Chindarat Charoenwongse-Shaw, D.M.A.

My ultimate goal as a teacher is to teach myself out of the job. I encourage life-long curiosity and learning. My job is to provide tools and help students to create the means to become independent learners for life. I strive to create different learning environments suitable to each individual. I cultivate self-discoveries using things that each student already knows to acquire, understand, and “own” what are new and necessary to become the person each one can be. I believe in positive, encouraging, respectful and realistic teaching and learning. I am a strong advocate of critical thinking in the learning process and articulating thoughts through metacognition and writing. The following is my mission and values as a teacher:

To help people cultivate love, compassion, discipline, excellence, and integrity in their lives.

To help them achieve their full potential and realize their dreams.

To help them become their own teachers and independent life-long learners.

To help them become creative and comprehensive musicians and teachers.

To help them make positive differences in their lives and others.

I cultivate learning environments that follow the natural course of how babies learn languages. The same process is applied to every level of advancement and learning style in both one-on-one and group settings. I see students’ practice time as the most valuable asset that each has. So the lesson time includes time for students to learn how to practice efficiently, listen and think critically to form each individual’s set of steps to practice and solve problems on his/her own. Helping students to understand “why” the solution is crucial in the learning process is optimum. Therefore, critical thinking is undoubtedly inseparable from each lesson’s activities. As a teacher, I am a facilitator and a guide for each student to discover and transform into the artist and teacher each has inside and is waiting to become a reality. A teacher must search and focus on “what” rests within each student and diagnose what are the obstacles that hinder the student from bringing forth his/her sound and creativity.  Through guiding questions and other necessary factors, the teacher helps students to recognize the obstacles and “how” to remove them and improve to find and accomplish their own individual sound. I also believe that the art of teaching lies in knowing when the teacher is no longer needed, to stand aside and let the student shine. 

I welcome challenges and ready to go off the old beaten path to create new ways to better teach, communicate and help students be transformed, accomplish their goals, and make their hopes into reality.

Education

• 1994-98, Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
• 1991-93, Master of Music in Music Education (as a Fulbright Scholar), Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
• 1985-89, Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts in Piano Performance, First Class Honor, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Diplomas, Certificates and Professional Certification

• 2013–Present, National Certified Teacher of Music by Music Teachers National Association (MTNA)
• 1999–Present, Oklahoma State Certified Teacher of Piano, Piano Pedagogy and Music Theory
• August 1993, Orff Schulwerk Teacher Certificate Level I from Eastman School of Music
• January 1989, LTCL (Licentiate Performer’s Diploma) from Trinity College of Music, London, England
• January 1988, ATCL (Associate Performer’s Diploma) from Trinity College of Music, London, England

• Applied Piano
• Piano Pedagogy
• Piano Literature
• Chamber Music coaching
• Class Piano

Professional Membership

• 2014-Present, Pi Kappa Lambda, Music Society
• 1998-Present, Oklahoma Music Teachers Association and Central Oklahoma Music Teachers Association
• 1998-2005, The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi
• 1996-Present, Sigma Alpha Iota Music Fraternity for Women
• 1994-Present, Music Teachers National Association

Chindarat Charoenwongse, D.M.A., is from Bangkok, Thailand, and teaches applied piano, piano pedagogy, piano literature and coaches chamber music. She received a Bachelor of Fine and Applied Arts in piano performance with first-class honors from Chulalongkorn University and a Performer's Diploma from Trinity College of Music. As a Fulbright scholar, she graduated with a Master of Music in music education from Eastman School of Music. She obtained her Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance and pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma. She studied piano with Edward Gates, Barry Snyder, Anton Nel, Tongsuang Israngkun and Natchar Pancharoen, and piano pedagogy with E. L. Lancaster, Jane Magrath, Tony Caramia and Tongsuang Israngkun.

Her international performances include concertos with the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts Orchestra of Chulalongkorn University, Chulalongkorn University Symphony Orchestra for Her Royal Highness Princess Galayani Vaddhana. In June 2006, she performed as a soloist with the Thai National Symphony Orchestra to honor His Majesty the King of Thailand’s 60th Anniversary of His Accession to the Throne.  She also performed with the University of Central Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, and most recently in 2018 with the University of Central Oklahoma Chamber Orchestra.

Since 2007, she has been a member of the Arcadia Piano Trio which has performed in the U.S., Canada and Thailand.  In July 2015, the trio was invited to perform at the 11th annual Thailand International Composer Festival (TICF).

Prior to joining the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) School of Music faculty, she taught at Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, and Chintakarn Music Institute where she served as the head of the piano department.

