Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast The Beth and Kelly Show: Music Teaching (and Life)

We're joined by Alma Ramos from the Music Inclusion Coalition (MIC). We share reminders that amidst the structures of patriarchy (including those that exist within music education), there are ways to help our students get past barriers. Check out MIC, and check out this episode!

Awesome to return to The Beth and Kelly Show this afternoon with our esteemed guest (and fellow Gen-Xer) Dr. Jason Noble, Music Ed professor at CUNY! The entire hour was spent “on the same wavelength” in our discussion about purposeful “approach changes” away from the “old school” in the teaching of instrumental ensembles, music education programs of learning, and entrance/ audition requirements. At the end of the hour we all agreed we could talk all night!

The Beth and Kelly Show had an awesome conversation with Bethany Robinson, Director of Jazz Activities at Purdue University! Bethany is a deeply wise music educator and professional musician who builds a humongous community of jazz lovers and players everywhere she goes. Listen in to find out why and how.

We had the BEST chat with orchestra educator Jonathan Glawe and members of the Pioneer High School Symphonic Strings Orchestra from Ann Arbor, Michigan (Eli Braunschneider --12th Grade, Soledad beck --10th Grade, Hyunsung Woo --11th Grade, and Luke Hayden --12th Grade). They are "on tour" and just had an amazing, ground-breaking performance at the National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta as a part of the ASTA Conference. This deeply inspiring and deeply honest conversation should be required listening for all secondary music educators as we continue our journey through "festival season." These students have real thoughts and ideas for helping ensure lifelong musicianship and artistic expression and opportunities for everyone are the REAL goals of "festivals" and music ed in general. I'm telling you --you NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS!

We had the BEST convo with Dr. Julie Yu, Director of Choral Activities at Oklahoma City University and Conductor of the Oklahoma City Canterbury Voices Chorale. We go deep into how it feels as women in music education and leadership in this moment in time and the tiny slivers of hope — of light shining through the barriers. There is cause to be worried, yes, but also cause for hope and optimism.

This show with Ramon Rivera is a MUST LISTEN!! Right now is the time to build a safe, LOVING, welcoming place for our students and Ramon shares how to START. Tune in!

If you’re a music educator, we know it’s tough right now and there are SO many questions. Please listen to this episode withJazzmone Sutton, the Senior Manager for State Advocacy and Equity at NAfME. We know that things are coming and we’re going to need to act. We can’t do it alone. We must collectively collaborate in heavy duty advocacy and help each other out. Listen to Jazzmone’s ideas on how we can START and CONTINUE!

We had a SUPER IMPORTANT conversation with Dr. Sean Powell about his SUPER IMPORTANT book The Ideology of Competition in School Music. Have you ever, as a music educator who was involved in some type of competition with your students, felt a sinking feeling of “something just ain’t right about this….” ? If this is you, listen to this episode. Read the book!

Awesome conversation with Seattle music ed maven Deb Schaaf! We worked with Deb for years in Seattle Public Schools and together we played a big role in shaping the district’s cutting edge “Cornerstone Assessment” that centers student-directed learning, collaboration, and creativity. The through-line of our discussion: LIFE-LONG MUSIC MAKING!!

Excellent and eclectic conversation with multi-genre musician/ creator (and former Seattleite/ Rooseveltian) Brittany Anjou! Brittany has been spreading her genius around NYC for almost 20 years now, has been conducting some cutting edge research, and contributes wisdom to young scholars as a prof at The New School. This conversation is a good one to listen to if you are an artist or educator of future artists who realize that “the culture of struggle” in all of its forms as a “way of being” with in the professional musician community is a speed bump and you want to find data to back it up and ways to mitigate the toxicity. Oh! And stick around until the end for a sweet acapella performance!

In this episode, we celebrate 5 years of this podcast — a true labor of love; AND we talk at length about a mentor of ours — a consummate music educator who was the very essence of cool — the late Robert E Knatt.

In this epic conversation with Molly Redfield, we talk about Molly’s musical upbringing, and the challenges encountered as a woman pro performer and music educator. What became evident is that words matter — even offhanded comments from an adjudicator at a middle school jazz band festival. Words (even seemingly simple ones) can affect the trajectory of one’s beliefs about themselves and one’s very future. We need to be conscious of our words, and the words of those we have speak to our students. After this conversation, what we can tell you is that we are SO GLAD Molly is out there in the music ed realm — Molly — keep doing your super power — building warm welcoming communities for music participants and learners!

