Assistant Professor, Music

School of Music and the Arts

Office: Cumberland Arts Academy, Suite 2

Address: One Cumberland Square, Lebanon, TN 37087

Email: mpaise@cumberland.edu

Courses Offered: Sight Singing and Ear Training, Class Piano, Private Vocal Music Instruction, French, German, and Italian Diction, Elementary Music Methods, Choral Music Methods, Music Listening, Vocal Music Methods and Materials, Contemporary and Future Directions in the Fine Arts

Degrees:

B.A. Vocal Performance, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV

B.A. Vocal & Instrumental Music Education, Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, WV

M.M. Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

D.M.A. Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Dr. Michele Paynter Paise, a vocal and general music education specialist, joined Cumberland University in fall of 2010, having previously taught courses at Arizona State University, Middle Tennessee State University, and the University of Idaho.

For the past two decades, Paise has taught general and vocal music students, elementary through graduate level, and has conducted choirs throughout the United States, including Maryland, Arizona, Idaho, Washington, and Tennessee. She has also presented numerous workshops throughout the country, which focus on elementary general music. In addition, Paise is certified in both the Kodály and Orff-Schulwerk methodologies and currently serves as president of the Middle Tennessee Association of Kodály Educators.

Dr. Paise has written educational guides for the Phoenix, Walla Walla, and Nashville Symphony Orchestras and co-authored the text, Music with the Arts and Across the Curriculum, which was published by Silver Burdett Ginn. Her research interests include music education in one-room schools, vocal physiology, Byzantine music notation, and the role identities of beginning music teachers. Her dissertation, Six Beginning Music Teachers’ Music Teacher Role Identities, examined what beginning music teachers discussed when describing themselves in the role of music teacher.

Paise is the faculty advisor for NAfME (National Association for Music Education) Collegiate and serves as state advisor for all NAfME chapters at colleges and universities in Tennessee. She is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, Kappa Delta Pi, Society for Music Teacher Education, Tennessee Music Educators’ Association, Women in Higher Education in Tennessee, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the National Association for Music Education. Dr. Paise lives in Murfreesboro with her husband, John, and their dog, Victoria.