An active piano pedagogy clinician, she presented both in the U.S. and Thailand workshops, master classes and lectures for Alfred and Hal Leonard publications on various university campuses, including the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, Kansas State University, Chulalongkorn University, Kasetsart University, Mahidol University, Payap University, Rangsit University and Srinakharinwirot University. She gave many presentations on topics such as “Teaching Inner Hearing in Piano Lessons”, “Baroque Pedaling”, and “Classical Performance Practice” to the Oklahoma Music Teachers Association's State Conference, and affiliated Associations in the U.S. including Kansas Area Music Teachers Association.   In 2000, she was selected by "Who's Who of American Women" to be honored in the New Millennium publication.

An active adjudicator, she has served as an adjudicator for numerous piano auditions/competitions including for Oklahoma Music Teachers Association (OMTA), Texas Music Teachers Association's Young Artist Competition, Oklahoma Music Teachers Association’s MTNA (Music Teachers National Association) Young Artist Competition, Amadeus Music Festival's Twentieth Century Piano Music Competition, Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra League's Piano Concerto Competition and Piano Competition.

Her piano students were winners representing Oklahoma in Music Teachers National Association’s Young Artists Piano Competitions (division/regional) in 2011, 2012 and 2013, as well as winners in Oklahoma competitions.  She also teaches pre-college piano students through UCO Central Community Music School (CCMS), and her students were winners of OMTA Junior Competitions.

She has been a member of the interdisciplinary faculty group dedicated to the applications of brain research to teaching and learning since 2016.  The mind-brain education and embodied brain activities from this group is to help students experience transformative learning and become life-long brain changer.  This group is now the Center for Neuroeducation and Embodied Learning (CNEL). A member of the CNEL leadership group working collaboratively, she is working toward enhancing faculty and students in their journeys of teaching and learning.

Charoenwongse-Shaw has been a piano faculty at the University of Central Oklahoma since 2000 and served as the Piano Division Head during 2005-10. She is honored to serve as the director of the Music Outreach Program which brings music to local and global communities.

Neuroeducation and Embodied Learning

In Mind-Brain based education, cognition and meta-cognition, she has been applying strategies to help applied piano, piano literature and piano pedagogy students to learn and develop with transformative experience, resulting in many students’ reflective reports of their improved learning experiences and juried piano performances.  In 2017, she authored “Helping Musicians Learn” article in a publication Transforming Teaching and Learning Through Brain Science Volume 1, published by the University of Central Oklahoma’s Department of Educational Science, Foundation and Research, and sponsored by UCO Center for Excellence in Transformative Teaching and Learning.  The second volume of Transforming Teaching and Learning Through Brain Science published in 2021 includes "Metacognition in Piano Lessons"  by Chindarat giving several case studies and transformative results in students who applied the Self-Guided Practice Strategies (S-GPS) and mindful exercises in health and wellness.

Since 2016 she has been a member of the faculty Embodied Brain Education group which is currently conducting a research on applying brain-based science into classroom experiences across a variety of disciplines.  As of August 2022, this interdisciplinary faculty group receives an approval to become Center for Neuroeducation and Embodied Learning (CNEL) at UCO.  Our collective goal is to continue to apply brain researches including mind brain education to help students and teachers to become brain changers and their quest of owning their learning for life.

Music Outreach Program

History

The Music Outreach Program was established by Dr. Tess Remy-Schumacher and Dr. Chindarat Charoenwongse in Spring 2007 through the Jackson College of Graduate Studies’ Pedagogical Grant for starting up.  In 2008, the Brisch Family Music Outreach Endowed Scholarship provides annual funding for a student assistant to help with the program.  Dr. Margaret Brisch has been the program's benefactor providing generous scholarship to music students.  The Oklahoma Center for Arts Education (OCAE) has been helping with the grant applications for ongoing funding.  Starting in spring 2010 OCAE is helping with the coordination and organization.  Generous donations from UCO faculty members also provide ongoing funding, time, and support.

The purposes of Brisch Music Outreach Scholarship and its program:

1. To provide music to the communities in the state with music from the UCO School of Music students and faculty.
2. To provide music and/or musical activities to schools in the communities that have no music program.
3. To be goodwill ambassadors from UCO into the communities both locally and state-wide.
4. To provide UCO music students the opportunities to perform and speak about music as parts of their transformative learning experience.
5. To provide UCO music students the opportunities to practice teaching through music lessons or coaching sessions in the public schools that are in need.
6. To help UCO music students who are the scholarship recipients learn music management skills through their coordination of the activities.
7. To increase the awareness of UCO presence in the community and state.

If she can get away with no practicing, traveling, reading historical fictions, and watching period drama or detective series in Thai, Chinese, and English are her hobbies.  Watching songbirds and figuring out the different species, she is a member of the Oklahoma City Audubon Society since 2022.  In the same year, she has been a court appointed special advocate (CASA) for foster children serving in the Oklahoma County.  If she is allowed to have only two favorite pieces of music to travel to the  heavenly realm, Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time and Ravel's Piano Concerto: Adagio assai movement are her secular's transcendental/spiritual music.