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Katie Willey
Conductor

Katie Willey remains active as a music educator who guides students towards musical competency and confidence. She has pursued this work for over a decade and continues to balance the roles of musician, conductor, cheerleader, amateur comedian, and positive role model for hundreds of students across the public and private sectors. She currently teaches full time as a Vocal Music teacher in Orange Public Schools (Orange, NJ). Outside of the school music classroom, she teaches piano lessons, voice lessons, and beginner piano group classes independently and is a conductor in the Training Division with Brooklyn Youth Chorus. 

She completed her Master of Music Education at Westminster Choir College in 2021 and previously taught K-4 music at a charter school in Manhattan, rising to the position of network-wide Music Content Lead during her time there. Her pursuit of music education started with the completion of her Bachelor of Music at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) in 2014, where she focused on general music, choral music, and arts administration. Her past experiences as a classically-trained musician include performances at Carnegie Hall, New York City Center, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (Philadelphia, PA), and venues across New Jersey and New York City. 

Katie maintains her pedagogy and musicianship through workshops and memberships with the Gordon Institute for Music Learning, the American Choral Directors Association, and the National Association for Music Education. Some of her favorite workshops include Dr. Carol Krueger’s Fostering Music Literacy series, Estill Voice Training, and GIML Piano Level 1. 

When Katie is away from teaching, you can find her on a nature walk, cooking new vegetarian recipes, or cuddling on the couch with her rescue cat Mimi.