Liz Taylor-McMullen: Creating Smiles With Community Music

About this Episode

Liz Taylor-McMullen earned her bachelor’s in music education and a master’s in music performance before working for two years as a band director. She’d had to learn quite a few different instruments to teach band. “I was studying to be a band director, and when you do that, you learn how to play all of the band instruments to a certain level of proficiency, because you had to be able to get sixth graders started.”

As the band director, a lot of people in a state like Arkansas are often the only music director for an entire school district at times and can be responsible for up to sixty students. “You have to be able to wear a lot of hats,” Liz said. “That’s why I can play a lot of instruments. Because I learned how to learn.”

She spent four years more as a choir director before moving into administration at the University of Central Arkansas (UCA). “I think I just always knew that I wanted to be a music teacher from the time I was a little girl,” Liz shared. “It just seemed like the natural thing to do. It never really crossed my mind to have another job. And I got the job and I did the job. And once I got to the point where I felt comfortable and knew what I was doing … It was three things. It was the red tape, it was dealing with parents who didn’t appreciate what I was doing and couldn’t see that I was trying really hard, and just feeling like I wasn’t making much of a difference. It wore me down.”

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Sustaining Craft is a passion project of Hew & Weld Writing. There are no fees for artists and craftspeople to participate. Music provided by Jim Ciago (Seven Second Chance on iTunes and Spotify & Nomad Neighbors in the Denver area most weekends).
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