Every March, schools across America celebrate Music In Our Schools Month, a program to promote student music by the National Association for Music Education. This year, Wauwatosa East’s new Tri-M Music Honor Society worked to highlight music through weekly school wide announcements, daily social media posts, and a promotional video emphasizing the importance of music education in high schools.

Tri-M board member and event coordinator, Senior Grace Hudson-Mairet, organized and edited this year’s video. Her goal was to highlight students that represent diverse music at East including orchestra, band, and choir, through interviews, and show how playing music in schools has evolved due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “If making this video showed me anything, it’s that music is incredibly important to students: as a means of expression, a connection to culture, and an art form.” Hudson-Mairet explains that her work on the video reinforced the idea that for many students, music was a tool to ground themselves through the hardest parts of the pandemic. It provided “beauty during lockdown and consistency in the transition back to full-time school.”

Many years ago, Wauwatosa East’s chapter of Tri-M was one of the first in the nation. The Wauwatosa School District has a long history of recognizing the importance of and supporting music education in schools. After a decades long hiatus, orchestra and band teachers Michael Hayden and Jennifer Lato revived the chapter for the 2019-2020 school year. East’s chapter boasts nearly 90 members that regularly volunteer their time for music related service work, such as virtual concerts for residents of the Lutheran Home and promoting student musicians. “To me, Tri-M is about giving back to my community through playing, hearing, and supporting local music,” explains Hudson-Mairet. 

To further support music education in schools and student musicians, follow and share content by @TosaEastTriM on Instagram.