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).