Amanda C. Soto
Dr. Amanda C. Soto is an Associate Professor of Music Education at Texas State University, where her scholarship and teaching bridge music education and ethnomusicology. Her work focuses on World Music Pedagogy, Mexican and Mexican American musical traditions, culturally responsive and inclusive music education, musical and cultural identity, and the preparation of music educators to teach across diverse musical and cultural contexts.
A native of the Rio Grande Valley, Dr. Soto’s scholarship is deeply informed by her experiences as a musician, educator, and ethnomusicologist. A central strand of her research examines Mexican and Mexican American musical traditions and the ways culturally rooted musical knowledge can be recognized, sustained, and meaningfully incorporated within educational settings. Her scholarship has addressed conjunto, mariachi, Tejano music, bimusical identity, culturally responsive pedagogy, and issues of equity and representation in music curricula. Her current research, supported by a Texas State University Research Enhancement Program grant, examines the teaching and transmission of traditional conjunto music within school settings and the pedagogical practices through which this culturally significant tradition is passed to a new generation of musicians.
World Music Pedagogy represents another significant area of Dr. Soto’s scholarly and professional work. For more than fifteen years, she has contributed to the development and dissemination of approaches that help educators engage with the world’s musical cultures in ways that attend not only to musical sound, but also to people, culture, context, and meaning. Her work in this area has included teaching, research, curriculum development, professional development, and longstanding involvement with Smithsonian Folkways.
Dr. Soto’s scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, College Music Symposium, The Oxford Handbook of Social Justice in Music Education, Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education, and Music in American Life, among other publications. Her recent chapter, “New Waters in Music,” appears in Sound Pedagogy: Radical Care in Post-Secondary Music, published by the University of Illinois Press. She has presented her research and pedagogical work nationally and internationally through organizations including the National Association for Music Education, Society for Ethnomusicology, College Music Society, Texas Music Educators Association, International Society for Music Education, and Cultural Diversity in Music Education.
Dr. Soto earned a B.A. in Music Education from the University of North Texas and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology and Ph.D. in Music Education from the University of Washington. Her doctoral research examined the bimusical identities of children in a Mexican American school. She has also completed advanced study in Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály pedagogy and holds certification in World Music Pedagogy through Smithsonian Folkways.
Before entering higher education, Dr. Soto taught middle school band in South Texas and elementary music in the Seattle area. She later served on the faculty of the University of Idaho’s Lionel Hampton School of Music before joining Texas State University in 2014. These experiences continue to inform her work as a teacher educator and her commitment to connecting scholarship with the realities of K–12 music classrooms.
At Texas State, Dr. Soto teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education and mentors future and practicing music educators. Across her teaching and scholarship, she advocates for an expansive understanding of music education that recognizes students’ existing musical and cultural knowledge, values multiple musical traditions and ways of knowing, and prepares educators to create meaningful and inclusive musical experiences for the communities they serve.