Mary Jane Phillips graduated cum laude from Texas Christian University with a Bachelors’ Degree in Choral Music Education. She taught middle school choral music in Texas for 29 years before retiring from the classroom in 2018. Before retiring from classroom teaching, her choirs received consistent sweepstakes and superior awards at festivals and adjudicated events. She is a frequent honor choir conductor. She currently serves as a choral consultant, clinician, adjudicator, composer, Teachers Pay Teachers store owner and author. She has served in various region leadership positions with both the University Interscholastic League and the Texas Music Educators’ Association. She has served the Texas Choral Directors’ Association by chairing the Hospitality, Nominating, Ways and Means, Governance, Scholarship, Lou Leonard and Ballot committees and as the Secretary/Treasurer of TCDA. She presents workshops on the male and female adolescent changing voice, recruiting/retention, literature selection, UIL planning and preparation, beginning the school year, organizing the school year, choir hacks and sight-reading pedagogy and games in school districts across Texas. She has presented for state conventions in Texas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Alabama and at the national ACDA convention in Los Angeles, California. She has authored three books – SOS – Simplifying Our Sightreading (co-authored with Laura Farnell), Sightreading 101 and Making Sightreading Fun! – that are used throughout Texas, the United States and in Great Britain. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas and is the proud mom of a beautiful adult daughter.
