Interview with Allison Lacasse: Music Education, Conducting, & Community.

Ms. Laccasse is the director of bands at BHS and has taught me for two years. In our conversation, we discussed music education, performance, conducting, and more!

Ms. Lacasse conducting at Carnegie Hall

Q: Can you introduce yourself and your musical background?

A: My name is Allison Lacasse, I am the band director at BHS, and this is my 18th year of teaching. I have been an elementary general music teacher for six years, I taught middle school band for six years, and I am in year six of teaching high school band. So it's been six, six, and six. Throughout all of that time, I've been performing professionally on flute and piccolo in a bunch of Boston orchestras and bands and ensembles.

Q: Why did you decide to become a music educator? What keeps you passionate about teaching?

A: I decided to become a music educator because I found so much passion, dedication, and fulfillment as a student and a young person participating in music. I was very curious about my music teachers and very inspired by them and I felt as though when I was in their classrooms I was connecting with their subject matter differently than I was in a math or an English class. I loved who I was when I was a musician as a student and as I started to mature and started thinking about a career I started to watch my music teachers and I started thinking to myself, that looks like a ton of work but a ton of fun, and I wanted to create for my students what my teachers created for me and what they gave me as far as empowering me to be an artist and finding so much joy in doing this activity.

Q: What do you think is the role of the music education program at the high school?

A: The role of the music education program is to create the most meaningful experiences with my students. It's the ultimate team activity and it teaches people the more you are aligned with a common goal the more that you trust each other as a team, and how that will translate into the workplace and post-high school life. For me, it is instilling a love of the performing arts in everybody whether or not they play professionally but giving everybody a love for this art form that will translate through the decades after high school, creating lifelong musicians and lifelong learners.

Q: Have you noticed how music impacts the teens that you teach?

A: I have seen students find out who they are through the performing arts. I've seen students who are soft-spoken find their voice through playing their instruments, or through conducting or through running their chamber ensembles. I've seen students become leaders and role models for the entire school. I've seen people develop into the best version of themselves because music brings that out of people. It's been such a privilege to see that.

Q: How do you think being a conductor brings you closer to your students than if you were to teach another class?

A: So much is spoken through the unspoken. I can communicate with 60 students at one time by holding a stick, looking at them, and scanning the room I've had nonverbal communication with so many students in every rehearsal. Whether it's a smile after a great solo, getting someone a reassuring glance before a solo, or giving someone a wink if we both know they made a mistake. It is all body language and facial expressions and ultimately that goes to trust because you’re all sitting in an ensemble and I bring the downbeat and trust that everyone is going to do their job. That doesn't happen in a math class where everyone can be in a different place at one time, we all have to be in the same place at the same time. I think all of that non-verbal communication leads to a deeper level of trust within the ensemble.

Q: Do you think band students getting to know each other and you getting to know your students helps to improve the ensemble playing? Why?

A: I think so because the more people know each other the more they can guess what the person is going to do just by the breath they take before they are going to play, how they’re sitting, their body language, and the chemistry in the room. The more we can get deep into each other that way the more trust we can have in the music, and the more times we can go onstage and play a risky concert with music that is really difficult and know we’re giving each other our best.

Q: How has being a music educator and a musician changed you as a person?

A: It made me way more empathetic to everyone else because there is so much expression and so much nonverbal messaging that happens when we're playing music together that I think I can read people's instincts and character on a deeper level because of who they are when their instruments are in their hand. I can see when someone is putting in 100 percent of their effort. For me, it has made me a lot more confident. I was a shy student growing up and when I joined the marching band, there were people I wanted to be like and I respected that they were confident role models for others.

Q: How do you think music impacts the psychology of the audiences for whom we perform?

A: I think people come into our audience from many different types of places emotionally and physically. I think sometimes people come in and hear the different types of music we're playing and sometimes harmony hits them in a way that could bring a tear to their eye. We could be playing Danzon No. 2 which is this incredible Latin swirling of sounds and percussion flavors and it touches them because maybe they have Hispanic heritage and it reminds them of family. I think our audience will come into our doors and we have to serve them through the music and give them unique experiences.

Q: Was there ever a time when conducting was scary for you? Has it gotten easier?

A: It has not gotten less scary. I had a concert last night and it was a piece written in 2023 with meter and tempo changes, so many parts of the piece had no melody, and if I got lost for an 8th note I would have tanked the piece, and I was nervous the entire time. There are some pieces where I'll never be nervous because it's so straightforward. My job is to be the tour guide of the piece for the audience so there's a responsibility when you're conducting to tell the story. 

Q: Is conducting therapeutic for you?

A: Absolutely. Every time I get to do that it's my responsibility to unlock the world of the piece for you all. It's very calming because it feels like giving a gift to all of you at one time. When you give gifts it's self-serving.

Q: Do you have any performances that have stuck with you that inspire you?

A: Definitely. The performance I got to do in 2018 in Carnegie Hall. It was rehearsed so well and hundreds of people came to support us. There was mutual love in the room. I've also had concerts where we were honoring someone, and when you can share that it's like giving a gift but unlike something physical you can give to a person. Honestly, our Wind Ensemble concert the other night was one of the best concerts I've ever conducted with the ensembles here. It wasnt me being the best version of myself it was you being the best version of yourselves. So that concert and how the audience responded is going to inspire me to recreate that moment in the future.

Q: What is your favorite part of your job as a teacher?

A: The one-on-one things. Whenever someone comes to me with a question about the music like with a question about how to phrase someone. The human-to-human connections and building relationships with each student. Like this conversation with you for example. It's the most meaningful part of teaching, the one-on-one relationship building.