Biography
Jared L. Cassedy is the Performing Arts Department Head and High School Band Director for the Masconomet Regional School District, MA. Prior to joining this community, he was the K-12 Performing Arts Coordinator for Lexington Public Schools, Massachusetts (2018-2024) where he oversaw and supported all music and dramatic arts programming and curriculum development in collaboration with the performing arts teachers, and also conducted the LHS Wind Ensemble. He is the recipient of the 2015 GRAMMY Music Educator Award furnished by the GRAMMY Foundation and The Recording Academy having been selected out of a pool of more than 7,200 nominees nationwide and was most recently recognized as a 2022 National Music Teacher of Excellence by the Country Music Association (CMA) Foundation. Jared is President-Elect for the Massachusetts Music Educators Association (MMEA) and is the Past Chairperson for the MMEA Northeastern District. He serves on the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Equity Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, and the Council of Music Program Leaders. Prior to coming to Massachusetts, he was the President-Elect for the New Hampshire Music Educators Association (NHMEA).
Jared is also the conductor of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School’s Jr. Massachusetts Youth Wind Ensemble, a position he has held since 2016 where he works with students within the Greater Boston area who rehearse and perform actively throughout the school year. Additionally, Jared is on the faculty of The Longy School of Music of Bard College where he teaches conducting classes for the Masters of Music in Music Education program and is the Artistic Director for Longy’s Side-by-Side Orchestra Program.
Beginning his career in 2005 as a music teacher at Windham Middle School, in Windham, NH, Jared was appointed as the first Director of Bands for the newly constructed Windham High School directing all instrumental ensembles in 2009. Until 2016, Jared held the position as Director of K-12 Fine and Performing Arts responsible for the supervision and evaluation of teachers as well as the development of curriculum. From 2016 to 2018 Jared spent two years working as the first Director of K-12 Performing Arts for the Salem School District in New Hampshire (his alma mater) where he helped to define, develop, and strengthen the department’s capacity through curriculum and assessment development, collaboration, teacher supervision and effectiveness, and district-wide programming.
Jared’s continued collaboration with his students and colleagues has enabled his ensembles to be selected to participate in a myriad of national performances and festivals in New York City (National Band and Orchestra Festival at Carnegie Hall and the New York Wind Band Festival at Carnegie Hall – 2022), Chicago (Festival of Gold), and at the Bands of America (BOA) National Band Festival sponsored by Music for All and Yamaha in Indianapolis. His ensembles have also been selected to perform at the NAfME Eastern Division Conference, for the Mayor of Quebec City and Governor of Montreal, the Pacific Basin International Music Festival in Honolulu, Hawaii (2023), and most recently performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts participating in the Washington D.C. International Music Festival (2024).
Jared is a much sought after conductor and clinician conducted a myriad of regional honor bands across all states in New England, has given a variety of lectures on leadership and best practices in teaching including TEDx talking about his journey and philosophies through education, and co-presented the session, “Fine Tuning Ensemble Culture and Why it Matters: Intentionally Creating a Positive Community through Conversation and Collaboration” at the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in 2021. In 2011 the New Hampshire Band Directors Association honored Jared with the “Outstanding Young Band Director of the Year Award.” He was also nominated for New Hampshire Teacher of the Year in 2014. Jared graduated Summa cum Laude from the University of New Hampshire – Durham where he received his Bachelors of Music degree in Music Education and has a Masters of Education degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Educational Leadership from Southern New Hampshire University. He is a member of NAfME, MMEA, NBA, and ASCD, and the prestigious Pi Lambda Theta Education Honors Society.
Teaching Philosophy
It’s not just music, it’s through music. This is the core of my teaching philosophy. No matter if I am conducting a wind ensemble, teaching a conducting class, giving a workshop or lecture, or working as a performing arts administrator, it’s not just music. It is through this incredible art form that we are able to connect with one another; with our own humanity. I was recently asked by an organization, “why do you teach?” and it seems like such an easy and simple question to answer, however my response has truly evolved over time and is developed from many, many layers of my own personal “why.”
Directly stated, I teach because it is one of the best and most beautiful gifts in the world to be a part of someone’s journey; to stand alongside them as they continue to discover, create, become challenged and overcome challenges, and find their own success. I do not teach music…I teach people using music as a vehicle to help folks reach beyond their perceived potential – and it is through this realization that when I teach, I am also a student; a learner of what it means to be a contributing human being to those around me and within the world we are living.
While I am so very grateful for the personal and professional life I have been afforded, my journey has been riddled with moments of self-doubt, insecurity, and questioning my own path forward. My own identity as a part of the LGBTQIA+ and Asian communities has enabled me to experience such joy, but also such hatred and disempowerment – and it is through these experiences that I have developed my own lenses to support and authentically empower the students I work with. Indeed, the mentors and teachers I have had in my life have made all of the difference by seeing my potential and recognizing my value as a human being – in turn it is my chief priority to support my students through this same example.
We live in such a rich, diverse, and robust society and as teachers, we are given the supreme power to either celebrate or marginalize our fellow people. The resources we use, the perspectives and insights we share, the ways we welcome folks into our spaces – we must recognize how important our responsibility is to supporting the trajectory and empowerment of the students we work with. With all of the challenges we are facing in this world being teachers and learners, in any capacity and in any vocation or lifestyle, is something that will only help us to remain tied to each other and our purpose.
Looking back at the twenty years I have invested in this profession I believe that while I have evolved greatly as a musician, an educator, an administrator, and as a learner, my core values about education remain to stand firm – at the end of the day, our students, our colleagues, our administrators, people in our community, all of us as human beings just want to feel cared for, valued, and supported. And when these three tenets are authentically met, it lays such a strong foundation from which teaching and learning will result in the most significant and meaningful outcomes possible.
Teaching is not about “me” – it is about inspiring, motivating, and challenging the incredible individuals that I am entrusted to so they will do the same for those in their lives. Ironically, as teachers we have much to learn, and when our minds are open to the hearts and souls of those students in front of us, it’s pretty incredible how transformational the experience is for ALL of us.