Katja Kleyensteuber is a music educator, researcher, and trombonist from New Hampshire, USA. She was awarded a Fulbright grant after earning her Master of Music degree in Music Education and Graduate Certificate in Arts Management from Boston University (BU), summa cum laude. Katja received the School of Music Departmental Award in Music Education from BU for her research and work with undergraduate and graduate music students.
Through her graduate research, Katja explored the power of music education in addressing social justice, the effects that student and teacher attitude can have on the classroom environment, and the benefits of placing more value on artistry, empathy, and global citizenship in the music classroom and curriculum. Katja’s master’s thesis, “Affirmation, Awareness, and Action: Curriculum for Social Justice and Music Education,” advanced her engagement with curriculum design and its importance in addressing current cultural influences in the lives of our students. Researching 21st century curriculum development inspired her to investigate how we have begun addressing diversity in music education at different levels and encouraged the desire for further cross-cultural investigation. Through her Fulbright research project, “Curricular Call and Response: The Future of Music Education in Vienna,” she examined how the music education curriculum at the university level in Austria has responded to calls for change that come directly and indirectly from the federal government and surrounding community.
Katja received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the University of New Hampshire, magna cum laude, as well as NH and MA state licensure in K-12 Music Education. She worked as a public school music educator in the United States for six years at the elementary and secondary levels before gaining experience at the university level, teaching for two years as a graduate teaching assistant at BU. Inspired to find a creative solution to introducing elementary students to band at the start of the pandemic, Katja wrote and illustrated a children’s book (“Myna Joins The Band”) to assist local students in learning about and choosing band instruments for beginning band in the fall. She has maintained a private low brass studio and was the low brass adjudicator for the New Hampshire All State Music Festival. Katja is a Stanley A. Hamel Traveling Fellowship recipient and was named Teacher of the Year in her second year as music director at Stevens High School in NH. She is a member of multiple academic and musical honor societies including Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Kappa Lambda.
Katja believes in empowering students and musicians through affirmation, awareness, and action in the classroom and on stage. Her passion for teaching music students of all ages and backgrounds has contributed to her research on curriculum and the importance of DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging) in music education. She finds joy and pride in assisting aspiring music educators in gaining confidence and finding their place as instruments of change in the music classroom.
In her “off” time Katja enjoys drinking tea, crafting, snowboarding, and spending time outside with her family. She also believes in the importance of community music and aims to actively perform with various community ensembles wherever she calls home.
