Martina Vasil

Degrees/Certifications
PhD, Music Education, West Virginia University
MA, Music Education, Eastman School of Music
BM, Music Education, West Virginia University
Orff Schulwerk Level III
Dalcroze Level II
World Music Drumming Level I

Martina Vasil is Associate Professor of Music Education and Division Coordinator for the Department of Music Education and Music Therapy. She also directs of the summer music education program, which includes workshops on Modern Band, Orff Schulwerk, and Dalcroze Eurhythmics. She teaches undergraduate courses in general music methods and graduate courses in music education research and popular music education. She also supervises student teachers and cooperates with the College of Education to admit music education candidates into the Teacher Education Program. Prior to her appointment at UK, Dr. Vasil taught K–8 general music and 4–8 instrumental music (band and strings) in Pennsylvania, working in parochial and public charter schools in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Since 2018, she has continued to teach children in grades preK–6 music at Lexington Montessori School.  

Dr. Vasil is President of the Association for Popular Music Education and serves on the editorial board of The Orff Echo, the national journal of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA). She is Past President and webmaster of the Kentucky Orff-Schulwerk Chapter and is a Planning Committee Member for the Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers of General Music Methods. She is the faculty advisor for the University of Kentucky Sigma Alpha Iota Chapter and the UK Swing Dance Club. 

Dr. Vasil has publications in the International Journal of Music Education, the Journal of Music Teacher Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, the Orff Echo, and the Bluegrass Music News. She has presented her research internationally, nationally, and regionally and is a frequent presenter for Orff chapters across the nation. Her primary research interests center on popular music education, Orff Schulwerk, and music teacher education. For her dissertation, she examined how teachers integrated both popular music and informal music learning practices into their secondary music classes to enact change in music education.