Abstract
Photo courtesy of Kim LaRue
Lenore Pogonowski, 80, Professor Emerita of Music and Music Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, died January 19, 2022 at her winter home in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Known affectionately as Lee by her multitudes of students, she was a pioneering force in music education, beginning with her work in the 1960s on the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project (MMCP), a federally funded project for music education in the public schools. Teaming up with Ronald Thomas and Americole Biasini, Lee was responsible for developing and implementing a groundbreaking music education curriculum that placed students in the center of their learning, viewing children as musicians, capable of composing, performing, and verbalizing their own musical thinking. The resulting publications MMCP Synthesis (1970) and MMCP Interaction (1973) captured the novel concept of teaching children by manipulating the materials of music in a spiral curriculum, a framework for developing lessons that engaged students in critical and creative thinking. From this extraordinary experience with MMCP, Lee embarked on a career of transforming music education from the inside by sharing her wisdom and knowledge with teachers of music across the country. She presented at numerous conferences and workshops, served on the editorial boards of NAfME journals, and published multiple articles and book chapters on metacognition, creativity, and critical thinking in the music classroom.
Lee earned the BS degree from Western Connecticut State University, the MA from the University of Connecticut, and the DMA degree from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The majority of her higher education career (three decades) was at Teachers College, where she worked with graduate students and served as Chair of the Music Department. Her research and philosophy on critical thinking skills, problem-solving, and reflection in the music classroom was the centerpiece of every class she taught. She also cultivated the idea of Comprehensive Musicianship in her scholarship and teaching, believing that there were myriad entry points into understanding a piece of art.
While at Teachers College, Lee founded her signature project—the Creative Arts Laboratory (CAL). This arts-based professional development program was grounded in the premise that children learn best from multiple perspectives and was awarded a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education Fund for Innovative Education. Under her leadership and training, teachers from the New York City public schools teamed up with professional dancers, visual artists, storytellers, and musicians to explore and implement a powerful approach of integrating the arts with learning in other curricular areas. City classrooms were alive with children creating music, art, and dance while exploring and interpreting the concepts of science, math, history, and writing.
Although Lee retired in 2013, her influence on the curricular practices and values of the Teachers College Music and Music Education program still endures. She changed the lives of countless students by inviting them to play with their art form—to enable new insights and deeper knowing. Today those students are in public schools, colleges, and universities, sharing with the next generation the ideas and vision of Lee Pogonowski. Services were private, but condolences and memories may be sent to
This remembrance of Lee Pogonowski was compiled by Cindy Bell of Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, with assistance from Lori Custodero, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, and Nathalie Robinson, retired from Hofstra University.