Steve and Alan explore the ways any K-12 educator can implement the philosophy of music as a student birthright in their classrooms and schools. They discuss strategies for increasing access and opportunities for student creativity and composition, as well as building relationships with administrators to strengthen music education programs. Guest Leila Ramagopal Pertl shares her insights on empowering students as musical beings and serving the whole child through general music.
Leila Ramagopal Pertl
Leila Ramagopal Pertl is a passionate advocate for placing student collaborative creativity at the center of their music education. She teaches Music Education at Lawrence University, Deep Listening practice for the Center for Deep Listening at RPI, and is the Music Education Curator for the Mile of Music Festival in Appleton, WI, where she created the Music Education Team (MET), which has served over 56,000 people in hands-on music-making since 2013. She created the innovative music curricula at Next Generation School in Champaign, IL and at Appleton Public Montessori, and now, Edison Elementary, where music is treated as a core subject; each student being immersed in drumming, dancing, singing, improvisation, composition, Deep Listening, and music theory. She is an active presenter and has given workshops for the College Music Society, Smithsonian Year of Music panel on the Future of Music Education, Wisconsin Choral Directors Association, Milwaukee Children’s Choir, and numerous WMEA State Conferences. She is a curriculum writer for PBS Wisconsin: Re/sound, connecting classroom music educators to global musical culture bearers in Wisconsin. She recently authored,”Creating Communities of Belonging: Keeping Creativity at the Heart of Inclusion,” a chapter in Becoming an Artist to the World: Music and Social Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century (Fall ’23), on which she is also the DEI editor and audio book narrator. Leila was the 2018 recipient of the Mentor Award from the Wisconsin Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (WACTE). She served as the Wisconsin Music Educators Association State Chair for Composition and Improvisation from 2018-22 and is the current WMEA Equity Chair. Nationally she serves as the Chair of the Committee on Cultural Inclusion for the College Music Society, and is on the Music Education Committee for Smithsonian Folkways. Leila continues to study Ghanaian Ewe music and Samba. She is married to Brian Pertl, Dean of the Lawrence Conservatory of music, and together they enjoy spending time with their adult children. She believes that music is a birthright, and loves being with people in powerfully collaborative, creative spaces!