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more time and attention. That being said, these collab- Memphis City Schools and the University of Mem-
orations were aimed at powerful systemic change, thus phis created a partnership in response to a middle
commitments on my part were in terms of years rather school choral music problem. They convinced me
than semesters. Three important long-term partner- that providing a core of strong, effective choral teach-
ships include: 1) Florida State University/Raa Middle ers would be a powerful contribution to the thousands
School (instrumental and choral music education); 2) of middle students the teachers served; I was hooked.
Middle School Memphis (Memphis City School Dis- So I went many, many times. (We planned it for three
trict/University of Memphis/Choral Clinician); 3) years, but it turned into six years.) Honestly, it was so
MTC Glee Club (FSU singers, Gadsden County Cor- much harder than we all thought it would be, but I will
rectional participants). go to my grave feeling deeply proud of those teachers
in Memphis. They showed up on a Friday night, from
Did Middle School Memphis come from a need 5pm to 8pm and then again Saturday mornings until
within your own classroom? How did that part- noon. I’m sure not all of them loved it. They didn’t
nership come about? trust me for the longest time; I was surprised by this.
Though I already had experience teaching in a chal-
Memphis City Schools, which is an urban school lenging at-risk school early in my own career, it was re-
district, had middle school programs that had been ally eye opening for me to once again have a first-hand
decimated by a number of things over the years. There view, now in a challenging urban setting. I gained so
were thirty-seven middle schools, but only twenty- much insight about things to do and things not to do.
three had choral music teachers. Most were strug- Urban schools are different experiences for students
gling, though four or five programs were considered and teachers than suburban and rural schools, whether
quite good. Overall, many Memphis middle schools all students are personally at risk or not. All three set-
were struggling programs with teachers who were try- tings (rural, suburban, urban) have their own unique
ing their best but barely surviving. It had gotten to the challenges.
point where the high school choral programs were be- So, can we make change through partnerships like
ing negatively impacted, and some of these schools this? Yes. Is it easy? No. Is it worthwhile? Yes. I be-
were nationally recognized choirs. lieve collaborative projects and partnerships can bring
When they first called me, I thought, “I’m in Tal- out the very best in people. It takes patience and the
lahassee and you’re in Memphis. This is not going to consistency of folks fully buying in and committing to
work.” But I had a connection at the University of the mutual goals of a collaboration. I left Memphis ad-
Memphis. Dr. Nicole Robinson had been a former FSU miring those teachers so very much. They started at
student, and the Memphis City School District was will- the most difficult place I could have ever imagined, but
ing to help create a partnership that could include all they were good people who truly cared. They had the
three participants. Jim Holcomb was an extraordinary support of a supervisor of music and an outstanding
fine arts supervisor, so he and Nicole convinced me that music education professor. The University of Memphis
I would just have to come up to Memphis and become played a big role in that partnership, and they managed
the person who retrained the teachers to use effective to pull it all together. To this day, those teachers are still
teaching strategies in order to meet standards found in doing great work.
the Tennessee State music curriculum. Basically, I was
recreating my undergrad FSU methods class, but in It may feel like choosing which child is your fa-
smaller steps with more repetitions. Between my class vorite, but what was your most memorable col-
meetings, Nicole Robinson reviewed classroom man- laboration?
agement, pacing, teacher effectiveness, etc., as well as
providing unlimited support through site visits to assist Truthfully, every partnership had some very won-
teachers alongside Jim Holcomb. derful aspects, especially our collaboration with Raa

CHORAL JOURNAL October 2024 Volume 65 Number 3 47