Megan Healy was in third grade in a new school and didn’t know anyone, when her school’s orchestra teacher suggested the youngster join the ensemble, saying, “Maybe you’ll make some friends.”
The young Healy did more than just make friends. She found her life’s vocation. Now 33, she has bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in violin performance and not only performs and teaches but oversees the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra, one of the oldest and most prestigious youth orchestras in the country. Healy says she relishes this role because of her own experiences.
“Playing in my youth orchestra was huge,” says the St. Charles, Illinois, native. “I played
in youth orchestra from sixth grade through 12th grade, and it was a huge part of my upbringing. One of my best friends to this day was my stand partner in sixth-grade orchestra, and she did youth orchestra with me. My youth symphony just really helped keep me going.”
Healy has had the title of executive director of the KJSO since January and is looking forward to the group’s international tour this summer in the Balkans. The young musicians will give three performances with Igor Cetkovic, principal cellist for the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and a Serbian native. The location for the tour was chosen by the group’s Youth Arts Council.
“The students came up with the idea, and I can’t help but wonder if it was inspired by (the HBO drama) Game of Thrones, because the first place we’ll be going is King’s Landing (Dubrovnik, Croatia, the filming location for the fictional King’s Landing in the show),” she says. “It looks absolutely beautiful, and it’s really exciting to have someone from Serbia coming to perform with us. We’ll also be playing in Belgrade, which is Igor’s hometown. “
How did you get where you are today?
What originally brought me to Kalamazoo was Renata Knific (professor of violin at Western Michigan University). I was a student at the University of Iowa, and my teacher, Scott Conklin, had studied with Renata. He set us up with a trial lesson, and I came to Western to do my master’s in violin performance. While I was here, I built a large studio for teaching and did a lot of orchestral playing and just really loved the arts community in Kalamazoo.
I left for a couple years to do my doctorate in Colorado. But when Covid hit, we could really be anywhere, because work was virtual. My husband (Tim Cuffman, a violinist and violist) and I knew Kalamazoo was such a great arts town, and we said, “Let’s head back to Kalamazoo.”
Over the last couple years, I’ve worked as the string department chair at Kalamazoo Kids in Tune, which was my first step into arts administration. I built my own studio of 45 private students playing violin and viola and am part of KalHaven Strings, a string quartet that plays for weddings, concerts and events, which has given me a lot of arts entrepreneurship experience. When the KJSO position came available, I knew that the Junior Symphony has been a great organization for my students and wanted to become a bigger part of the arts community because it can be pretty lonely in the self-employed space.
What do you do as KJSO’s executive director?
I wear all the hats. I do a lot of promotion for the concerts, reaching out to folks through social media and email. I do a lot of fundraising, meeting with donors and writing grants, and make sure that all the logistics between our staff and our students are going well. I make sure that all the checks get written and everyone is happy and paid. I also think about the future of the organization and what it means for us to be a healthy and successful junior symphony.
How many staff do you oversee?
I am the one full-time employee at the organization, and there are two part-time employees: our administrative coordinator and our operations coordinator. The rest are contractors that I manage. Andrew Koehler is our conductor and music director, while Audrey Lipsey is the conductor of our prep strings orchestras, of which there are three. We have two KJSO preparatory winds programs, run by Jesse Williams and Jordan DeWester. In addition, we have many talented coaches who come in and work with our students for sectionals and chamber music.
We have more than 200 students involved in KJSO’s symphony and preparatory programs. Ninety of those are in the KJSO itself. Our kids come from more than 50 different schools from all over Southwest Michigan, from Kalamazoo and Portage to Battle Creek, Three Rivers and Mattawan.
You’re also an arts entrepreneur. Tell me about those endeavors.
One, of course, is my studio, Megan Healy Music. My doctoral research was in teaching adult beginners. I built a large studio with a lot of adult learners, but now I’m kind of 50/50 between children and adults playing the violin and the viola out of my home.
I also manage and play in a string quartet, KalHaven Strings, with my husband and (with) violist Kennedy Taylor Dixon and cellist Jordan Hamilton, and we’ve been playing up to 60 events a year. We’re the resident quartet for the Candlelight Concerts series of performances in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. Those concerts are run by a corporation called Fever that hires string quartets for venues in 90 cities around the world. They book the performances and send us the music. It’s our job to learn and perform it and speak about the pieces, which has been good public-speaking experience to prepare me for my KJSO role.
What gives you the most satisfaction?
Recently, when I was sitting at one of our concerts, I was thinking about my experience in my youth orchestra, how formative that was for me and how it feels really good to hear kids making music and feel their joy. It feels good making that happen.
But at my core I’m really a teacher, and I’ve tried to bring that into this role as well, connecting with the students so that the executive director isn’t just someone in the office that they have no clue about but someone who is creating a nurturing environment so they have room to grow.
— Interview by Marie Lee, edited for length and clarity
