Joanne Haroutounian: Biography

Joanne Haroutounian enjoys a career across the fields of music, arts education, piano pedagogy, educational psychology, and gifted education as a teacher, performer, researcher, lecturer, writer, and consultant. Her multi-faceted career affords her the opportunity to consult internationally, sharing teaching ideas in piano pedagogy in one country or state, and processes of identifying students who show potential talent in the arts in another. She is frequently in demand as a clinician and consultant because of the breadth of topics she offers emphasizing the artistic process within performance and across artistic knowing.

She recently retired from the music faculty of George Mason University where she oversaw its piano pedagogy program and offered doctoral seminars exploring musical talent and artistic ways of knowing. Dr. Haroutounian has presented numerous sessions at the World Congress of Gifted Education, the Music Teachers National Association, and the National Association for Gifted Children, where she served as chair of the Visual and Performing Arts Division from 1995-97. She was plenary speaker at the Pacific Asian Conference on Giftedness in Singapore (2008) and the International Symposium on Gifted Arts in Seoul Korea (2009), speaking on musical talent identification and gifted/arts education for all students. She returned to Singapore as principal clinician at the International Piano Pedagogy Seminar in July, 2009.

Dr. Haroutounian's book, Kindling the Spark: Recognizing and Developing Musical Talent, offered through Oxford University Press, is a leading resource on musical talent development for researchers, teachers, parents, and college students. She has developed an Arts Curriculum offered through Royal Fireworks Press which includes three volumes - Artistic Ways of Knowing: How to Think Like an Artist; Think Like an Artist: Lessons for Experiencing the Artistic Creative Process; Arts Talent ID: A Framework for the Identification of Students Talented in the Arts.

She has contributed chapters in Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education, Early Gifts: Recognizing and Nurturing Children's Talents, and the Encyclopedia of Giftedness, Creativity and Talent. Articles by Dr. Haroutounian are found in Roeper Review, Arts Education Policy Review, High Ability Studies, and The American Music Teacher. She was guest editor for the Spring 2000 issue of the Journal for Secondary Gifted Education, which focused on the identification of musical talent.

Her recent contributions to gifted education publications include an article in Roeper Review (2016) entitled Artistic Ways of Knowing in Gifted Education: Encouraging Every Student to Think Like an Artist and a chapter in Converting STEM into STEAM Programs (Springer, 2020) called Artistic Ways of Knowing: Thinking Like an Artist in the STEAM Classroom.

Haroutounian is well known for editing and writing 30 teaching publications offered through Kjos Music Co., including Explorations in Music, a comprehensive differentiated curriculum in theory, ear training, analysis, and creative composition. The series has been described as the "favorite teaching material" (Piano and Keyboard), "fascinating for students, a significant contribution to available theory materials" (Clavier), and a "landmark text that will enrich the learning process in the studio or class of any teacher who uses it" (American Music Teacher).

Her college text in piano pedagogy, Fourth Finger in Bb: Effective Strategies for Teaching Piano (2012) presents real-world solutions and teaching approaches that piano teachers can readily use in their studios. The user-friendly and personable text incorporates the basics of establishing a studio and then moves on to discussions of how students musically develop and learn, using ideas from educational psychology.

Her most recent Kjos publications include A Palette of Touches (Elementary & Intermediate) to develop tonal color on the piano and the edition of Piano Masterworks in Miniature by Johann N. Hummel.

Dr. Haroutounian's specialized research in musical talent development led to the founding of the MusicLink program, which provides long-term private instruction to promising students in financial need. She is currently the Executive Director of the MusicLink Foundation, a non-profit organization that has reached over 7000 students across the United States, providing 450,000 hours of instruction, equivalent to $12 million of in-kind scholarship instruction by MusicLink teachers. More information on this organization can be found on www.musiclinkfoundation.org.

On a personal note, Dr. Haroutounian lives in Arlington, VA and has shared over 50 musical years with her husband, William, recently retired as a violinist in the National Symphony Orchestra. Her daughter, Jennifer Kitchin, lives in New York state, where she and her daughter, Natalie, share their lives with Ken Poka and his three sons, Ben, Matthew, and Daniel.