BRATTLEBORO — On May 3, Jim Kurty led the Brattleboro elementary bands in a spirited performance at the WSESU Diversity Celebration in the Harmony Lot.
It was - as usual - a well-prepared concert that included a large group of children from all three town schools. The young musicians offered an arrangement of “Fanga Alafia” from West Africa and “Day-O” from the Caribbean.
Little did I know that afternoon that this was to be one of Kurty's last performances as director of our elementary band program.
Kurty is retiring after 40 years of teaching elementary music in Brattleboro. His career has touched the lives of countless young musicians and their families. He has tirelessly put on concerts in three schools. He has organized untold numbers of parade performances, school assemblies, field trips, graduations, and visits to nursing homes with his students.
For decades, he has played clarinet, trumpet, and sax at nearly every All School Sing at Academy, Oak Grove, and Green Street Schools.
In short, he has been an educator committed to building meaningful real-life experiences for his students.
Speaking as a parent, I want to say that Jim Kurty was always incredibly generous in working with our own two children. He was always willing to find a way to work with everyone: the gifted, the forgetful, and those with special needs.
Both my son and daughter continue to play instrumental music. Kurty's program welcomed the entire range of students in our community. I have always admired that his bands would include students from all family backgrounds, regardless of family resources. How many of our school programs knit our town together as a single entity?
It takes an endlessly resourceful teacher who can keep a program going strong with ever-changing schedules, as well as the changing priorities of public education and modern life. He has been graceful and amazingly flexible as the schools have changed their focus and culture in response to the pressures of high-stakes testing. He has never forgotten that education is also about participation in the larger creative community.
I have always appreciated Jim Kurty as a teaching colleague, fellow musician, and friend. His patience, humor, and commitment to his students will be missed.
I suggest the most fitting way to honor his 40 years of contributing to the musical life of this town would be to not only sustain our elementary band program, but to strengthen it so that generations of future young musicians will enjoy the same enthusiastic welcome into the world of music that he has provided to so many children for so many years.
Thank you, Jim!