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 Assistant Professor of Music Education and the Director of the Orff Schulwerk and Dalcroze Summer Institute at the University of Kentucky. She teaches undergraduate courses in general music methods and graduate courses in research, popular music, and social justice in music education. She also supervises student teachers and cooperates with the College of Education to admit music education candidates into the Teacher Education Program. Martina has seven years experience teaching K–8 general music and 4–8 instrumental music in Pennsylvania, working in public charter and parochial schools in rural, suburban, and urban areas.

A long-time member of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA), Martina was a Local Conference Chair for the 2011 AOSA Professional Development Conference, serves on the AOSA Research Interest Group, and is a mentor for AOSA’s Digital Mentorship Program. She is Vice President of the Kentucky Orff-Schulwerk Chapter and is Second Vice President of the Pittsburgh Golden Triangle Chapter. Martina serves on the Planning Committee and is the Technology Coordinator for the Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers of General Music Methods. She is the faculty advisor for the University of Kentucky CNAfME chapter and the Kentucky Eurhythmics Society.

Martina has publications in the Journal of Music Teacher Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, the Missouri Journal of Research in Music Education, and the Orff Echo. She has presented her research at the International Society for Music Education World Conference, National Association for Music Education Eastern Division Conference, the National Association for Music Education Research and Teacher Education National Conference, the Association for Popular Music Education National Conference, the Mountain Lake Colloquium for Teachers of General Music Methods, the NYU/Steinhardt IMPACT Conference, the Kentucky Music Educators Annual Clinic, New York State School Music Association Winter Conference, the Ohio Music Education Association Professional Development Conference, and the West Virginia Music Educators Association Conference. Martina’s primary research interests are culturally relevant pedagogy, Orff Schulwerk, and secondary general music. 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.