Modern Band Summit Recap
I just finished up three incredible days at the 2024 Modern Band Summit on the campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. It was my first time attending this conference and all I can say is WOW. I have never attended a music education conference like this one. SO much positive energy, learning, affirmation, support and downright FUN. The Music Will organization really knows how to put together an event that combines high quality pedagogy and “jump right in” performance opportunities. From the moment I walked into the Lory Student Center - the hub of all the activities - all I could hear was music being played - everything from Ceelo Greene to the B52s. Impromptu bands formed by the participants getting ready to perform the next night on stage with professional lighting, sound system, and hundreds of screaming fans. Such a great event! Hats off to David Wish, Bryan Powell, Maddy Posner, and ALL of the Music Will staff.
One of the teacher bands at the concert at Washington's - a music venue in downtown Fort Collins
I presented 3 sessions on behalf of MusicFirst and we are very proud sponsors of the event as well. We took this opportunity to showcase our brand new Modern Band Bundle - available exclusively from MusicFirst. To read more about the bundle, check out my previous blog post about it, as well as our landing page. While the bundle will officially be available on August 1st, I showed quite a bit of the new content, resources and software during my session. Click HERE to access my slide deck.
Session attendees seemed to be really impressed by our offering and I am very excited to see our solution being actively used by students. I also showed off the new bundle during two consecutive sessions today titled The Tech Playground, and I was able to show almost 90 music teachers from around the country all of the software and content and the feedback was excellent.
In addition to the sessions I presented, I was able to attend a few Keynote addresses and performances and they were all terrific. Perhaps my favorite part of any conference is meeting up with dear friends and colleagues from across music education. Two of my very favorite people, Stefani Langol and Barbara Freedman were also attending the conference, and I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with them. They are both incredible music educators and dear, dear friends.
I’m heading home first thing in the morning filled with optimism about popular music education in our schools. I have renewed confidence that this movement is growing and I was thrilled to see so many elementary music educators here. Music education is in very good hands. I look forward to returning again next year. If you’ve never been, and you have ANY interest in creating a modern band program at your school, I strongly recommend adding it to your conference bucket list.
On a personal note, as an avid hiker I always love coming to Colorado. The mountains are beautiful and the hiking out here is truly special. Fort Collins has some great trails, and I was lucky enough to do two very early morning hikes - one at Horsetooth Falls and the other at the Devils Backbone. I look forward to hiking more trails out here - hopefully with my family. Until next year, Colorado!