Mary Jane Phillips

Mary Jane Phillips taught middle school choral music in Texas for 29 years before retiring from the classroom in 2018. She taught in Katy, Garland, Arlington, Birdville, and Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISDs. Her choirs received consistent UIL Sweepstakes awards and superior awards at festivals. She currently serves as a choral consultant for Dallas and Frisco ISDs and as a clinician, adjudicator, private voice teacher, and author. Ms. Phillips graduated cum laude from Texas Christian University with a Bachelors’ Degree in Choral Music Education. She has served as a UIL Contest Chairperson, TMEA JH/MS Region Secretary, and TMEA JH/MS Region Chairperson. She has served the Texas Choral Directors’ Association on the Scholarship, Hospitality, Nominating, Ways and Means, Governance, and Ballot committees and is also a past Secretary/Treasurer of TCDA.She presents workshops on the male and female adolescent changing voice, recruiting, literature selection, UIL planning and preparation, beginning the school year, and sight reading pedagogy and games for school districts, colleges, and professional organizations across the United States. She has authored three books – SOS – Simplifying Our Sightreading (co-authored with Laura Farnell), Sightreading 101, and Making Sightreading Fun! –used throughout Texas and the United States. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas. Her precious 21-year-old daughter, Zoe, is a musical theatre major at Wichita State University.