Rayna Mathis joined us for our final episode of Season 4 of The Beth and Kelly Show! We talk about all of Rayna's hats -- including overseeing the revolutionary and equity-based Creative Advantage arts program for Seattle Public Schools, as well as her editorship of the Earshot Jazz Journal -- a celebrated Seattle publication. Tune in for this inspiring interview that shows us that all of us can be full-fledged contributors to our arts and music communities.

This episode is a conversation between 3 women who are relentlessly working to help our music and music education worlds be more equitable and representative of all genders. Listen to the creative approaches our great Erica von Kleist is employing to get important messages across. Yes yes yes! The work continues!

Epic conversation with the epic folks @ StringRise (Nicole Melrose, Annalisa Chang, and 2024 Grammy Music Educator Award Recipient Annie Ray) about serving kids where they are right now and owning the role of EDUCATOR.

What a great and timely conversation with Music Ed thinker Will Coppola! Take a listen and expand your understanding of the directions we need to steer the ship in our modern era.

This interview with the movers and shakers of the Yamaha Education Division, Heather Mansell and Natalie Morrison, goes into the REAL ways that Yamaha is working to help us as a music education world usher in needed change. This is a great convo about serving both our current students AND "the other 70%" of students that don't engage in school music programs in the US (shocking data, I know)!! Yamaha is actively working to help that percentage shift. Yamaha is a gem in our community!

Beth and Kelly Show Season 4 "Live From ASTA" Series: Composer Katie LaBrie! We already knew that Katie LaBrie's awesome orchestra compositions are being played all across this land (to our students' delight) -- but in this conversation we get into her life, not just as a composer -- but also a music educator, conductor, and mom. Listen to this story of living through HUGE challenges -- and leaning into composing (and bringing joy to students everywhere) as a way to heal!

In this rare in-person opportunity, we sit down with 2024 Elizabeth Green Award recipient Jonathan Glawe, the Director of Orchestras at Ann Arbor's storied Pioneer HS. We get right to the heart of the matter on why and how Jonathan has decided to center the HUMANS that make up his program over PRESTIGE. This one will pull on your heart strings!

"Live From ⁠American String Teachers Association⁠ Conference" featuring D'Addario's Educational Market Development Manager Lance Day! 

Fantastic conversation with bass trombone master ⁠Jennifer Wharton⁠! We dig into being students, how our educators shaped us, and the process of becoming educators from many different paths. An EXCELLENT music teacher happy hour! Listen in! 

Such a great convo with ⁠Roxy Coss⁠, founder of the Women In Jazz Organization ⁠http://wearewijo.org⁠ this evening! Roxy is a performer, educator, and activist — she has SO MUCH to share and SO MANY ideas about how to grow the jazz community and make it more welcoming for all. Check it out!

The OFFICIAL Episode 1, Season 4 of ⁠The Beth and Kelly Show⁠! We have a seriously inspiring conversation with string educator ⁠Jerilynn Harris⁠ about building learning environments where students are safe showing up as themselves, and where creating, responding, and connecting are just as important as performing. This conversation made me remember my “WHY” as a music teacher. Take a listen!

How do we best serve students who have endured trauma and students with special needs? Music educators can always always benefit from support and ideas for building a more welcoming, safe environment for all in our learning spaces. Listen to this uplifting, HOPEFUL conversation we had with Nicole Melrose of StringRise — an org built around helping music educators build thriving and equitable music learning communities. As we near the first day of school — and we ALL need a pep talk right about now — this episode is a must-listen!

This episode is entitled “Tale As Old As Time.” Featuring musician/ composer Annie Booth of Brava Jazz Publishing, a music publishing company that publishes only jazz music by femme composers — for jazz bands of all playing levels, we engage in an AMAZING amazing convo — all anchored in the “Tale As Old As Time” — that being the ridiculousness regarding the speed bumps, roadblocks, traps, and flat out brick walls that femme contributors continue to encounter in the jazz community (and other music communities) STILL. In 2023. Please listen, and consider what YOU can do to take action toward change!

