Northeastern program is transforming diverse youth music education
New England Council member Northeastern University’s program, Beyond Creative @ NU, gives high school students across Boston an opportunity to learn how to record and create music to share their story with other youth.
Beyond Creative @ NU was launched in 2022 and has run every spring and summer since. Each course concludes with the students producing a collaborative music album. Rebekah Moore and Francesca Inglese, two assistant professors of music at Northeastern, kickstarted the program as part of a broader initiative to expand diversity in Northeastern’s music department across both faculty and university-level students. Most of the students who participate in Beyond Creative @ NU come from under-resourced schools that are intensely segregated.
“At the core of the program is the idea that students should be empowered to not only find their own voice but amplify it,” said Terry Borderline, who teaches students about the recording and songwriting process. “Importantly, they get to do that together. All the students learn the same skills, but what role they choose to play on the collaborative album– producer, performer, graphic designer– is entirely up to them.”
The New England Council commends Northeastern University for its strides in making music education more widely accessible and diverse in youth communities.
Read more in NGNMagazine.