In January, Chad Lemons, music teacher at Mead Elementary, presented at the Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA) Conference about the importance of Unified Percussion programming.
The CMEA Conference is held at the end of January every year, drawing music educators, musicians, clinicians, vendors, and more to the beautiful Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
This year, Lemon was one of four St. Vrain Valley School educators who submitted a proposal and was accepted to present a session at the 2023 conference.
While Lemon is currently the music teacher at Mead Elementary, he was instrumental in creating Mead High School’s Unified Percussion program.
Lemon is inspiring others to expand their music programs with his vision of inclusivity. He stated, “Through the development of the Mead HS Unified Percussion Ensemble, and my opportunities to advocate for more inclusive music education programs, we’ve seen similar programs being built in SVVSD (Skyline, Longmont, Frederick, Silver Creek), and individuals reaching out from around the state about steps to create something similar in other districts.”
Chalkbeat Colorado recently interviewed Lemon about music inclusion. The article can be read here.