Refine Your Teaching With Personalized Mentorship

In your classroom. With your students.

Mentorship

Great mentors can be hard to find

You learned the basics of running a music program while in college and have put them into practice as best you can. Now, you want to build a program that is not just good, but great.

Traditional professional development opportunities cram in as much information as possible yet have little to no follow-up. What you really need is a mentor.

Why not hire a master mentor, just for you?

Without personalized mentorship, it can be difficult to:

  • Consistently attract and retain students.

  • Achieve higher difficulty levels of repertoire.

  • Build a program that parents and your community want to support.

  • Compete in local, regional, national, and international competitions and festivals.

Meet your new mentors!

Master Educator
Stephen Nelson

Stephen Nelson

Winning competitions is not the sole purpose of music education, but it’s a great indicator of student engagement.

Stephen’s K-12 orchestras won 1st place over 50 times, three international competitions in Austria, and one Grammy award during his 35-year K-12 career.

He has spent the last 16 years mentoring orchestra directors on everything from successful recruitment to maximizing student engagement.

Master Educator
Dr. Frederick Burrack

Dr. Frederick Burrack

Do you want a mentor who is academically and experientially well-rounded?

Dr. Burrack spent 20 years as a K-12 concert band director and another 20 years as a University professor.

He has served as the Chair of the NAfME Assessment Special Research Interest Group and as Co-Chair for their work in developing Model Cornerstone Assessments that accompany the National K-12 Music Standards.

What You Get

PRE-MENTORSHIP PREPARATION

Work with our master mentors to design a custom 1, 3, or 5-year mentorship program specific to your needs, including in-class mentorship, post-mentorship follow-up, and guided collaboration.

IN-CLASS MENTORSHIP

Receive personalized resource material and up to one week per year of on-site, real-time feedback on your teaching during class time with your students based on your custom-designed mentorship program.

VIRTUAL
ONE-ON-ONE

Retain our mentors for one-on-one virtual follow-up each month to have your questions answered in real time when you need help or to have them observe you in your classroom setting on an ongoing basis.

GUIDED COLLABORATION

Work with other educators that our mentors match you with to share your most valuable mentorship takeaways, creating ongoing learning opportunities guided by our mentors at no additional

Personalized mentorship is ideal for:

  • One-on-one help

  • Upgrading your toolkit

  • Increasing your knowledge

  • Enhancing your skillset

Get Started in 3 Easy Steps

How to Create an Account

1.

CONTACT US TO DISCUSS YOUR NEEDS

How to Create an Account

2.

CHOOSE YOUR TOPICS, DETERMINE TRAINING DATES, AND REMIT PAYMENT

How to Create an Account

3.

EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMATIONAL MENTORSHIP

Testimonials

Stephen is undoubtedly the best String Orchestra Teacher and Mentor I have known in my entire orchestra and band teaching career (1966 – 1983) and as K-12 Administrative Supervisor of Music for the Salem-Keizer School District (1983 – 2011).

Karl W. Raschkes, Supervisor of Music (Ret.) Salem-Keizer S.D.

Learning from Dr. Burrack is great because his passion is enlightening and contagious! He motivated and inspired me going into a new school year, and I can honestly say I have a new understanding of our standards and feel better equipped than ever.

Kelsey Pinkerton, 5-12 Vocal Music Instructor, Phillipsburg USD 325

I recognized early on as a public school orchestra teacher that, although I was giving my very best effort, I was not always able to get the results Stephen gave me as his high school orchestra student. I reached out to Stephen for mentorship; I visited his classes to see best practices in action, met with him for tips and insight through score study, and finally had him join several of our rehearsals as a clinician. These experiences equipped me with the tools and expectations that helped me to elevate my teaching effectiveness.

Jim Charnholm, McKay High School Director of Orchestras in Salem, Oregon

Dr. Fred Burrack has great chops and demeanor in rehearsing bands. He is extremely knowledgeable, engaging, and gets the most out of the ensemble. Dr. Burrack is a fantastic clinician!

Dr. Frank Tracz, Director of Bands and Professor of Music, Kansas State University

The way Stephen explained things always had the right balance of technical information and pure magic. And the results were stunning…we sounded inspired and we WERE inspired. It was the kind of group experience you usually read about in a glossy magazine or a novel, but here we were, living it in real life.

Valerie Berg-Johansen, DMA in Violin Performance, Concertmistress in the New Vines Symphony

Dr. Burrack’s in-service absolutely provided what we were hoping to address. He gave us a lot to think about and some concrete ideas we can start implementing. Our district’s feedback is all positive. Thank you so much!

Brandon Kandrack, Assistant Band Director, K-12 Music Curriculum Leader, Norwin High School

The combination of passion and knowledge that Stephen Nelson brings to music education is exceedingly rare. To this day, I find myself passing along knowledge to my students that he imparted to me, and I revisit some of his profound wisdom while working on my own playing.

Brian Johnson, Upright Bassist for Los Angeles Philharmonic

Does mentorship sound like something that will benefit you but you are concerned about funding?

We will help you secure funding for your mentorship!

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Sponsors & Corporate Memberships

Give A Note Music foundation
NAfME Corporate Member national Association for music education