Dennis Jewett

Dennis Jewett
Associate Professor of Music
Director of Voice & Music Education
djewett@kwc.edu
270-852-3621
Ralph Center for the Arts #139

 


Education

  • Administration License Certificate Program, University of Minnesota
  • M.M. in Vocal Performance and Conducting, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
  • B.M.E., Carson-Newman College

Areas of Instruction

  • Applied Voice
  • Music Education courses
  • Aural Skills
  • Vocal Pedagogy
  • Music History

Biography

Dennis Jewett is an Associate Professor of Music and the Director of Vocal Studies and Music Education at Kentucky Wesleyan College in Owensboro, Kentucky. He was educated at Carson-Newman College, Southwestern Seminary, and the University of Minnesota. Mr. Jewett taught most recently at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC, where he was a voice and music education instructor.

Mr. Jewett comes from a career in public school music having taught at Plymouth Middle School and Armstrong High School in Plymouth, MN, Eagan High School in Eagan, MN, and most recently at Central Cabarrus High School in Concord, NC where he also served as Chair of the Fine Arts Department, His choral groups have performed at state MENC conventions, Minnesota ACDA convention, the North Central ACDA Convention, Minnesota Governor’s Mansion, the White House, Washington National Cathedral, and Carnegie Hall. His choruses have consistently earned superior ratings at State Contests.

Two of his former high school students have won Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions. Six are professional opera singers, and dozens are public school music teachers and professional musicians. In 1999 he was chosen to be the founding artistic director of the FAIR School, an inter-district fine arts magnet school, grades 4-8. It was part a vohmtary integration initiative of the State of Minnesota. He oversaw the building and equipping of the school (It is the school featured in the Tim Allen movie, “Joe Somebody”). He recruited the students from inner-city Minneapolis and from the first ring suburbs and coordinated the development of an arts interdisciplinary curriculum. The FAIR school won several state awards, a Kennedy Center national arts education award, and. was included in the Annenburg Foundation’s interdisciplinary curriculum website.

Professor Jewett has taught extensively in area of the boy’s changing voice. He was guest lecturer at St. Olaf College, the University of Minnesota, and the Curso International de Regencia Coral in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. He taught workshops for the Voice Care Network, Iowa ACDA, and the Hartt School Summer Choral Symposium . Mr. Jewett has directed Middle School All-State Honor Choirs in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. He also directed the North Central ACDA Middle School Honor Choir, and middle school choirs at Lake Junaluska, Mo Ranch, and Montreat.

As a church musician, he has served as Minister of Music at First Baptist Churches in Dandridge, TN, Fort Valley, GA, Arlington, TX, and Shreveport, LA. In Minnesota, he served for 16 years as Director of Music at the Good Samaritan United Methodist Church in Edina. He recently served for 3 years as Director of Music at the First UCC Church in Salisbury, NC.

Mr. Jewett’s two sons, Wade and Mason, are married and live in Fort Worth, Texas.

Awards

  • KMEA District 2 College Teacher of the Year, 2015.

Professional Activities

  • Board Member, Back Alley Musicals
  • Director of Music, First Presbyterian Church, Owensboro, KY