Kate Bright
Kate Bright is a general music teacher for the West Shore School District in central Pennsylvania. After receiving her Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Lebanon Valley College, she continued her studies. She received her Orff Schulwerk certification at the Philadelphia University of the Arts in 2010 and, in August of 2021, completed her Master’s of Kodály Music Education at the American Kodály Institute.
Kate works with several non-profit organizations to help support elemental music and movement education. She serves as past president on the board of the Greater Baltimore Area Orff Schulwerk Association and serves as secretary for the American Center for Elemental Music and Movement. Through ACEMM, Kate organizes and moderates a weekly professional book study that hosts members from across the United States and Canada.
Kate has received several awards for her work in music education. In 2015, she received the Spotlight Award from the American Center for Elemental Music and Movement, and in 2017 she received Lincoln Charter School’s first-ever Staff Member of the Year award. She has also received the ACCLAIM Award from the West Shore School District in 2023 and the Superintendent’s Award from the Shippensburg University Superintendent Study Council.
Kate has presented elemental music and movement workshops across the country for Orff Chapters, state music education associations, and three times for the American Orff Schulwerk National Conference. Kate has numerous webinars on Teaching with Orff as well as on F-flat Book’s Learn Platform. She built the website Elemental Musical Adventures for educators to use with their students and maintains a folder of useful resources on her website, www.katebright.org, which are free to music and movement educators.
In her community, Kate is the artistic director and the conductor of the Hummelstown Community Singers. She also enjoys folk dancing with her husband, Evan Kaiser, who is the organizer of the Harrisburg Folk Dancers. Kate has published a children’s book, Just Like the Moon, with F-flat Books, and is looking forward to releasing her second book, How We Listen, in the spring of 2025.
