KMEA President Alan Emerson

Welcome to our website. If you are a teacher, parent, or student, we hope you will find the information posted here helpful and informative. Membership in the Kentucky Music Educators Association is open to any public, private, or university level music teacher. Members of KMEA may register the schools at which they teach, including home schools, after which students who attend the school may participate in KMEA-sponsored school activities. Our professional organization is in place to support the teachers AND their students. The web site is full of information that will inform, clarify and support the professional music educator.

My name is Alan Emerson and I will be serving as KMEA president, after my 2 years as president-elect of the KMEA Executive Board. In May 2023, I will have completed 28.5 years as a teacher in KY and KMEA “teacher member.” I spend one half of each day at James Madison Middle School and the other one half a day at Madisonville North Hopkins High School.

My career at Hopkins County Schools has provided a great opportunity to affect students and families. My students and their families have been great to work with, and I have spent my entire career team- teaching! Many of our former students are now teaching members of KMEA, while others are still involved in many facets of music, ranging from giving private lessons to and even teaching at the Juilliard School.

KMEA is an organization built from the ground-up. Excellent teachers are at the core of the success of our organization and help shape and mold bylaws, budgets, committees, conferences, and decisions. If/when you are called to serve, please don’t hesitate to commit! There are always members willing to lend a helping hand and share knowledge with anyone new to serving this organization. Also, we are an organization where all ideas are welcome. Send your ideas to the appropriate committee/person and get the conversation started so our policies, procedures, and events are great experiences for our students. Students are our driving force and great ideas come from all facets of KMEA.

As we put the COVID years in our rearview mirror, it would be remiss of me not to mention the work our previous membership teams did to keep this non-profit organization on a firm foundation. Bravo to the previous KMEA Boards for keeping the necessary amount of cash reserve to weather the uncertain and oft-changing circumstances these years caused. Thanks to the forethought and dedication of members, KMEA was able to provide for what is in the best interest of music students across the state.

George Boulden was an outstanding member of our organization, and, although I knew him as a young teacher, it was in the last couple of years I was made aware of his impact on our organization. KMEA will work to honor Mr. Boulden’s legacy through the endowment of a scholarship in his name. It is only fitting that we continue to serve the music students of Kentucky in this way, just as Mr. Boulden dedicated his life to serving them through his passion for music.

Moving forward, I also want to encourage our membership to consider sharing your ideas or students’ abilities through performance at our annual conference. Like many of you, I leave the conference each year brimming with new ideas to try at home. KMEA is home to some of the best music educators our state has to offer, so don’t hesitate to show off your kids and/or ideas!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will visit often!