Learning to Sing Builds Confidence in Students

2017 Grammy Music Educator Award Finalist: David Anthony “Tony“ Dehner Tony Dehner thinks not only that anybody can sing, but that everybody should sing. In his current position at Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville, CA, Tony is busy helping students find their voices as they increase their musical knowledge. Tony is proud to be running a flourishing program that had previously laid dormant for nearly six years.

There’s a profound effect on personal confidence when a student learns they finally have a voice. It’s a newfound enthusiasm that can positively affect social, family, community, and academic life. Tony is personally satisfied knowing that music is the catalyst to the confidence.

In the end, it’s a genuine compliment to Tony when he learns that some of his students carry out his legacy and become professional music teachers themselves.

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About

David Anthony (Tony) Dehner is the chair of Fine and Performing Arts and Director of Vocal Arts at Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville, CA.  He serves as conductor of the chorale, choir, advanced choir, honor choir, and The Master’s Voice Chamber Ensemble. He is an instructor of Voice Techniques classes, Advanced Placement Music Theory and Private Voice. He is also an adjunct professor of music at Bethany University where he teaches Secondary Vocal Music Education.

He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice, Musicology, and Theory from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary School of Church Music and Worship (“SBTS”), Louisville; the Master of Arts in Vocal Performance and Choral Conducting from Middle Tennessee State University, and the Bachelor of Arts in Church Music and Voice from Lee University, Cleveland, Tennessee.

Dehner’s work experience includes eighteen years of church music ministry, twenty years of vocal performances including opera, oratorio, and recital throughout the United States and various countries. He has conducted all levels of choirs for more than twenty years in Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and California. He conducted the MVCS choir on a Kingsway tour of the national cathedrals of France and is scheduled to conduct the MVCS choir in Vienna, Prague, and Salzburg summer 2009.

Follow Tony Dehner on Twitter.

1. Deccan Herald – The importance of music in schools
2. Renton Reporter – Vera Risdon: The name behind the school, the voice behind the music
3. Toronto Star – Music and arts should be taught in elementary schools: Editorial