GREENVILLE, MS, December 10, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to present Earlene Brasher, PhD, with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Dr. Brasher celebrates many years' experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Dr. Brasher, a music educator with more than 45 years of service to her students and profession, is a native of Albertville, AL. Inspired to attend college by her piano teacher, she earned a Bachelor of Music at Alabama College in 1952. She continued her education at New Orleans Seminary, completing a Master of Sacred Music in 1959. In 1981, Dr. Brasher earned a Master of Music at Georgia State University, and completed a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1988.
From 1953 until 1954, Dr. Brasher was the choral director for Tuscaloosa Senior High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She later served as an organist for the First Baptist Church of Columbia, South Carolina from 1954 to 1956, and a music teacher for Whitesburg Elementary and Junior High School in Huntsville, Alabama, between 1965 and 1969. In 1969, Dr. Brasher briefly worked as the music supervisor for Thomasville City School, Georgia, before becoming a music resource teacher for New Orleans Public Schools from 1970 to 1979.
Dr. Brasher flourished with DeKalb County School System in Decatur, Georgia, from 1979 until her retirement continuing her career as an elementary music specialist until 1987 and as a district Coordinator of Choral Music from 1989 to 2002. She served on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde, Atlanta Boys Choir, Spivey Hall Education Committee, Program Committee for Young Audiences, Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Choral Guild of Atlanta, Vice Chairman of Concerto Division of Atlanta Symphony Associates, Georgia Music Chairman for Alpha Delta Kappa, and for five years was the DeKalb County liasion on the Advisory Committee of the DeKalb International Choral Festival.
Dr. Brasher's choral groups in Alabama received superior ratings in district and state choral festivals and she supervised student teachers from the University of Alabama and Auburn University. In Louisiana she worked as a music resource teacher for special education classes in the New Orleans Public School System, completed classes for Administration and Special Education, taught Introduction to the Exceptional Child classes at Dominican College, and assumed leadership positions in the Louisiana Very Special Arts Festivals and Louisiana Special Olympics.
Dr. Brasher was the recipient of five Georgia Challenge Grants for the Advancement of Arts Education in the DeKalb County School System, and in 1993 received the Southeast Center for Education in the Arts School Leadership Award for Commitment and Support of Discipline based Arts Education in the southeast region. She also coordinated recording choral groups for the Silver Burdett and Macmillan Music Education Textbook Series.
Professional articles written by Dr. Brasher have appeared in the Georgia Music News, Missouri Music Magazine, Music for Primaries, The Church Musician, and she was a member of the writing team for the Louisiana Arts in Education Curriculum. Her dissertation, The Contributions of Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to the Educational and Cultural Climate of Atlanta, was completed in 1988. She was selected in 2011 to present a paper on Robert Shaw in Atlanta at the Chattanooga Symposium on the History of Music Education and gave a Power Point presentation of the same in 2012 at the state convention of Alpha Delta Kappa in Augusta, Georgia and at the Concerto Division of Atlanta Associates in Atlanta.
Dr. Brasher was a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, under the direction of Robert Shaw for fifteen years, where she participated in local concert performances, the 1988 European Tour, Carnegie Hall Performances, the 1991 Kennedy Awards Ceremony in Washington, and in various recording sessions. A number of these recordings of great choral music received Grammy nominations and awards.
Dr. Brasher is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association of Music Educators, Mississippi Music Educators Association, and Alpha Delta Kappa Educational Sorority. Dr. Brasher maintains an active role in community music education by attending local and regional musical performances, singing weekly in the Chancel Choir of First Presbyterian Church in Greenville, Mississippi, and being available to community groups and college students as a music resource person. She is a member of the Peachtree Road United Methodist Church in Atlanta, GA.
She also received the Mary Clark Community Arts Award for outstanding support of the Arts in DeKalb County presented by the Decatur Civic Chorus at its annual Spring Concert and was listed in the fifth Edition of 2,000 Notable American Women, the Twelfth Edition of the World Who's Who of Women, and the 2003 edition of Who's Who in America. She is the recipient of a 2001 Lifetime Service Award from the Georgia Music Educators Association, an honor she considers a career highlight.
The legacy of Earlene Decker Brasher is continuing in the life and accomplishments of her daughter, Dr. Julia Brasher Thorn, Director of Choral Activities at Delta State University, Cleveland, Mississippi. Julia is in her 23rd year in this career, having served fifteen years as Director of Choral Activities at Centenary College in Shreveport, LA, five years as Director of Choral Activities at Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, and now in her third year at Delta State University.
Listed below are some of the venues where she has been invited to conduct her students:
American Choral Directors Association, Nat. Conf., Chicago, lL 2011
National Collegiate Choral Conference, Yale University, 2005
National Assoc. Music Educators, Eastern Div. Providence, RI 2015
Spivey Hall Concert Series, Morrow, GA 2003
American Choral Directors Association, PA Conference, Selinsgrove, PA 2015
Music Educators Nat. Conference, Southern Div. Savannah, GA 2003
Mississippi ACDA Music Conference, Hattiesburg, MS 2020
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