The Music & Theatre Department will maintain their long-term goals for the 2024-25 school year and look for new and innovative ways to reach these goals.

Status: Ongoing

Music Strand

Choral program:  the choral strand has been focusing on the ADEIB initiatives of Access, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. 

• Featured women composers and composers of color as music was being performed by our capstone ensembles.

• Attended ACDA Conferences to discover more diverse selections of music.

• The choral team has been more mindful to teach the cultural history of the music selections. A representative example is:

  • Students performed a piece called “Arirang” for the Winter Music Festival and the Spain Tour, and they learned the background regarding the history of that piece in Korean culture, the immigrant story, and students learned to sing and pronounce the Korean language.

  • Other representative pieces included “Children Go, Where I Send Thee” (Jewish and African American culture); Ukholo Lwami/iSabata (South African), among others.

• The High Five Choir performed at the Thrive Together Gala for The Nora Project. The Nora Project is an organization that promotes disability inclusion by empowering educators and engaging students and communities. 

• Continued discussion as to how our students of color, gender-fluid students, transgender, and non-binary students can gain access into our program.  Starting with course names, the strand will be moving from a binary system to a more inclusive model.  We have also provided alternative performance attire for our students at all levels of chorus. 

• Gender-blind casting in the Frosh-Soph Musical Workshop, Choir Opera Musical, and Revues.

·         Jazz program:  Continued study and programming of  music written by many celebrated and influential black American composers.

• Freshman Jazz Ensemble relies heavily on the practice of “call and response” found in jazz music, with roots in African American spiritual traditions. We discuss the origins of this musical practice and specifically call out the cultural differences between “call and response” and the European classical tradition we often use in school instrumental music settings.

•  Lab Jazz and Jazz Ensemble 1 traveled to New Orleans, with a stop in Montgomery, AL to visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum during Spring Break 2024. We also toured the Whitney Plantation outside of New Orleans, where they take great care to tell the story of life on a southern plantation through the experiences of the enslaved people.

• NT Jazz Festival featured significant artists of color and women jazz artists, and hosted the Women in Jazz Dinner with over 150 young women musicians participating, and featured a Q&A session with a  panel of clinicians including men and women of color. The Maddie Vogler Quintet was featured during the day.    

·         Band program: 

• For Black History Month in February, Symphonic Wind Ensemble studied and performed the significant work, “A Movement for Rosa”. We hosted a lunch-time open rehearsal for New Trier staff members, in which we explained how the composer created musical ideas that represented Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement more broadly.  Students also read and discussed an article which presents three myths surrounding the significance of the civil rights movement in modern day America.

•  In March, Symphonic Wind Ensemble performed a newly commissioned piece by Indian-American composer, Reena Esmail, which combined Western-Art music with Hindustani music traditions.  The three-movement work was based upon a short poem by a well-known Indian poet, and featured a tabla player (an indigenous Indian drum)

• The New Trier bands were part of a consortium that commissioned a new band piece, “Strides,” by Black composer, Kevin Day, which was a project led by the IDEA committee of the American Bandmasters Association. 

·         Orchestra program:

• Each orchestra curriculum featured works by underrepresented composers including those of Black American, Mexican, and Japanese descent.

• All orchestra students were invited to attend a field trip to the Chicago Symphony's MusicNOW series that featured music written exclusively by Black composers. What made this field trip even more special was that students had performed music written by Jessie Montgomery on their Fall Concert, and the students were able to participate in a Q and A session with Ms. Montgomery at the end of the MusicNOW performance. 

Theatre Strand

In addition to action steps initiated in 2019 - 2020 and subsequent year additions, the following actions were taken within the theatre curriculum to more comprehensively achieve our Equity Goals:

• Continued expansion of our play library to include new works dedicated to equity issues and by underrepresented artists.

• Continued expansion of the Heritage month display posters and information with almost every monthly observance covered at this point.

•  Theatre 2, 3, 4 - All classes consider casting preferences based on identity and use gender-blind casting for all assignments, impromptu and assigned.

• Theatre 2, 3, 4 & Technical Theatre & Design students attended the Steppenwolf play, “Sanctuary City” by Pulitzer Prize winner Martina Majok. A story about two DREAMers, life-long friends, who need to cross boundaries, borders and genres in search of a place to call home.

• Theatre 1 play reading unit linked to historically significant events for POC.

•  Theatre 2 curriculum continues the world history and Theatre Heritage assignments.

• Theatre 3 play reading assignment limited to those works that are centered around equity issues and artists, with expanded selections this year.

• Theatre 3 9-level students complete Equity based major assignments, including dramatic analysis and directorial choices of plays by or about underrepresented groups. In addition, students may choose in the 2^nd semester to complete and present dramaturg research about a theatre professional (playwright, actor, director, designer, company) or theatrical works (plays, designs, etc) to better understand the contribution to theatre history of/by peoples of color or other underrepresented groups. Examples may be, but are not limited to, those groups represented in National Observance Months (Hispanic/Latinx, LGBTQ+, Indigenous Peoples, Black Heritage, AAPI, Arab American, Jewish American, etc).

• Focus on informing students from underrepresented groups about the opportunities within the Th 4 Directing Projects.

• Discussions of equity issues within the Be Brave, Be Kind, Be Proud initiative.

Status: Complete and ongoing

Music Strand

In continuation of the work of 2019-2020 and subsequent years, the Music strands continually programmed music of under-represented groups. To that end, the Mosaic Concert on Nov. 3 featured elements from all the music strands and featured women composers and composers of color, performed by our capstone ensembles. 

