Music teachers: Group withheld video backing BLM

A bitter exchange over a state choir video supporting the Black Lives Matter movement came to a head this week when music teachers called out their state association.

Last week, the Connecticut All-State Choral Chairs and Cohort Leaders released an open letter opposing video edits by the Connecticut Music Educators Association that they said would have removed footage of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters.

“I think they’ve done a huge disservice to the teachers and students they’re representing,” Melanie Cometa, chorus director at Ledyard High School and the video editor on the project, said of the association board. “And I think they need to resign.”

This week, the association released the uncensored video and a statement on the controversy, roughly five months after the music teachers said the video was completed this summer.

Jason Bouchard, association president from Regional School District 14 in Bethlehem and Woodbury, in a recent email to members, said the video could not be released for legal and parental permission issues, according to its recipients.

But in their open letter, the teachers said no images of students or identifable attributes were in the video, and there had been no talk of release forms previously.

By Tuesday, the Connecticut Music Educators Association had released the video, along with a statement on the controversy.

“We are taking the position that Black lives matter, and that we, as an organization, are 100% committed to making sure people of all backgrounds — race, religion, sexual orientation ... know that CMEA values and respects equally every human being who wants to make this world a better place,” wrote Bouchard.

“We acknowledge the harm that was caused through the perception of CMEA’s actions,” it read. “We extend our deepest apologies and want to assure you that we are committed to doing better.”

In April, more than 200 students attended virtual expert-led sessions, engaged in dialogue about social justice, and recorded two pieces from the Justice Choir Songbook: Melanie DeMore’s “Lead With Love” and Deanna Witkowski’s “We Walk in Love.”

Cometa said she was tasked with creating a video for the students’ virtual performance. She said she drafted a video inspired by song lyrics and student suggestions — many of which named the Black Lives Matter movement in particular, according to survey results obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media.

The educators said the video was completed and ready for distribution over the summer.

Cometa said Bouchard requested footage of a protester holding a “Justice for Breonna Taylor” sign be removed because it referenced ongoing investigations.

She complied, but said Bouchard again asked her to remove images of signs that said “Let Black People Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter,” which she declined to do.

“To censor or remove any references to the words ‘Black Lives Matter,’ would be hypocritical and in direct opposition to the spirit of this project,” Cometa wrote in an email reply to Bouchard.

Bouchard could not be reached for comment and the association declined to respond to follow-up questions.

The Connecticut Music Educators Association Facebook page has previously posted in support of Black Lives Matter, the educators said, and so has its nationwide organization, the National Association for Music Education.

The association’s Equity and Advocacy Committee set goals of equitable access to events, activities and professional development, and welcoming teachers and students of all backgrounds.

Some teachers were disappointed with the association’s response to the controversy, which they said was more of an apology for the way they feel than for the group’s actions.

Chris Wasko, who also knows the choir chairs, said he would need to see “a substantive change in staff or leadership responsibilities,” pointing to the executive board. “That trust has been too deeply violated.”

Association member Matthew Harrison, who co-chaired the 2021 All-State honor choir and was a member of that group in 2000, said archival photos show these choirs have been predominantly made up of white students.

“CMEA is not living up to its mission to represent all students from every district of Connecticut,” he wrote in a statement.

The guest conductors, too, experts in social justice and music, spoke out against the video’s withholding pre-release.

“We understand that there are those who would try to make the claim that including the words ‘Black Lives Matter’ in an All-State Choir video is too political or too divisive,” Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and Jeffrey Douma, of Yale University, said in a joint statement. “But it should never be seen as political or divisive to clearly affirm that a Black person’s life has the same value as anyone else’s.”

Cometa said now she would like to see the video widely released and promoted, and a stronger apology from the association. She added a Facebook page called ChoirBuzz is helping circulate the video, and linked it with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Trust Fund for young students of color.

She also would like to see a change at the top of the association.

“I can’t imagine we can move on from this without new faces in leadership,” Cometa said. “I would like a new board to make real change and eliminate the generations-old barriers in CMEA’s student experiences.”