Women’s History Month
In observance of Women’s History Month, the News Review will run articles about Greenbelt women of significant accomplishments whose stories are not well known.
The series is being coordinated by Anna Bedford-Dillow.
Rachel Zephir has been the director of bands at Eleanor
Roosevelt High School (ERHS) since 2015. She is a Maryland native, having grown up in Anne Arundel County, and had not planned to become a teacher. In high school she played in the concert band, jazz band, any band that was required in school, as well as the All County and All State Bands. It was her experience in a program called Side-by-Sides with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra that confirmed her plans to become a musician. This program enabled students to experience playing alongside professional musicians. Zephir played a solo with the Baltimore Symphonic Band when she was a senior in high school.
She attended Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore where she studied music education and trumpet performance. Music
education was her parents’ backup plan for her in case a trumpet career did not materialize as she hoped. Also, while in high school she taught private students and realized that teaching as a backup plan would not be too strenuous. She earned a bachelor’s degree and returned to do a master’s degree in conducting.
Zephir’s teaching experiences in Carroll County, Md., and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program, prepared her to be a director of music.
In Carroll County she experienced the needs of rural students and residents and, in Baltimore, she learned about the life challenges of urban youth and the working poor. Both experiences led her to believe in the power of music to transform lives and build future leaders.
At ERHS, Zephir launched an inspiring chamber music program, jazz ensemble and pep band. It is the chamber music program that has attracted the most interest. The Roosevelt Chamber Winds were invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Band Directors Consortium in Chicago and Atlanta. Since then, she has been invited to do clinics on how to implement chamber music programs in high school and college music programs.
The chamber music program enables students to expand their knowledge about a given instrument. These ensembles are student led, while the director is more of a facilitator. Students plan rehearsals and through the experience develop leadership skills, interpersonal skills and problem-solving mechanisms that are transferrable to other life situations. Zephir says that cooperative learning helps prepare students for future multicultural, multilingual environments. She believes that encouraging the various learning styles and talents of students is crucial to her vision of how teachers can empower student growth and development. Her motto: “There is a place for everyone in this program and you will be successful.”
Zephir’s Side-by-Sides program included professionals from the Rockville Brass Band, which she directs. Last year the Brass Band sponsored a side-by-side concert that included clinicians from the University of Maryland and five ERHS students. This event will be repeated with a guest clarinetist from Scotland. Members of the brass band are also members of military bands or are teachers.
Zephir hopes to expand student experiences by enabling them to perform at senior living centers like Riderwood and Collington. In March, at the Maryland Musical Educators convention in Baltimore, she will do a workshop on how to incorporate chamber music into a music program.
Several students who graduated from the music program at ERHS credit her with influencing their decisions to become music teachers. That is high praise indeed, she says.
The students, parents and the administration at ERHS are fortunate to have such an innovative and inventive music director as a member of the faculty.