Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Lebherz Daly.
Hi Jenna, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Thank you for asking! My childhood memories often involve listening to Dad’s music on the weekends, singing with Mom in the car, enjoying songs around the campfire as a family, and singing in three-part harmony with my sisters. My musical career path started in 5th Grade when I joined the Frederick Children’s Chorus of which I was a member for 7 years while also serving as the Chorus Manager and Student Director.
The Artistic Director, Judy Dubose, took me to a conference with the American Boy Choir in NJ and it made such an impact that I knew working with a child’s voice brought my heart joy. I joined the magnet music program AMS at Governor Thomas Johnson High School, and for two years would dive deeper into music for three hours every morning. This conservatory setting strengthened my desire to apply to 5 music colleges and I accepted the offer to attend Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. During my 4.5 years there, I performed with fellow opera singers and music educators that loved choir just as much as I did. While receiving my Music Education and Vocal Performance Bachelors Degrees, I had the opportunity to compete in vocal competitions, perform in the choirs with the NY Philharmonic at Avery Fisher and Carnegie Hall, toured the East Coast, the South, CA, and was a member of the choir in residence every May for the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. Working with my voice teacher, Laura Brooks Rice, was a phenomenal opportunity that helped my voice to grow in both size and confidence. The experiences that I gained from Westminster Choir College have never been replicated and I am genuinely grateful for every moment that I grew on that campus. I then decided to earn my Masters in Opera Performance at the University of Maryland serving as one of the few Mezzo-Sopranos within the Studio. Their facilities were of top-notch quality and our acting classes refined my ability to become a Singing Actress.
My next chapter involved the love of my life, Scott Daly, and we were married in 2009. Scott got a job working in NYC, so we moved to Hoboken, NJ, where I auditioned and performed in NYC off and on. With the economic crash and the opera world becoming smaller, I rekindled my love for working with children while working at Mavery Designs which taught sewing classes to children, and I worked as an “Opera Singing Nanny” babysitting for around 15 Moms, so about 30 children.
Scott and I decided to move back to MD and I received my first full-time teaching job working at Gerstell Academy in Finksburg, MD, as the Pre-K through 5th Grade Music Teacher. I fell in love with the school’s Leadership Model and the colleagues that I worked for, and I took to heart their Leadership Principles and Attributes. One year later, I was asked by the Founder of the Children’s Chorus of Carroll County and mentor, Diane Jones, to become one of their Music Directors. I was honored to teach the youngest choir Les Petites Voix (LPVs) teaching 2nd through 3rd Grade Students, while also teaching an early childhood music class musique joyeuse (MJs) to 4-6-year-olds.
In 2016, Scott and I welcomed our twin girls, Lorelei and Roxanna Daly. They are a joy, loved by everyone they meet, and full of life and song! Shortly after their birth, I became the Performing Arts Department Chair at Gerstell Academy, and I named the new Artistic Director of the Children’s Chorus of Carroll County. Becoming a Mom was quite the promotion, but to also take on these other two positions was an adjustment that I could not have successfully made without the support of my husband, family, friends, and phenomenal colleagues.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been an easy path, and guiding the Performing Arts of Gerstell Academy and the members of the Children’s Chorus of Carroll County through a pandemic was a whole new world. I went through a bit of a slump in 2020 trying to understand a virus that considered musicians to be “dangerous” with the amount of air that they produced while performing. The idea of a world without a choral sound was devastating to me, so I threw myself into virtual music conferences, articles, conversations with my mentors and colleagues, and constantly researched to find the safest way to sing as the world learned new details about COVID-19. The first year of teaching in person during COVID-19 took a lot of courage, but every small step that we took led to a new level of confidence in our choices to create music again. I am grateful to say that the membership numbers of the Children’s Chorus of Carroll County have increased since rebuilding in 2020, and that the Performing Arts are still going strong at Gerstell Academy.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I do not see myself as one who is set apart from others, but I do see myself as one who is a member of many big teams full of wonderful people. Being a Music Director of the Children’s Chorus of Carroll County for 5 years helped me to absorb and gain a deeper appreciation for the team of people and the organization before becoming the Artistic Director. I love getting to know the families of the Chorus and I appreciate hearing their input throughout the year. Children from all over Carroll County are auditioned before entering one of our 4 ensembles and we perform two free concerts each year. It is our goal to deliver top-notch music educators and experiences that will lead to bright young musicians. Our mission is to perform both within our community and outside of the state of Maryland. We have sung for local events and churches of Carroll County, and the National Anthem for charities, the Orioles, and the Baltimore Blast. We have competed in festivals located at Busch Gardens, Hershey Park, Philadelphia, NYC, and Chicago, and we have toured participating in festivals in New Orleans, Estonia, Prague, Vienna, and England.
Being one of the three performing arts educators at Gerstell Academy is an honor. I teach Pre-K through 4th Grade General Music in the Lower School and two Middle School Choirs, while my colleagues teach two theater arts classes, two MS Strings ensembles, two MS Band ensembles, and three Upper School ensembles (Strings, Band, and Chorus). Our team of three teaches about three quarters of the entire school. Overseeing the curricula for Pre-K through 12th Grade is a privilege and it gives me a thrill to see that the adjustments made in one grade’s curriculum truly pays off years down the road. Infusing our leadership language into the performing arts classrooms and rehearsals using the Gerstell Academy Leadership Principles and Attributes helps to build even more teams of music.
Networking and finding a mentor can have a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
My advice for finding a mentor would be to have an open heart and mind to everyone you work with, because you never know who will become your next mentor.
I was lucky to have fallen into the path of my many mentors, and they have touched my heart molding me into the musician and educator that I am today.
Contact Info:
- Website:www.ccccnotes.com and www.gerstell.org
