Mary Jane

Mary Jane Phillips taught middle school choral music in Texas for 29 years before retiring from the classroom in 2018. She taught in Katy, Garland, Arlington, Birdville, and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISDs. She is now a mentor, consultant, clinician, adjudicator, Teacher Pay Teachers store owner, and private voice teacher.

Ms. Phillips graduated cum laude from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. She has served as a JH/MS Region Secretary and Region Chair and was a UIL contest chair for 10 consecutive years. She has served the Texas Choral Directors’ Association on the Scholarship, Hospitality, Nominating, Ballot, Lou Leonard Scholarship, Governance, and Ways and Means committees. Additionally, she chaired the Hospitality, Scholarship, Nominating, Lou Leonard, and Ways and Means committees and was also a past Secretary/Treasurer of TCDA.

She has presented workshops on topics including the male and female adolescent changing voice, recruiting, literature selection, beginning the school year, choir hacks, curriculum sequencing, and sightreading games and pedagogy. These presentations have been made for school districts, colleges, and professional organizations across the United States.

Ms. Phillips has authored three books: *SOS – Simplifying Our Sightreading* (co-authored with Laura Farnell), *Sightreading 101*, and *Making Sightreading Fun!* She has been recognized in *Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers* and was nominated for a Disney American Teacher Award.

Ms. Phillips is exceptionally proud that several of her former middle school students have gone on to become school and church choral directors, perform on Broadway, teach elementary music, work as private voice teachers, become church musicians, sound engineers, college music majors, community theater performers, and lifelong music lovers. She is a member of TCDA, TMEA, TMAA, ACDA, and Mu Phi Epsilon.

She is especially proud of her daughter, Zoe, a musical theatre major at Wichita State University.