The topics we discuss with WA music educator Sarah Hart have to do with shining a light on how the mental health of teachers plays directly into the ways that we can then turn around and serve our students and school community. Unfortunately, the systems we exist within are designed to both keep us perpetually “small” and we are made to believe we need give and give and give and just suck it up. It is an emotional topic and we need to start unpacking it. Thanks Sarah for helping us touch on the tip of the iceberg.

Anyone want to brush up on their nonprofit knowledge? This episode with Laurie DeKoch, Executive Director at Seattle JazzED is not to be missed! It is a shame that music educators are not taught more about nonprofits and nonprofit leadership in college. This type of understanding / work tends to be something that we inevitably find ourselves navigating. And, having an understanding of what boards do, etc. would really help those of us that want to pursue leadership positions in our MEAs or other associations.

Broadcasting from the Rochester, NY Hyatt in our “Live From NAfME NE” episode with music educator, pedagogue, and conductor Felipe Morales-Torres from The Bornoff Foundation for the Advancement of String Education! We got into a deeply riveting discussion about repertoire, and programming, and honoring cultures, and navigating/ working to bring authenticity to the music of various cultures that is available to us from educational music publishers. We didn’t want to stop the conversation!

We had an amazing convo with Adrian Gordon, an outstanding composer, author, and full-time music educator! We talk about the educational music publishing business and roadblocks he’s experienced — causing him to create his own publishing company https://www.adriangordonmusic.com/compositions. He also shares with us about his new book “Note To Self: A Music Director’s Guide to Transitioning to a New School and Building a Thriving Music Program".

Today we talked with some brave women, Nora and Sasha, from the Roosevelt Jazz Seattle program; sharing about the Little Sibling/ Big Sibling group put in place at RHS to help female and nonbinary jazz students understand that they are welcome, valued, important, and NEEDED! Kudos to these awesome senior leaders, and kudos to their awesome teacher Hannah Mowry. Check this program out — every high school should have one!

A fantastic convo with legendary music educator Kate Labiak! In this episode, we float some revolutionary ideas about the approaches of judges/ clinicians at adjudicated events. Take a listen! There might just be a way to put a little festive back into “festival.”

We had such fun reminiscing with former colleagues Blake Saunders & Jared Sessink, both former Washington Middle School and current Garfield High School music educators. We start to unpack some complexities of these schools, the pipeline, and making big moves in the name of equity.

What a fantastic trip to the Jazz Education Network  Conference ‘23! A seriously wonderful conversation with attendees at The Beth and Kelly Show presentation on Saturday about setting the scene in a learning environment where girls feel safe, invited, and inspired to dig into musical improv, joined here as a “warmup” conversation with music/ music education experts from Colorado, Dawn Clement & Angie Keedy.

We talk with Chris Thomas, band director at Bainbridge Island HS, and we dig into his jazz combo curriculum and innovative small ensemble jazz festival. We talk about how “chamber technique” applies across the board for all levels and how it truly is a key tool for making music with anyone anywhere!

This convo with James Falzone, who oversees all programming at #cornishcollegeofthearts  allowed the The Beth and Kelly Show to engage in the big picture dreaming we like to do when we think of how music and arts studies in higher ed could morph to be more and more person-based and reality-based. Cornish is doing some cutting edge things!

This show with music educator, performer,  and creativity coach Steve Treseler is still spinning around in our brains. We talk about how imperative it is to teach our students that it is ok and healthy to be creative, and we confront what stops us from doing this as we maneuver within the rigid structures of music education in the US that never really did leave much room for creative decision-making . Unleash your / your students’ inner-artist!

Today’s episode features one of our fave music educators — choral pedagogue and general music specialist , Carol Burton.  So many uplifting words of wisdom, stories, and GEMS to be found in Carol’s narrative. You GOTTA listen! You’re not going to regret it.

We were joined by Orlando G Morales, the Associate Artistic Director and Community Engagement Officer at Seattle’s storied Fifth Avenue Theater! We talk about his remarkable life (as a Filipino American, a pro improvising musician, an arts non-profit community change-maker, certified educator, and arts learning standards expert)! LISTEN TO THIS SHOW! There are some amazing ideas and thoughts unearthed about moving the needle in Music Ed. It is TIME TO ACT! It is time to COLLABORATE!

We talk about our over-arching philosophy that “the kids can play”  — and how as teachers, we sometimes might inadvertently hold students back from “just playing” because we think we have to go through all kinds of complicated steps and procedures before they “start,” so that they are “ready,” putting learning on a long drawn out (potentially unnecessary) timeline.  Then, we talk about a miraculous camp at Seattle JazzED where kids go from zero to performing in 4 days. 

