Music teaching talk, from the score to self-care
Angela Ammerman talks with composers, orchestra directors and other educators, and she welcomes several of them as friends. The conversations run from writing music for student ensembles and reaching English language learners to how teachers can avoid running themselves into the ground.
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#MusicEdLove Podcast is a music education interview show led by Angela Ammerman, who greets listeners as the show's hostess. Her guests are composers, conductors, performers and teachers. The conversations are warm. Several guests are introduced as friends: Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez went to college with Ammerman at CCM, and Adrian Gordon shared All-State conducting duties with her at back-to-back events. Because they know each other, the talk sounds like colleagues catching up more than a formal interview. The composer episodes are the most practical. Katie O’Hara LaBrie recorded in Virginia Beach ahead of a Virginia Stringspiration event, and she talks about life after the classroom, writing for school ensembles and the publishing industry. Asked how she works, she says it depends on the piece, the day and the moment. She then describes one piece she thinks of as a little method book for players around their second year. Gordon goes back to his beginnings: an unreleased string trio, a string orchestra piece he showed to his teacher Robert Longfield, and a jury piece he wrote in college when the traditional track felt too narrow. A second set of episodes is about the teacher's own wellbeing. Lesley Moffat, whose book the host is reading, notes that music teachers look after their instruments but rarely after themselves. The host admits she has the same habit of filling her free time with work. Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez describes how tying her worth to performance and awards left her struggling, and how The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron helped her connect faith and creative life. Titles such as 'From 14 Medications to None with Lesley Moffat' and 'Finding Joy After Juilliard with Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez' name these subjects outright. The classroom comes back in other ways. Ida Capshaw Steadman, an orchestra director writing a chapter for 'The Music Teacher's Guide to Engaging English Language Learners', recalls her early years at four elementary schools on the south side of El Paso, where she used her Spanish to help students when needed. A joint episode with Chris Munce, shared with the Chorallosophy feed, moves into choral teaching and includes a friendly disagreement about whether students should see their teachers still striving. Many episodes end on the same send-off, a wish that teachers 'sprinkle a little stardust' on their students and 'send those stars through the stratosphere'. That suits a show that treats teaching as both a craft and a way of life.
Made for: Suits a music teacher, especially one who works with school orchestras or string players, who wants to hear composers and colleagues talk about the craft as well as burnout, career change and having a life outside rehearsal.
What sets it apart: It puts composers who write for student ensembles next to educators who speak openly about overwork, health and leaving the classroom, so the teacher's own life gets real attention. A recurring 'stardust' sign-off and an open, friendly warmth give it a personality of its own.
Looking for practical tips and tricks you can actually use tomorrow? Check out this music education podcast to hear what master educators all across this country are doing today!
The instruments get maintenance; when do you, music teacher?
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded conversation about career change, musical process, and building a path beyond the classroom.
Katie O'Hara Labrie's move beyond the classroom comes through as a practical, lived-in career shift rather than a tidy reinvention story. The episode follows her work composing mainly for school-aged string players, guest conducting, clinicking, and starting to look toward band…
Gordon's first three pieces trace a move from student exercise to a wider musical identity.
Adrian Gordon's first three compositions give this episode its clearest through-line: writing becomes a way to find the edge of a training environment, then move beyond it. Serenade starts as an unreleased string trio that still found a life with students.
A grounded music-education conversation about teaching with an individual voice while still growing.
Chris Munce and Angela Ammerman use the episode to land on a practical, often overlooked point for music educators: stronger teaching does not come from copying another director's personality or methods. It comes from learning how to teach honestly as oneself.
A candid episode about the work habits that can make committed music educators lose track of their own upkeep.
In her 35th year of teaching, Leslie Moffitt treats professional longevity less as a badge than as a maintenance question. She looks back at a training culture that made free time feel suspect, as if a committed educator should always be doing more, and that pressure gives the…
A candid look at performance-driven training, burnout, and the effort to make music joyful again.
Finding Joy After Juilliard follows Meredith Haidt Estevez as she revisits a life organized around oboe performance, achievement, and the need to become someone through music.
Clear guitar lessons for steady beginners.
Practical talk for stronger school music programs.
Playful music lessons built for listening.
Music education with practice, policy, and feeling.
A cappella, from the classroom to the loop station.
Award-winning composer Katie O'Hara Labrie discusses her transition from classroom teaching to composing for school ensembles, the publishing industry, and her new role as orchestra division editor for Randall Standridge Music.
Angela Ammerman talks with composer, conductor, author, and music educator Adrian Gordon about Note to Self, Leap Year Music, and his work at Providence State School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Chris Munce, host of the Chorallosophy podcast, and Angela Ammerman, a music educator in orchestra and early childhood settings, compare how they built public voices around pedagogy and professional development.
Angela Ammerman talks with Leslie Moffat on #MusicEdLove Podcast about the book "I love my job, it's killing me" and Leslie's move from high school band to middle school.
Juilliard left Meredith Hite Estevez saying, "I don't even like music anymore."
Angela Harman grew Maplegrove Middle School’s orchestra from 140 to 290 students in one year, after increasing Spanish Fork Junior High’s program by over 440%.
Jenna Day describes how a 2015 NAMM advocacy trip to Washington, D.C., changed her approach to music education.
Host Angela Ammerman interviews orchestra director Ida Stedman about her experiences teaching English language learners in El Paso.
Host Angela Ammerman interviews Dr.
Host Angela Ammerman interviews Dr.
Interview with John Kilkenny, a leading performer and educator, discussing his work in music education and the Swanee Summer Music Festival.
Host interviews Dr.
Host interviews master music educator Veronica Jackson, discussing her innovative programs and teaching strategies.
Host Angela Ammerman interviews Dr.