Heather Rosner's Opus: Bringing Music to Life

By Jenny Barnett, May 11, 2023

Heather Rosner ’05, MM ’10, works to bring music to everyone—even through a pandemic.

(Photo submitted)

Heather Rosner ’05, MM ’10, moves energetically around the room, directing while connecting with every child as she goes during the Alexandria City Public School’s Teacher Appreciation Week video for 2021–22. The music, arranged by Rosner, is performed by the George Mason Elementary School Band.

It sure doesn’t look like your typical elementary school band—but Rosner isn’t your typical instrumental music teacher either. Rosner’s goal, which she began pursuing while an undergraduate music education major at Ithaca College, is to provide all children with access to music. She has fought hard to eliminate barriers to music education for youth and is extremely proud that every fourth and fifth grader at George Mason takes part in instrumental music.

When the pandemic hit, all of Rosner’s students continued their instrument instruction at home, with their teacher making visits to families’ yards to repair and deliver instruments. The resulting 2020 Zoom holiday concert prompted an appearance in local paper Alexandria Times’s Speak Easy podcast that November and a profile in the Washington Post the following month.

“No kid wants to be theoretical about it. They want to make music.”

Heather Rosner ’05, MM ’10

Once students returned in person, a new challenge arose. Elementary schoolers had to be masked and weren’t initially allowed to play any instruments. Rather than teach theory and air fingering, Rosner pivoted her approach. “No kid wants to be theoretical about it. They want to make music,” she said.

Rosner purchased ukuleles and electric basses— instruments her students would be able to play under the new restrictions—and re outfitted the program using a community donation. The band was so successful that the school district designed the teacher appreciation video to feature it. For Rosner, it represented “a picture of a reinvented program.”

Rosner, who hails from Rockville, Maryland, started learning trumpet in fourth grade. When she arrived on South Hill as a euphonium player, she felt she was strong on musicality but lacked in technical skills relative to her peers. She credits the patience of her professors with enabling her to thrive.

After getting her undergraduate degree, Rosner stayed in the Ithaca area, landing a position as a music teacher for two years at a children’s treatment facility in Seneca County, where she developed an instrumental music program for youth with developmental delay, emotional disturbance, and behavioral challenges.

Her passion for bringing music to underserved youth as an undergraduate student continued in her graduate degree through a connection initiated by composition professor Dana Wilson (now emeritus), and supported by many of her IC professors when she volunteered at several juvenile court–ordered facilities. She also taught music to incarcerated youth, often bringing other IC students to assist for independent study credit.

“The School of Music was incredibly supportive if I needed materials, books, or instruments,” she said.

Rosner currently teaches weekly classes in the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center in a program she developed while continuing to rack up accolades for the impact she has on her students.

In June 2022, Alexandria Chamber of Commerce included her in their 40 under 40 list, and in September, she made the finalist list for Northern Virginia Magazine’s Teacher of the Year. Her nomination cited glowing praise from students’ families. “My son told me one time, ‘Do you think Ms. Rosner knows that she changed my life?’” said parent Anne Reynolds. “Heather Rosner is the type of teacher that goes above and beyond for her students every day.”