Student Centered, Advocacy Focused Concert Program

Brookville Blue Raider Bands, Brookville, Pennsylvania

Description

When my Concert Band was selected to perform at the 2024 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association Conference, I knew I wanted to make the program book unique. I made several choices to make the program: student centered, focused on small school advocacy, highlight the composers, educational, contextual, and thankful to the audience.

Objectives

The first objective of making a unique program book for PMEA is to focus on the students. I feel too many programs focus on the directors and not the students. To do this, I purposely did not put my name on the cover of the program. Instead, my name was listed after all of the students on the Personnel page. On the Biography page, I included QR codes which directed to files of student biographies with pictures. Lastly, I included a page where students wrote short thank you’s to the audience members and PMEA.

The second objective was to advocate for and educate the PMEA audience about small, rural band programs. To do this, on the About page I provided context about our school. For example. 80% (37 out of 46) students in the band had never taken private, outside of school lessons. I also provided information and links to demographics about our school and district. On the final page of the program, I put QR codes to pertinent articles from Scott Lang Leadership and NAfME regarding small school music education.

The last objective was to inform our parents and community about the significance of this performance. I created a special program for our School Board and “Send-Off” Concerts with “fast facts” about this PMEA performance.

Target Audience

Parents, teachers, administrators, and community members were the focus for different reasons. My hope with this unique program with parents, administrators, and community members was to educate them about why this performance was so prestigious. In a small town like mine, performing at an MEA Conference doesn’t inherently mean much. My hope with teachers was two-fold. First, I wanted other teachers to realize that we can do more to make performances about the students through the program book. Second, I wanted to educate the audience about small, rural school band programs, especially for those that have no experience with them.

Timeline

September 2023 – receive invitation to perform at PMEA Conference

September 2023-December 2023 – create outline of the conference program

January 2024-March 2024 – collaborate with school’s Art Department teachers and students on conference program design

Early April 2024 – utilize local printing business to print programs

Mid-April – varying performances where programs were distributed

Overview of Planning and Execution
  • Myself – created the vision and outline of the program
  • 1 Student – collected and created student Biography documents
  • 4 students – designed program
  • Mr. Steve Jaworski (Art Teacher) – organized and proofread student work on the program design
Tools and Resources
  • Google Docs
  • Photoshop
  • Local Printer
  • Local Photographer
  • Scott Lang Leadership blog posts
  • NAfME Small Schools Initiative website
  • Pennsylvania Future Ready Index web pages
  • Social Media pages
  • QR Code generator
Marketing and Promotion

I utilized social media, the school website, and the local newspapers to spread the word about these concerts and therefore get the programs in as many folks hands as possible. We had a larger than normal audience for our Send-Off Concert and the largest audience of the three high school band concerts at the conference.

Costs

$195 for printing of 300 programs

Challenges/Obstacles

The only challenge or obstacle was the procrastination and disorganization of the students that were designing the program. Since 4 of them were assigned to varying pages of the program, it got a little complicated at times. One week prior to having them printed I met with the art teacher and we got everything worked out though.

Success/Effectiveness Measurement

The only way I know this initiative was effective was several people made comments to me about how much they liked the program. Unfortunately, I do not have any data supporting how many folks followed any of the QR codes provided.

Community Impact

Writing out the fast facts and including them on the program was incredibly beneficial in helping all local entities understand the significance of the performance. Framing the invitation for this performance helped me secure all the funds necessary from my district and parent booster organization to make the travel for this performance happen. I hope that the program being so unique elevated the status of our music program throughout the state.

Advice for others?
  1. Be thoughtful about what is going to benefit your students and overall ensemble program. What can you include that is going to educate your audience and elevate your students?
  2. Utilize talent within your school to design the program.
2025 Marketing and Promotion Award Recipient
4-6 Months
Grades 9-12
1-5 Staff
$100-$500
Students, Parents, Staff, Community