Artist Spotlight - Katie Taylor
As students and teachers return to school, we are excited to feature a music teacher, Katie Taylor, as our September Artist Spotlight. Mrs. Taylor has taught music at Alexandria Central School for the past 25 years. Since Alex Bay is a small district, Mrs. Taylor teaches students from Pre-K to 12th grade. She teaches general music, chorus, music theory, and theater classes as well as directs the musicals.
Katie was instrumental in starting a musical program when she first started teaching at Alexandra Central School. At the time, there were no lights in the auditorium or a single wireless headset. Now, the program has grown significantly and they even have their own sound system.
Mrs. Taylor has directed a show at Alexandria Bay every year of her career, except her first, even including when students were required to stay at home due to COVID-19. During 2020, Katie put in countless hours to create a virtual production of Beauty and The Beast, Jr. The cast featured over 40 students and due to COVID-19 restrictions, each student had to be filmed and recorded individually. Once the students’ vocal parts were recorded, each student was filmed separately in front of a green screen lip-synching their part. Mrs. Taylor then had to match each audio and video file - she shared that the opening scene alone took three days to put together. Another cool feature of this production was that some of the filming took place at Boldt Castle to give the scenes the gothic castle feel. The students, families, and teachers were very proud of their endeavors, as they should be for something of this magnitude. “It’s something that the parents and the kids and the people in the community will remember, that even though it was COVID, we didn’t give up and we didn’t just fold.” This past year, the students were excited to be back on stage in front of a live audience with their production of The Addams Family.
Along with teaching, Katie is highly involved with other musical endeavors including Harmony, Inc. Harmony, Inc. is an international organization of women singers looking to share and grow music in the barbershop acapella style. Mrs. Taylor is currently the music director for the local chapter, Northern Blend. The group ranges from individuals 14 to 84 years old with various backgrounds including teachers, nurses, homemakers, restaurant owners, and more. The group has won two international gold medals through Harmony, Inc. as well as many second, third, and fourth place medals. If you are a woman, or identify as female, and are interested in joining the choir, the group meets Monday nights at 7:00 at the Stone Presbyterian Church in Watertown.
We are pleased to feature Katie Taylor as our September Artist Spotlight. If you would like to find out more about her and some of her projects, watch the full interview and check the links below.
