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MRS. BLACK

A native of Long Island, New York, Kourtney has been studying music since she was 4 years old. The daughter and sister of choral educators, Kourtney grew up in a musical home where she studied voice, piano, and flute privately for 34 combined years before entering college. She discovered her love of teaching when she began teaching privately with her mother’s private piano and voice studio at the age of 12. Throughout high school, she held musical leadership roles in all 9 of the musical ensembles she was involved in, was a two time New York All State winner and one of the New York soprano representatives at All Eastern by her senior year. She also won the 2008 Long Island’s Music Lovers Concert and participated with the New York City’s Grand Opera Chorus at Carnegie Hall. Noticed for her vocal achievements, Kourtney was given an internship with Long Island’s USDAN Center for the Creative and Performing Arts and was entitled the 2009 Eastman School of Music Scholar.

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Desiring to continue her love for performing and teaching, Kourtney auditioned for the Wheaton, IL Conservatory and was accepted into the conservatory’s music program as a double major in Opera Performance and Choral Music Education, but desired to solely pursue Music Education later on. She taught over 800 choral students during her student teaching and directed the select choir, “Jukebox” at the Illinois Grade School Music Association competition. The ensemble won first place in their division.

Under the direction of her college voice professor, Dr. Gerard Sundberg, Kourtney completed a Junior and Senior Voice recital successfully, was the Honors Conductor of the Women’s Chorale, and was given the 2012 Virginia Stoner Scholarship for Music Education. She is classically trained and uses both this style and the Backward Design approach to learning, a method that identifies the results desired and works towards these goals through formal assessment.

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Kourtney has worked as a private music instructor for over 45 students and is available to instruct privately through Brighton Academy. She was the junior high musical director for Schoolhouse Rock in January 2014 at Heritage Christian Academy, while also coaching vocal students throughout the entire process of other well-known musicals such as Annie, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, Cinderella, Seussical, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Into The Woods, The Sound of Music, and Les Miserables throughout the Kansas City metro area.

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Kourtney is the Music and Choral Director at Brighton Academy in Overland Park. When she first began teaching at Brighton, she started the choral program with 3 students! Today, the choir program has grown to over 50 students in a five year span, educating elementary, middle and high school children.  In April 2016, 2017 and 2018 her middle and high school choir received the highest 1 rating’s at the Midwest Academic and Fine Arts Meet. The middle school and high school choirs plan to compete again at the Fine Arts Meet, this April 2019. Starting in the fall of 2018, Kourtney is thrilled to continue growing the choral program at Brighton for her fifth year while enjoying all that comes with being a new mom!

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