New Things Grow: An introduction to Medley

Click here to hear this blog post read in Jess’ voice.

Welcome to the Medley blog! 

My name is Jessica Corwin. I knew from childhood that I wanted to be a music teacher. I have done many types of music teaching over the last few decades, but I finally found the specialty that brings me the most joy and satisfaction: accessible and adaptive music education for students with high support needs.

I have been a public school music teacher in Massachusetts for more than twenty years. I took many courses available to music teachers for working with students who receive Special Education services, but I always found that the content of these courses felt somewhat abstract and didn’t necessarily shed much light on HOW to teach students with significant learning differences. 

In late 2018, the universe delivered me an unexpected life-changing gift: a board certified music therapist who quickly became one of my best friends. I met Jen Kass at the fourth birthday party of a mutual friend who was close to both of our sons, and from that introduction we came to work together at the Adaptive Music Program at the Community Music School of Springfield. Jen is the person who has taught me the most about fostering musical connection and growth in students with high support needs. Over the last several years we have worked diligently and joyfully to combine our respective backgrounds in music education and music therapy to maximize our impacts on students, and share our findings with others in the music education community.

The knowledge that we have is by no means unique, but at this time it is generally hard to come by! We hope that this changes dramatically in the near future, especially through states updating their music teacher credentialing requirements to include knowledge and experience in working with this student population. Jen and I have been doing our part by running sporadic workshops, presenting at conferences, giving guest lectures at colleges, and teaching graduate courses.

As we turn the calendar to 2026, it is time for another leap: focusing more time on supporting music teachers who want to build their skills and approaches in working with students with high support needs. For the remainder of this school year we will start taking steps to build channels for sharing tips, strategies, activities, and essential philosophy and background information with music educators through social media. Jen and I will also substantially open our calendars for PD contracts with school districts and professional organizations.

Allow me to formally introduce Medley Music Access & Inclusion! This is the name under which we can be found online and contracted for workshops. Jen and I chose the name Medley not only for the musical reference, but to allude to the fact that meeting the needs of diverse groups of students requires pulling together many different approaches and access points for learning into a single lesson. (It was also a name that was, simply, available in the US. Apparently it’s hard to come up with something new!)

Medley is going to offer periodic public trainings both online and in person, but we are also going to share a lot of ideas for free. Our website includes organized lists of links to products that we recommend, activities that we have had lots of success doing with kids, and resources that are very helpful to us in our teaching. In addition to this blog, we will produce short-form content on social media, including demonstrating classroom activities. 

The Medley team behind the scenes also includes my husband, Philip, who is our Business Manager. And we are working on finding the right person to be our dedicated visual artist for creating choice boards and visual aids– and a logo for Medley. Stay tuned!