This summer, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) welcomed several new members to the Music Education Policy Roundtable, a public policy coalition consisting of more than 80 organizations that advocates for a high-quality music education for all students.
RESTON, Va., Sept. 19, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- This summer, the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) welcomed several new members to the Music Education Policy Roundtable (hereafter, the Roundtable), a public policy coalition consisting of more than 80 organizations that advocates for a high-quality music education for all students.
“We are very excited to bring these new voices to the Roundtable,” said NAfME President Scott R. Sheehan. “The continued expansion of Roundtable membership allows us to address the issues facing music education more effectively. These new members bring diverse knowledge and expertise, bringing us ever closer to our mission of making the Roundtable a truly cohesive body, representing all aspects of music education, that is unified by our common goal of expanding equitable access and opportunity for all students.”
New Members
Alfred Music—Alfred Music supports music education with a focus on quality methods, performance, and reference materials for teachers, students, and professionals, spanning every musical instrument, style, and difficulty level.
American Eurythmics Society—The mission of the American Eurhythmics Society (AES) is to promote the use of eurhythmics among music and other arts educators. The AES provides education, outreach, and engagement on a national level.
Ashley Cuthbertson Consulting—Ashley Cuthbertson Consulting is an educational consulting firm that partners with schools, districts, and organizations to help music educators develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to be responsive to the diverse, and ever-evolving needs of today's learners so that all students have an equitable pathway to success in music.
El Sistema USA—El Sistema USA supports a nationwide movement of programs inspired by El Sistema which center equity and excellence in music education. ESUSA has 140 Member Organizations that serve over 25,000 students, supporting more than 6,000 Teaching Artists across 35 states! We support our member organizations through professional development, youth leadership, an annual National Symposium, regional gatherings, partner discounts & scholarships, consulting, evaluation & data resources, and more.
The Feierabend Association for Music Education (FAME)—FAME was founded in 2012 with the purpose of promoting and supporting the contributions to music education made by John Feierabend. FAME is a community of tuneful, beautiful, and artful teachers and learners.
Hip Hop Association of Advancement and Education—The Hip Hop Association of Advancement and Education (HHAAE) supports those who engage in Hip Hop to empower their communities.
Institute for Composer Diversity—The Institute for Composer Diversity works to encourage the discovery, study, and performance of music written by composers from historically excluded groups.
Lang Lang International Music Foundation—The Lang Lang International Music Foundation®, strives to educate, inspire, and motivate the next generation of music lovers and performers. Their unique programs encourage music performance at all levels as a means of social and emotional development for today’s youth, creating equitable opportunities for music learning regardless of background or circumstances.
MakeMusic—The mission of MakeMusic is to develop innovative solutions that transform how music is taught, learned, performed, and composed. MakeMusic creates, owns, and licenses advanced technologies and solutions to support teaching, learning, playing, composing, and arranging music.
Music and the Brain—Music and the Brain empowers music educators to build students' academic and life skills through our school-day general music curriculum with whole-class piano instruction. We ensure equity for all learners by providing cross-curricular K–8 music lessons, ongoing music educator support, keyboard lab equipment, and an award-winning web platform with over 10,000 music lesson resources.
Music Publishers Association—The Music Publishers Association (MPA) is the oldest music trade organization in the United States, fostering communication among publishers, dealers, music educators, and all ultimate users of music. MPA addresses issues pertaining to every area of music publishing with an emphasis on issues relevant to the publishers of print music for concert and educational purposes.
New Harmony Line—New Harmony Line is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization inspired by the creative work of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory's Opera of the Future group. The mission of New Harmony Line Music is to enrich lives by enabling individuals of all ages and backgrounds to engage with music—as active listeners, learners, creators, composers, and connectors.
Opera on Tap (OOT)—The mission of OOT is to expose new audiences to opera and classical music by taking opera and classical music out of the concert hall and performing it in alternative venues, to aid young performers in their development by giving them the opportunity to perform and to promote and support them through our organization and to help promote new classical works of contemporary classical and operatic composers.
Phi Beta Mu International BandMasters Fraternity—Phi Beta Mu is an international bandmasters fraternity organized to promote fellowship among its members, to encourage the building of better bands and the development of better musicians in schools throughout the world, to foster a deeper appreciation for quality wind literature, and to encourage widespread interest in band performance.
Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society—The Rhythm and Blues Preservation Society is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) music society based in Atlantic City, New Jersey, founded in 2018 by Mr. Perry Thompson, Founder/Executive Director, with a sole mission to preserve the culture of Black music one record at a time. The organization is committed to leading the charge to get African American Music Studies in colleges and universities in America as a degree program by 2030.
Sarah Fairfield—Sarah M. Fairfield is an accomplished music educator with over 20 years of teaching experience. In 2010, she earned a Ph.D. in Music Education from The University of Iowa, while researching the development of musical creativity in children. Sarah currently works as a Leadership Development and Support Strategist for the Iowa City Schools. Sarah also co-founded Music ConstructED, an online platform focused on professional development and networking for K–6 general music educators.
Servant Leadership Association for Music (SLAM)—SLAM is a community of music teachers aspiring to serve their peers by elevating their own teaching and leadership skills in the pursuit of a program-wide culture of excellence centered on the synergy between authentic music making and a foundation of social-emotional health, trust, modeling, and service.
The Roundtable believes that music education should be taught by certified music educators, delivering sequential, standards-based music education to all students across the United States. It is unified under a single policy banner and works to achieve a consensus set of federal legislative recommendations aimed at ensuring the continued presence and expansion of robust music programs in America’s schools.
In May, the Roundtable released its FY24 Legislative Agenda, which highlights the value of music education as part of a well-rounded education for each child and communicates our position on issues at the federal level. Our priorities include funding for Titles I, II, and IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act, which can be used to support music education in high-need schools and music teacher recruitment and retention efforts.
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The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) is a collaborative community that supports music educators and advocates for equitable access to music education. The only association that addresses all aspects of music education, NAfME, together with its affiliated state music education associations, advocates at the national, state, and local levels and provides resources and opportunities for teachers, students, parents, and administrators. Founded in 1907 and representing more than 57,000 members teaching millions of students, NAfME advances the music education profession and promotes lifelong experiences in music.
Follow NAfME on Twitter (twitter.com/nafme), Facebook (facebook.com/nafme), and on Instagram (instgram.com/nafme). For additional information, contact Catherina Hurlburt at [email protected] or 703-860-4000.
Media Contact
Catherina Hurlburt, National Association for Music Education, 571-323-3395, [email protected], https://nafme.org
Zachary Keita, National Association for Music Education, 703-860-4000, [email protected], https://nafme.org
SOURCE National Association for Music Education
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