This is our Season Two “Soft” Closer. We unpack the incredibly inspiring NAfME National Assembly, all of the rich topics we dug into last week in DC, and all of the 5-alarm emergencies that are happening in our world making teaching and learning extremely difficult (all while the devastating SCOTUS ruling overturning Roe v Wade happened). This dovetailed into both of us sharing narrative about why teaching “5 shows a day” for 40 years in the public schools is not sustainable for us (nor for a huge and growing cross-section of current and not-yet music educators nation-wide). 

As we wrap up what many would consider one of the toughest teaching years on record, it is a great time for secondary instrumental; and choral educators to dream big about ways to utilize the understandings and knowledge we’ve gathered over this trying period about our students, and what really matters. It has been a time of reckoning for many of us as we realize that many of our students (and we) have different needs after all that has happened, yet we are still often obliged to engage in many of the same types of adjudicated events that likely needed an overhaul pre-covid, with unadjusted requirements, and unchanged rubrics. This has to be causing some cognitive dissonance for us as we saunter into the summer. Join Beth Fortune and Kelly Clingan (co-hosts of the popular Music Education podcast The Beth and Kelly Show) and string specialists Dr. Kelsey Nussbaum (University of Washington), and Corie Benton (Cobb County School District) in an interactive discussion and idea-gathering NAfME Council for Orchestral Education Town Hall all about putting the FESTIVE back into student festivals!

Today’s guest was Dr. David Myers, chairperson of the Taskforce on the Undergraduate Music Major, and one of the writers of “Transforming Music Study from Its Foundations: A Manifesto for Progressive Change in the Undergraduate Preparation of Music Majors.” We had an EPIC conversation that really started to give us actual hope that the critical transformation of university level music and music education programs — the kind of transformation that then allows k12 music education to ALSO truly evolve — is POSSIBLE! Listen to what David has to say — it’s time for some grand gestures!

Today’s show features “music ed power couple” Ruth Boden (low strings specialist) and Dean Luethi (choral specialist) — 2 amazing music faculty members at Washington State University! We dig in to the life-changing aspects (for our students) of participation in music and the flip-side of the coin: navigating the gauntlet of time-honored structures in music ed that have shown (especially in this era touched by COVID) to sometimes cater to only the super-served, and sometimes even extinguish the deeply personal joy that we as educators KNOW our students can attain.

This episode features an exceptionally inspiring music educator, performer, singer-songwriter, and music education mover/ shaker named  Ailisa Newhall! She is SO aligned with our vision of collectively transforming our practice to focus on the artistic PROCESS and de-emphasize the sports-like mentality of competitive music performance. You will come away with motivation and ideas for making moves of your own — so check it out , and join our coalition!

In this show we talk with thought-leader Kelsey Nussbaum about ways to shift music education to be more about honoring and building skills in the Artistic Process (over competition, and perfection in performance).  And we “go there” by opening up discussion about Texas. Yes. We. Did.

Wobbly internet won't stop a music educator that KNOWS WHERE ITS AT — Liana Green. Empowering kids to love music and giving them the tools to seek it out and make it happen for themselves (even (gasp!) non-trad band or orchestra instruments). If you need a boost of inspiration, check this out. And — be on the lookout for work that Liana is contributing to in our community orgs The Rhapsody Project and Seattle JazzED!

“Part Deux” of our assessment discussion with string and Mariachi educator/ music ed pedagogue Scott Glasser . We talk about strategies for building a culture in the classroom where PROCESS is finally valued more than PRODUCT. He shared some interesting ideas for ensuring the ability to provide feedback to students on a regular basis through low-stakes “rough drafts” for playing tests.

Are you looking at an empty grade book and thinking , “hmm…maybe I should have a playing test…?” We are only BEGINNING the convo about assessment in the music classroom, and what it all means as we emerge form COVID. We kick it off with Music Ed professor and inspiring pedagogue Dr. Jenny Stogner Neff from UARTS!

The one. The only. The amazing. Scott Brown. Roosevelt High School is in the house for our first ever public broadcast!

Megan Vinther teaches in Everett, WA and does it ALL. It's concert/contest season and we dig into being a woman with a baton and the hurdles that come with it.