

About the Ludwig Music Institute


Meet Julie L. Overland
Julie is a newly retired public school orchestra teacher and Registered Music Therapist. Throughout her many years of teaching regular and special education students, Julie focused on addressing the learning needs of students who were struggling to read musical notations during their lessons and/or orchestra rehearsals. In helping her to determine the best ways to support the students, she decided to meet with the students' general classroom teachers. These discussions, more often than not, confirmed that each student had already been diagnosed with at least one visual processing learning disability in their general academics.
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Through further research, Julie learned that dyslexia, dysgraphia and/or dyscalcula learning disabilities could, indeed, manifest themselves in the challenges of music note reading. With this information, she began to develop a note reading method, aligning already researched strategies proven to support the reading skills of students diagnosed with VPLD. This is how, why and when the Ludwig Music Curriculum© was developed!
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Students, who have been learning to read music notes using the LMC©, are now becoming successful contributors to their school and community orchestras. Even as the music becomes increasingly challenging, the students are confident and proud, and able to sustain their participation. We are thrilled to have found a way to increase student self-esteem and ensure that more students get to reap the benefits that orchestral participation provides!!
Brief background:
* American Chamber Orchestra: Chairperson of the Education Committee
* CMEA Conference (Hartford, CT), MENC Conference (Baltimore, MD) and NELMS Conference (Sturbridge, MA): Presenter on Adaptive Music Education
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* CT Arts Council member
* CT Music Educators Association: Chairperson of Curriculum Committee and member of Executive Board
* Fairfield County String Festival: Chairperson and Host
* National Association for Music Education: Northeast Chairperson of the Committee on Orchestral Education