Mr. DeLong is an educator with the Vancouver School Board and teaches grade 4 in the fine arts program at Nootka Elementary School. He has an extensive background in classical vocal performance and classical training in piano with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Mr. DeLong has undergraduate degrees in English Literature, Music and Education and has recently completed a Master of Education at Simon Fraser University.
While teaching in the Vancouver elementary school system he has done significant research into the process of creating opera with children. He adheres to the idea that through the operatic curriculum, children may enable a synthesis which may co-construct understanding in the collaborative creative process of operatic production. Mr. DeLong has taught music to all grade levels in the elementary schools across the Vancouver school district and believes in an embodied and experiential approach to enable musical understanding for children.
Mr. DeLong incorporates Orff and Kodály methodologies into his educational practices and uses movement, dramatics, creative writing and visual arts to bring to fruition a holistic view of the arts as inter-related and inter-influential. He has done extensive work with the Vancouver Opera’s “Music, Words, Opera” program and has received sponsorship from the Vancouver Opera toward the creation of many operatic productions. Mr. DeLong also has a passion for choral music and has received financial support from the British Columbia Choral Federation for coursework in choral conductorship.
He is excited about the RYME project and looks forward to engaging in research practices which will enable an enhanced understanding of young learners and their musical experiences in school and in life.
