♥
For the L♥ve of Music By Chloe Echols ’23
L
aura Main Webster ’91 wears many hats in the Hathaway Brown community. As an alumna, mother of an alumna, teacher, and Performing Arts department chair, she has a unique perspective on HB and insight into the lives of both students and teachers. Laura began her HB experience as a child in eighth grade who loved music. Student life, for Laura, was filled with blissful moments that included creating dances with classmates, participating in musicals or shows, and writing songs in the courtyard during lunch. Her love of the arts ran so deep that she would cry when performances were over. Music also helped her cope with feelings of not fitting in. In her school years, HB was not as diverse as it is currently, so there were often feelings of social exclusion. Though a somewhat painful experience, this deepened Laura’s involvement in the musical world, as she found it to be her home and place of acceptance. She remembers caring about social excursions and grades, but nothing trumped her love of anything musical or of the arts. This love of music permeated her everyday life and formed the music teacher and lover of the arts that we know today. When thinking back, Laura says she remembers many times singing, creating, and dancing as a child in Primary and Middle School. She also remembers often sitting in the grass singing with former teacher Deb Southard. “These were the times that all felt right with the world despite having challenging academics,” she says.
24
HB
Feelings of peace, love, and joy are vivid in all her memories of HB and create a desire in her to spread the same feelings to her students through music, empathy, and intentional communication. Her childhood influences her teaching every day because she wants everyone to feel loved and accepted at all times; the way she felt when singing. She wants and strives to make the world of performing arts a home for those who feel like they don’t fit in. Laura says that when teaching, she always tries to make a personal connection, to share music that comforts and empowers, and to enforce the principle that everyone matters, everyone has value, and everyone is welcome. “I pride myself in trying to see people, to be personal, and to see the best in everyone,” she says. Her love of music motivates her to connect with everyone in HB’s community, from the cleaning staff to the infants she teaches. She recalls a moment of catching a student’s eye while singing a song called “You Matter to Me.” She remembers it because the student was going through a difficult moment in her life and experiencing feelings of loneliness and weariness. This moment was so beautiful and intense and proves Laura’s commitment to showing love and acceptance through music. After attending HB, Laura went on to pursue more musical studies as an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College, and graduate school at Case Western Reserve University. There, she learned more about music and how to teach. After graduation, she came back to HB to teach and continue to grow in the world of music. As Performing Arts Department chair, Laura works with infants through high schoolers and even presents nationally to music teachers from all over the country! Being an alumna and past participant in musical groups like Bravuras gives her insight and understanding into what each division specifically needs in their program. For example, with younger children she works on using music to express big emotions like anger or sadness. With Middle Schoolers, she uses music to tell stories and show how it can be used as a beautiful expression. In the Upper School, she combines both of these principles and adds in vocal techniques like vowel shape, dynamics, tone, and color of the sound. She enjoys her work with each division knowing the influence and power of music is in the
