Erin Bollacker

Bollacker’s innovative teaching idea, “The Next Great Composer,” focuses on helping students develop, evaluate, improve and perform their own musical compositions, which they will compile into personal portfolios. Due to the school’s lack of instruments, Bollacker has to focus her lessons on singing, which severely limits the types of composition activities that she can conduct in her class. With the Voya grant, she plans to purchase instruments that will enable her to give her students a well-rounded musical education. Through this project, Bollacker hopes to help her students become skilled musicians whose compositions are highlighted in the classroom, at annual music performances, and in portfolios that document their work over a period of five years.