Some representative actions from each of the Music Strands include:

Choral program:

• Gender-blind casting within the Choir Opera Musical and Revues.

Jazz program:

• Jazz 1 worked with Oliver Nelson, Jr. in preparation for the Mosaic Concert, where we performed his dad’s piece The Kennedy Dream.
• Jazz 1 played an adviser period concert as a kick-off to black history month, performing music of black composer and acknowledging the primal importance of the Black American experience in the formation and continuation of jazz.
• NT Jazz Festival featured significant artists of color and women jazz artists, and hosted the Women in Jazz Dinner with over 150 young women musicians participating, and featured a Q&A session with a  panel of clinicians including men and women of color.
•  Nic Meyer served as a panelist for the Black History Month presentations held at Northfield and Winnetka.

Band program:

The music of underrepresented composers was featured at every concert. 

• Symphonic Wind Ensemble students zoomed with composer, Alex Shapiro, before performing her electro-acoustic work, Tight Squeeze, in concert.
• Performed Hymns and Howls by Viet Cuong, with a 2008 New Trier graduate, David Binder, as the trombone soloist.

Orchestra program:

The music of underrepresented composers was featured at every concert. 

• Violins of Hope – working with the JCC of Chicago, student musicians played violins used by persons in concentration camps  in honor of the Jewish Heritage Month.
• The Mosaic concert this academic year was the featured initiative in realizing our goals, led by Peter Rosheger and Audrey Moy. This concert featured Chamber & Symphony Orchestra performing works by female and male composers of Black, Canadian, Mexican, Japanese, American, Argentinian, Spanish and Haitian descent. 

Theatre Strand

In addition to action steps initiated in 2019 - 2020 and subsequent year additions, the following actions were taken within the theatre curriculum to more comprehensively achieve our Equity Goals:

• Expanded our play library to include new works dedicated to equity issues and by underrepresented artists.
• Expanded Heritage month displays with almost every monthly observance covered at this point.
•  Theatre 2, 3, 4 - All classes asking casting preferences based on identity and use gender-blind casting for all assignments, impromptu and assigned.
•  Theatre 2, 3, 4 & Technical Theatre & Design students attended the Steppenwolf play, “1919” about the true killing of Eugene Williams in treacherous waters off the segregated Lake Michigan shoreline, and thereby raising awareness of boundaries, relationships, and the inequity and racism that persist today in Chicago.
• Theatre 1 play reading unit linked to historically significant events for people of color.
• Theatre 2 curriculum continues the world history and Theatre Heritage assignments.
• Theatre 3 play reading assignments limited to those works that are centered around equity issues, with expanded selections this year.
• Focus on informing students from underrepresented groups about the opportunities within the Th 4 Directing Projects.
•  Discussions of equity issues within the Be Brave, Be Kind, Be Proud initiative.

Status: Complete and ongoing

Music Strand

The Music strands worked to conceptualize and develop a plan for a full concert featuring works of underrepresented composers.  This work included connecting with local organizations,

In addition the Music Strand is researching ways to honor gender equity within concert attire. First steps are to use inclusive pronouns with fitting signage, the option for students to give sizing information via a Google Form, and allow for non-gender specific attire options for all students.

Theatre Strand

In addition to action steps initiated in 2019 - 2020, the following adjustments were made to the theatre curriculum to more comprehensively achieve our Equity Goals:

• Students in Theatre 2 and Theatre 3 engaged with the Theatre Heritage Month Poster Assignment, creating an informational poster and presentation of a theatre artist from an underrepresented group celebrated in the observed Heritage Months, and displayed outside the Hayes-McCausland Theatre.

Status: Complete and ongoing

Music Strand

As a continuation of the work of 2019-2020, the Music strands further worked on equity throughout the curriculum. Much of this work was focused on discovering new and underrepresented composers, as well as the logistics of finding their music whether purchased or rented. They then created lesson plans that highlighted and focused on the history of each composer and the specific piece, and the significance of each within music history and theory. 

Theatre Strand

In addition to action steps initiated in 2019 - 2020, the following adjustments were made to the theatre curriculum to more comprehensively achieve our Equity Goals:

• A play reading unit using “A Raisin In the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry was added throughout our entire curriculum to explore the work and stories of people of color. Each class explored the script with the unique focus of that class curriculum.

• New focus on major assignments: 

  • Students taking Theatre 3 for 9-level elective credit will read two scripts that are stories of race, gender and/or other identity and equity issues or authored by persons of of diverse backgrounds that have traditionally been under-represented, including people of color and diversity in regards to gender, sexual identity, economic class, religion, and other forms of identity.  

Status: Complete and ongoing

Music Strand

As a first delve into equity throughout the curriculum, the Music Strand spent time reviewing the music previously selected for the current school year by each of the music strands (band, choral, jazz, orchestra) and identifying those pieces that fell into the category of works composed by people of underrepresented groups. They then created lesson plans that highlighted and focused on the history of each composer and the specific piece, and the significance of each within music history. 

Theatre Strand

General steps toward achieving Theatre Strand Equity Goals include: 

• Asking students how they personally identify and how they would like to explore gender, sexuality, and race in scene assignments. 

• Adding material to our scene library to more fully represent those identities in our classroom performance literature. 

• Prioritizing field trips to performances that are created and performed by underrepresented artists and tell the stories of these underrepresented groups.

Status: Complete and ongoing