Crane Alumni Board Honors Cynthia Anderson Ripley '73 with Music Teaching Award

2016 Helen M. Hosmer Excellence in Music Teaching Award Presented to Cynthia Anderson Ripley '73 at SUNY Potsdam Reunion

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From left, SUNY Potsdam President Kristin Esterberg, 2016 Helen M. Hosmer Excellence in Music Teaching Award recipient Cynthia Anderson Ripley ’73 and Crane School of Music Dean Michael Sitton.

POTSDAM, NY (07/22/2016)(readMedia)-- The Julia E. Crane Alumni Association recently honored Cynthia Anderson Ripley '73 with the 2016 Helen M. Hosmer Excellence in Music Teaching Award at SUNY Potsdam's Bicentennial Reunion Weekend.

The Helen M. Hosmer Excellence in Music Teaching Award is presented each year to an alumnus or alumna in public school music education who has demonstrated exemplary service in any of the areas of choral, instrumental or general music education. Ripley was honored for her outstanding professional achievements and dedication to students.

Ripley is a huge presence in the music education field on the regional and national level. For more than 30 years, she has been a gifted music teacher, a creative program developer and passionate advocate for music education.

Ripley is the creator of the Broadway Junior Series, which presents teachers with an abbreviated score of musicals, stage directions, choreography and recorded instrumental accompaniment, so that young students can experience the joy of performing in and learning from musical theatre. She has a deep understanding of what is needed to enable students and their teachers to enjoy performing these productions, and the results are exceptional. Through her work, the series now offers more than 45 titles.

Ripley has taught in both urban and rural settings, and has brought her expertise to under-served areas as well as districts that have enriched music programs. Most recently, she was vocal educator and music department chair in the Gowanda Central School District near Buffalo, N.Y., from which she retired in 2006. Currently, she is a nationally recognized educational consultant for Music Theatre International and iTheatrics, where she develops and directs new educational musicals for young performers. As the company's lead education consultant, she often shares her talents and high energy by presenting workshops for music teachers throughout the United States. She also serves as a teaching artist for the Turnaround Arts initiative for the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, which uses the arts to help turn around low-performing schools.

In 2005, Ripley was one of 39 educators nationwide to be named to the USA Today All-Star Teacher Team. Previously, she was the 1999 recipient of the Award for Excellence in Classroom Music from the Erie County Council of Music Administrators and Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. She served for 25 years as a board member of the Erie County Music Educators Association and has often adjudicated piano and voice for the New York State School Music Teachers Association. She is also a member of the American Choral Directors Association and is listed in the Who's Who of American Educators and American Women. In addition, Ripley serves on the education committees of the Buffalo Philharmonic, Shea's Performing Arts Center and the Arts in Education Institute of Western New York.

For more information about SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, please visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.

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