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Sharon Davis Gratto

Professor; Director, World Music Choir

Full-Time Faculty

College of Arts and Sciences: Music

Contact

Email: Sharon Davis Gratto
FH

Degrees

  • DMA, Catholic University of America, 1994
  • M.Mus., State University of New York at Potsdam-Crane School of Music, 1986
  • M.A., American University, 1968
  • B.Mus., Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, 1966

Profile

Sharon Davis Gratto is Professor of Music, Director of the World Music Choir and immediate past Graul Endowed Chair in Arts and Languages in the College of Arts and Sciences, a position she held for five years. Dr. Gratto came to the University of Dayton in 2008 from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania to be Department of Music Chair and served in that position for nine years. While at Gettysburg, Dr. Gratto was Music Education Coordinator, a conductor of several choral ensembles, and founder and director for nine years of the Gettysburg Children's Choir. Most of her K-12 music teaching was in International Schools in Germany, Spain, and Nigeria. At UD, Dr. Gratto has taught courses and supervised student teachers in the Music Education degree program, taught Eurhythmics for Music Therapy majors and continues to direct the World Music Choir.

Dr. Gratto is a graduate of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, American University, the State University of New York at Potsdam, and Catholic University and earned a Certificate in Dalcroze Eurhythmics from Carnegie Mellon University. She has performed as a free-lance flutist in the Washington, D.C. area and sung professionally in church music positions, with the Washington Bach Consort, and with the Washington Opera, Summer Opera Theatre at Catholic University, Washington Concert Opera, the Wolf Trap Opera. She was Founder and Director for three years of the Capitol Flute Consort.

Dr. Gratto served the American Choral Directors Association for 10 years as State (Pennsylvania and Ohio), Eastern Division, and National Repertoire and Standards Chair for Ethnic and Multicultural Perspectives, and she is Editor of a Global Music choral series for Pavane Publishing. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and an Emerita Founding Trustee of the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance. She was honored with Oberlin College Conservatory's Music Education Alumni Award in 2008, the College of Arts and Sciences' Outstanding Service Award in 2014, and the University's Service Award in 2019. She was the fifth faculty member and the first woman to be appointed to the Graul Chair position.

Research interests

  • World music and its transformative power for performers and audiences
  • Mentoring new music teachers
  • El sistema programs for urban youth
  • Arts instruction in alternate school formats
  • Arts-in-Education programs
  • Audition anxiety

Recent publications

"Preparing Future Leaders in the Arts through the Community Arts Engagement Certificate Program: What I Learned from Teaching the First Introductory Seminar." Research and Reflection on Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 1:4 (2023): 29-38. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/rrlthe/vol1/iss1/4/