Branching out as an Antiracist School: Heather Fortune

Heather Fortune P’27 was a speaker at both the National Association for Music Education eastern and national leaders conferences in 2021. Her presentation, “Inclusive Ensembles—Come One, Come All,” focused on how to modernize high school ensembles and music programs through a culturally-responsive evolution in music pedagogy. She also presented to the Massachusetts Music Educators Association in March, and will be presenting to the Association for Popular Music Education in June.

Acting with Musical Agency
Heather highlighted student competition as an element that drives many high school music programs, referencing instances in which students audition for chair seating and sit in ranked order as well as competitions that result in student ratings. “Traditional music pedagogy is geared towards winners and losers,” she explained. “What we do at Friends Select is decentralize a competitive structure to motivate students to try instruments and examine their preferences, which creates fearlessness in performers and inspires them to act with musical agency.” Heather shared that Friends Select features a unified ensemble with guitars and keyboards woven into traditional string and wind instruments, as opposed to the typical secondary school music offerings limited to band or orchestra.

In addition, Heather described racial and financial inequity for many students enrolled in secondary music programs. “Many schools present repertoire that represents mostly white creators, which is deemed valuable by a primarily white establishment. In some cases, the students they are preparing curriculum for can’t participate fully because the costs to buy instruments and take lessons are unattainable for many marginalized communities,” she said. “At Friends Select, we provide kids with all the resources they need to learn to play. We try to question the status quo with students, draw repertoire from broad sources, and maximize student voices and choices in our classes.” Heather also mentioned the need to value broader skill sets in school music programs, noting many musicians play by ear, which should be considered along with the ability to read notation fluently, such as in classical music.

Empowering Students and Educators
In the wake of the leaders forum, Heather led a teacher training session in Lexington, Massachusetts, to help educators consider the current state of music programs, identify limitations, and share technical teaching tools.  Heather empowered educators to understand notation software and use technology to discover innovative approaches to music education. She was a guest lecturer to music education master students doing their student teaching at UArts, and she will be speaking to students at NYU this spring about technology trends in the field. “As music teachers, we are no longer the gatekeepers for students interested in music; it’s now democratized through the internet and technology, and we serve as partners for kids on their music journey. I was energized by having to reinvent everything as a music teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was exciting to try new things and determine what the limits were to figure out how to teach and play music, and I want to share that with teachers outside of Friends Select.”