The Mark Gelfand Service Award for Educational Outreach
2013 Gelfand Award Recipient
Natalie L. Ozeas
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, School of Music
Natalie Ozeas holds a B.F.A. in music education, a B.F.A. in applied music (clarinet), an elementary certificate in Dalcroze Eurhythmics, an M.F.A in music education, all from Carnegie Mellon, and an Ed.D. in humanities from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ozeas taught preschool through high school for over 20 years. Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, she was professor of music and conductor of the choir at California University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ozeas is currently a professor in the School of Music and director of graduate studies. She has presented workshops in music education throughout the United States, in Germany, Italy and Malaysia. She is a past President of the Dalcroze Society of America, past president of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, past president of the Music Educators Association, Eastern Division and immediate past national chair of the Urban Music Leadership Conference.
For the past 14 years, Dr. Ozeas has served as director of the Urban Music Education Project funded by the Grable and Buhl Foundations and the United States Department of Education. This project has placed approximately 750 keyboards, 25 sets of world drums and two sets of steel drums in thirty public schools in Pittsburgh and Wilkinsburg. The project also maintains all the instruments and provides training for the teachers who use them. Last year, almost 500 public school students visited the Carnegie Art Museum and attended a concert by the School of Music Wind Ensemble that included a side-by-side performance and a drumming ensemble that performed with the wind ensemble.
As a member of the National Executive Board of the National Association for Music Education, Dr. Ozeas acted as liaison to the National Research Society and served on its editorial board. In 2011 she was inducted into the Pennsylvania Music Education Association Hall of Fame.
