Erin Bailey is currently pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Utah in Music Education. She teaches and assists with General Music Methods, Creative Connections: Music Integration in the Elementary Classroom, Student Teacher Seminar, and the Women’s Chorus. Her research interests include vocology, adolescent mental health and resilience, and choral conducting. 

Erin completed her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Education with Choral Emphasis at Brigham Young University. She was privileged to work with fine exemplars and educators, including Dr. Paul Broomhead, Dr. Ron Staheli, Sister Rosalind Hall, and many others. Erin’s Masters Professional Improvement Project focused on adolescent vocal pedagogy. (Browse her paper here.)

Her first teaching position was at Greer Middle School, a Title I school in Galt, California. With little budget, she and her family sewed 40 skirts for choir uniforms.  These students, many with English as a second language, went to Music in the Parks and won with a record-setting score of 98 for their performance of the Heavens Were Telling.

Erin moved to Utah and was privileged to teach at Springville and Mapleton Junior High Schools.  Her choirs were known to have a mature and excellent tone quality. Her treble ensemble competed in BYU’s Women’s Chorus Festival and won. They were honored to perform at BYU with the BYU Women’s Chorus under the direction of Jean Applonie. 

In 2011, Erin was happy to return to her alma mater, Ponderosa High School. With her committed students they increased enrollment from 30 to 200 students. She also succeeded in adding AP Music Theory to the school course offerings. Her women’s chorus auditioned for and was invited to sing at the California State Music Educators Conference (CASMEC). Her last year in California, she served as director and co-founder of Cantemus Youth Chorus and Encore Community Choir, providing opportunities for many in her local community to enjoy music and performance.

Erin’s mastery of voice and piano spans 30 years and she has taught both voice and piano for over 15 years.  Her students have gone on to performance and education degrees and she’s happy to see many of them have become teachers themselves!  

She has performed with collegiate choirs at both Brigham Young University and the University of Utah and was also grateful to sing with the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square for a short time. 

Erin is happily married to her true love, Dave Bailey, and has been blessed with three beautiful children, Seth, Peter, and Jacob. 

Erin loves to talk about music education and would love to speak with you or work with your ensembles at any time.  Feel free to email her at erinkotyk@gmail.com.