2024 Student Schedule- TBD
2024 SSAA Choir Roster & Part Divisi- TBD
2024 SSAA Choir Rehearsal Materials- TBD
2024 SSAA Conductor Letter & Notes- TBD
2024 SSAA Choir Manager Letter- TBD
Kayla Werlin, Conductor
A native of Lexington, Massachusetts, and a beneficiary of Lexington’s outstanding K-12 music program, Kayla Werlin holds music degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Massachusetts. After teaching in Portsmouth, NH, Sturbridge, MA, Williamsburg, VA, and Middletown, NJ, Kayla began teaching in the Longmeadow Public Schools in 1995, and has remained in Longmeadow ever since. Although she has nearly 40 years of experience teaching music at every level, from kindergarten through college, it is the high school level where she found her true passion. Ms. Werlin’s current position is Music Department Chair and Vocal Music Director at Longmeadow High School. Under her direction, LHS choirs have earned awards at state choral festival as well as the 2011 American Prize for Choral Performance. They have received invitations to perform at state and regional music education conferences, and they have performed in New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New Hampshire as well as Italy, England, Germany and Austria. This April she will lead a performance tour of Sweden and Denmark. Performances by special invitation at the State House in Boston have included a 2015 signing ceremony recognizing the 25th anniversary of Massachusetts’ friendship with Hokkaido, Japan, and the 2016 convening of the Massachusetts Electoral College.
Kayla has played an active role in the Massachusetts chapters of both NAfME and ACDA. She is a past president of Massachusetts ACDA, and is currently Western District Chair of MMEA. This year she is managing the All-State Chorus. She has served as a guest conductor in all five districts in Massachusetts, as well as at the Cape & Islands and Quabbin Festivals, and has conducted festival choirs in New Hampshire, Vermont, New York and Connecticut as well.
In 2018 MMEA honored Kayla with its Lowell Mason Award. In 2016 she was one of three conductors from the US selected as a fellow in the C21C (Conducting for the 21st Century) Symposium at the Eric Ericson International Choral Centre in Stockholm, Sweden.
Kayla values the experience of mentoring fellow conductors. She has supervised many student teachers who are currently in the profession, and she is tremendously proud of Longmeadow High School graduates who are now music educators. She also volunteers as a mentor through the ACDA national mentoring program. In 2020 she is planning to join a former student in a presentation about mentoring at the World Choral Symposium in Auckland, New Zealand.
Married to conductor E. Wayne Abercrombie, Kayla is step-mother of six, grandmother of 13 and great-grandmother of 10. In her spare time, favorite hobbies are cooking for friends and slaying the 5.6’s at the rock wall.
2024 SSAA Choir Program- TBD