NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — Bethany Robinson, the Noblesville High School jazz director and assistant band director, is a top 10 finalist to win the 2022 Grammy Music Educator Award. She was selected from more than 1,100 nominees across the country.
"I started as a sixth grade music teacher. It's been a lot of years to build up the jazz band from one band to now we have five jazz bands," Robinson said, who's in her 17th year with the school district. "My full time job now is almost exclusively with jazz. It's really incredible."
Although Robinson is an excellent musician herself, the Grammy she's up for recognizes her excellence in the classroom.
"I just learned about it just a couple years ago and thought it was really cool," Robinson said." It just seemed so far off and such a dream that didn't even seem like a goal at that point. It was just something I really admired. To be in that spot right now is really beyond anything I could have comprehended."
Robinson's journey in becoming a finalist came about quickly.
"One of my students actually nominated me, and then, I even had to ask a few of my current students last year to write letters of recommendation for me," Robinson said. "I'm usually the one writing letters of recommendation for them for colleges, so it was quite a turn of the tables."
Her jazz ensemble took home second place at this year's National Jazz Festival. Robinson was also named the 2014 Indiana Jazz Educator of the Year, 2015 Noblesville Schools' Teacher of the Year and was a 2016 Indiana Teacher of the Year semifinalist.
The nomination has allowed Robinson to reflect on a career that's impacted so many students' lives through music.
"What I really loved about the process is it sort of felt like being back in grad school and really thinking about why you love teaching," Robinson said.
The winner will receive their Grammy in Los Angeles on national television. A victory would also award Noblesville High School with a $10,000 honorarium and matching grant.
"It's just something that's so beyond me and something beyond anything I could have dreamed for myself," Robinson said.
The Grammys take place Jan. 26, 2022.
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