Music education and choral alumni win professional awards

Several USC Thornton alumni have won significant awards in recent months. Dr. Lorna Zemke (MM ’68, DMA ’73, music education), formerly the Director of Graduate Music at Silver Lake College in Wisconsin, was awarded the International Katalin Forrai Award by the International Kodaly Society (IKS) for her contributions to Early Childhood Music Education.

Fellow Music Teaching and Learning alumna Dee Dee Paakkari (’80) received the Grammy Foundation Signature Schools Community Award of 2015 on behalf of John Marshall High School in Los Angeles, where she has conducted the symphony orchestra and taught rock music for the past 20 years.

And Choral and Sacred Music alumnus Jason Saunders (MM ’14) was recently awarded the Washington State ACDA Outstanding Emerging Choral Director Award for 2015. Jason was also asked to join the Washington ACDA Board of Directors as the Chair for Youth & Student Activities.

Dr. Lorna Zemke, pictured