas where she taught middle school choral music in the Brownsville Independent School District for seven years. She earned an MM degree from the University of North Texas in 1988 and a Ph. D. in Music Education from the University of Miami (FL) in 1991.

Hamann is a member of the National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, Minnesota Music Education Association, Society for Research in Music Education, Council for Research in Music Education, American Choral Directors Association, Minnesota Choral Directors Association, VoiceCare Network and Pi Kappa Lambda.