Faith McKinley is an educator, clarinetist, and music advocate. She strives to make music accessible to those who need it, from the public school systems to retirement homes. Music has the power to heal, so no matter what a student’s age, it is important for them to have the means of creating music.
As an educator, Faith has taught students from ages five to seventy. Upon completing her Bachelor of Music in Music Education at Gordon College, she received her licensure to teach K-12 music in Massachusetts. She has sought numerous teaching opportunities separate to receiving her licensure. This includes donating her time at Landmark School in Beverly, MA and Project Support in Billerica, MA, teaching elementary music lessons to students with learning disabilities. She also accepted a job with the Northampton Community Music Center and New Horizons Band in Northampton, MA to work with beginner clarinet students over the age of fifty. Recently, she received a graduate teaching assistantship from Longy School of Music of Bard College, teaching beginner band online with El Sistema Side-by-Side.
As a clarinetist, Faith seeks to expand her classical performance skills and outreach opportunities. During her time in undergrad, Faith won the Gordon College Concerto Competition, performing the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Gordon Symphony Orchestra. Faith was also selected to be a featured performer at two high-profile events on behalf of the Gordon College Department of Music in 2018: The Ockenga Chair Ceremony for the Biblical Studies Department and The Adams Endowed Chair in Music Ceremony. Through outreach programs, Faith and her chamber music ensembles often donate their time to retirement homes and assisted care facilities. The program ranges from classical to holiday music, and always has an emphasis on audience participation.
Kaitlynn Hutchins Photography
Music advocacy is something that Faith has always been passionate about. She received many connections to advocacy opportunities when she served as vice president and president of the Collegiate Massachusetts Music Educators Association (cMMEA) in 2018 and 2019. Through these connections, she organized the second-annual Massachusetts Music Collegiate Advocacy at the State House, where collegiates from around the state met with representatives on the importance of music in schools. She went a step further to the National Music Education Advocacy Day in Washington, DC in both 2017 and 2019, where she met with senators and representatives at the national level advocating for better music funding nation-wide.
Faith is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Clarinet Performance at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA, under the study of Rane Moore. As an undergraduate at Gordon College, she studied clarinet with William (Bill) Kirkley. In addition to clarinet, Faith can often be found singing in choir. She was in College Choir at Gordon College and went on multiple tours with the group. She believes that singing is an essential part of the learning process of music, even as an instrumentalist.
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