Greetings! It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Insightful Music Leadership website. We hope you will find our content helpful. Should you have concerns in the areas of Leadership, Engagement: Service-Learning, Musicianship, or Performance Anxiety, please use our contact form and let us know how we may help.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Marcia Bornhurst Parkes

Mission
More than ever before, a great need exists for people to see goodness in others and consider how to experience the world in peace and harmony. Music, the world’s universal language, allows everyone, not only musicians, to listen attentively and seek to understand all people in all cultures.

Musicians are trained how to listen; then we feel, think, and act. Musicians know that as we explore the creative and re-creative process as individuals and with others, our minds, bodies, and spirits are enriched. As amateurs to professional musicians imagine, create, and perform, extraordinary works of art are created through an unspoken conversation. Something absolutely marvelous happens: We are working together to build a community.

Leaders in all areas of music, all other arts, and in business hope that the community they serve will make a difference. How leaders help to define and pursue their organizations’ mission and goals is key. Insightful Music Leadership was established to support leaders and teams in the field of music and business. We hope that through our work, Insightful Music Leadership will contribute to the success of others.

The mission of Insightful Music Leadership is to support the professional music and business communities, and help people of all ages with diverse life experiences to find common ground and build community through music.

Insightful Music Leadership (IML) provides support to schools, music organizations, and small and medium size businesses. Support is delivered through professional development events, conference, corporate, and civic speaking engagements, and conducting and consulting services. 

Marcia Bornhurst Parkes, our founder, possesses extensive experience as a music administrator, project manager, conductor, and teacher in higher education, community music, and K-12 schools. Her service to the profession continues as she brings integrity, artistry, creativity and vision to the music community and to small to medium size businesses.
(See Full Bio)

IML focuses in these areas:
— Leadership
— Engagement
– focused in and through service-learning
— Musicianship
— Performance Anxiety

Leadership
As Marcia works with clients, she provides innovative and creative solutions which lead to efficient systems and process improvement. She leads new initiatives that address gaps and needs, and inspires excellence in performance. As the leader of the Department of Music at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, as Program Chair and Director of Bands of the Eastman School of Music New Horizons Program, as a teacher-conductor in k-12 schools, as a founder of the New York State Band Directors Association (NYSBDA), as creator and manager of the Regional Workshop Program – the professional development arm of NYSBDA, and chair of the first NYSBDA band commission project, Marcia brought keen insight, imagination, creativity, and tenacity to those schools and organizations, and many others. 

Engagement – Service-learning 
Marcia fosters alliances so that schools, organizations and businesses, can collaborate and develop service-learning projects that help build students’ character, achieve academic success, and become capable citizens. Evidence of successfully developed engagement projects include the service-learning project developed in 2018 for Rochester (NY) City School #16 as well as many others she created and produced during her long k-12 music teaching career. What is Service-Learning?  

Musicianship 
Music and the arts play an important role in daily life as they have for millennia. When sound, and silence, rhythm and pulse are organized into music, our thoughts and feelings are expressed and communicated without a spoken word. As we listen to existing music or create new works we consider the creator’s or our own intentions. Since we seek to understand or be understood, we deepen our relationships with others and this leads to building peaceful communities. Music serves as a bridge between cultures. Insightful Music Leadership advocates for music by highlighting the benefits of creating, participating and performing, responding, and connecting through music and the other arts. When speaking to audiences as a music director, Marcia shares insights about musical concepts, compositional strategies, and facts about composers and their music. 

Performance Anxiety 
Anxiety, related to performance, exists in the field of music, other performing arts, and the general workplace. For those suffering from performance anxiety, it can be daunting to achieve success in high stress situations, including solo and ensemble music ensemble performance as well as in the workplace. Crippling fear causes those suffering with anxiety to be unable to succeed in their tasks. Marcia has had consistent success in helping novice to advanced solo and ensemble musicians of all ages and in all situations deal with performance anxiety. She helps business employees recognize that their fear in the workplace is the same as what musicians experience. During her workshops, she discusses symptoms, causes, relevant research, and strategies, and some may be explored.

IML serves clients based on these cornerstones:
1. The Potential to help clients.
2. The ability to foster Teamwork.
3. The ability to help clients develop the necessary Skills of listening, analysis, creative thinking and problem solving.
4. Performance: Helping teams excel when compared to the industry standard.

IML offers services in four categories.
Consulting Services aimed at:
— School leaders (k-12 and higher education), faculty, and students.
— 
Business leaders and teams.

“We are very grateful to Marcia for sharing her expertise, time, and talents. As a result of her work with our team, we have a greater appreciation for the benefits of service-learning: improved academic success and strengthened character. We hope to implement aspects of their work. Marcia is a highly-qualified, dedicated professional in the areas of leadership and service-learning. I highly recommend Dr. Marcia Bornhurst Parkes.”
(See Full Endorsement)

Lisa L. Garrow, Principal
John Walton Spencer School No. 16, Rochester City School District 
Rochester, NY 

Professional Development Services
— For businesses and schools.
— Presentations at national, state, regional, local events. (See Presentations)
— Professional, targeted workshops.
— Superintendent’s Conference Day presentations.
— Confidential, mentoring services. 

Guest Conductor Services
— Conducting honor wind bands.
— Rehearsing and conducting school ensemble at school concerts.
— Pre-concert or festival critique services.

“Dr. Bornhurst Parkes did a wonderful job organizing the event, a side-by side with the high school jazz band for the annual District Jazz Festival (April, 2018) and working with my students. It was a thrill for them to sit among a more mature group of musicians with a totally different list of experiences and play the same music. Excellent experience.”  

Kevin Meade, Band and Jazz Ensemble Director
Churchville-Chili High School, Churchville, NY.

Guest Speaker Services
— Key-note address and panel participation at corporate and civic events, conferences.

— 2021 Ithaca College School of Music Summer Graduate Workshop, Dr. Keith Kaiser, Director
“Affecting Change through Experiential Learning”
presented by Dr. Marcia Bornhurst Parkes, Insightful Music Leadership
June 29, 2021
 


— See additional examples at the Presentation page.
 

Please click on the links below for more information about Marcia’s experience, and consider how she may support you and your organization. 

LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbparkes
Melody Masters Big Band Link: https://melodymastersbigband.com
Rochester Profesional Consultants Network: https://rochesterconsultants.org/Sys/PublicProfile/12000462 


Contact Us Here
  IML respects your privacy and does not share your information.