Art in the Community

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Being a musician at Tabor goes far beyond just the music.
At least, that’s what these three alums are proving in their efforts to give back to the community every day.

Ellie Osborn ’93 always knew she wanted to be a teacher. After undergrad, she went back to school to get her teaching certificate in elementary education. During her 10 years in the classroom, she frequently used music in her classes by singing songs with her students to reinforce what they were learning, and she found that the kids really loved the music.

It was at Tabor that Osborn first got a taste of teaching music and knew that it was something she wanted to pursue. Her senior project was teaching music at Sippican Elementary School, with the culminating event being a performance by her students in the Fireman Auditorium at Tabor. 

“It was amazing,” says Osborn. “I loved it, and it definitely reinforced that I wanted to be a teacher, and a music teacher.” 

Osborn founded Little Music Maker in 2004 when she was pregnant with her first son. The company has three different sectors: baby and toddler music classes, private music lessons, and hired performances. Little Music Maker first began with neighbors and friends in Osborn’s living room while she was still working full-time as an elementary school teacher. The business eventually became popular enough that it went from one class a week to eleven a week, and Osborn was able to make it her full-time job.  

The general goal of Little Music Maker is to introduce young children to music in a positive way. “It’s about exposure, not skill, at that age,” says Osborn. “It’s just to expose them to as many instruments as possible and to keep the experience as positive as possible so that they love music.” 

Osborn is not the only Tabor alum whose senior project left a lasting impression. Kelsey Boch ’19 was also impacted by her endeavor; she put on her own production of The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown. She directed, worked on the lighting, and starred in the show.  

Boch mentions that she entered Tabor with a love for music but left the school with a more well-rounded understanding of the craft. “Tabor helped foster that [love] because I had so many different outlets there,” she adds. 

Boch performed in every fall drama and musical that Tabor put on during her four years there. These performances included Thoroughly Modern Milly, Grease, In the Heights, and Heathers, to name a few. She was also in the Mixed Chorus, the Chamber Choir, and the Madrigals. “There was a time where I was never leaving Hoyt. I basically lived there,” she reflects. “I treasure the hours upon hours I spent there.” 

Boch spent some time after Tabor working for Music Drives Us, a non-profit that helps bring music programs back into schools across New England by giving resources, supplies, grants, and more to programs that need it.  

“The first program that gets cut at schools is typically your music or theater programs,” says Boch. “[Because of that,] I think that being able to work in philanthropy under the umbrella of music feels even more impactful to me.” She even got to experience the fruits of her own work when one of the after-school programs she did as a kid ended up being a Music Drives Us grant recipient. 

Boch wants to give back to her local community not only because she grew up in the local theater programs of Foxborough and Norwood, but also because she feels that music brings people together and shows young kids that there is more to life than the five core school subjects (English, history, math, science, and foreign language). “I think it shows people that there’s so much more,” she says. “There are big dreams and creative things that people can do with their lives. Not everyone has to live in this cookie-cutter world.” 

Sally Taylor ’92 had a similar thought in mind when she founded Consenses in 2012. Taylor, an artist and musician, envisioned an exhibition where artists from various disciplines would craft individual pieces of work inspired by the same idea. These works would then be passed to other artists in different mediums, who would reinterpret them, continuing the cycle of creation and reinterpretation. 

She started by collecting 22 photographs which represented a different angle of her home. Taylor then gave those photos to musicians to compose a song, then passed each song to a dancer, and continued that train with sculptors, painters, perfumers, and more until she had 22 completely individual strands of art that all started with the same idea. At the end, she took each of the 22 strands to different set designers and asked them to interpret the group as a whole and create a space for the artwork to live in. 

“The purpose of the exhibitions is to help people to see how unique their perspectives are,” says Taylor. “I’m trying to use the project as a way to help people see how exceptional their version of reality is, but also how limited. [People are] in need of other people’s versions to help them see past the limitations of their own perceptions and world views.”

The core purpose of each of these alum’s projects is to help other people through music—or in Taylor’s case, through music, art, dance, photography, and more—and to give back to their communities.  

“There’s more to giving than just dollars, and there’s more to a community than just dollars,” says Osborn, who feels that Little Music Maker goes beyond basic music classes. It is a safe place for parents to go, a place for parents and kids alike to make friends, and a place where everyone has a common goal to bond with their child and have fun.  

When the pandemic happened, Osborn began doing classes online and was able to extend her reach nationwide. She also started a fund so she could provide scholarships to families that normally wouldn’t have access to her classes.  

Along with Little Music Maker, Osborn is on the board of trustees for the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Through the PSO, she is on an education committee that works to bring musicians into local schools. They also provided free programming to teach all kindergarten and first grade teachers how to play the ukulele for class implementation. Additionally, Osborn is on a local music and arts committee working to develop a monthly concert series that hosts different local musicians.  

“Access to all,” says Osborn, “that’s really the goal.” 

Boch and Taylor agree. 

“Theater and music tend to be elitist sometimes when they shouldn’t be,” says Boch. “They should be available to all.” 

“My biggest goal with art in general is to help people let go of their fear of the unknown. I see that as a philanthropy in itself,” says Taylor. “That’s what the greatest value that I have to offer is.”

Taylor has dyslexia, which is a learning disorder that affects her reading and writing abilities. The way she learned to decode the problems caused by her dyslexia was through metaphor, meaning that she would compare new situations to other situations that she already understood to make them make sense. Her dyslexia played into her ability to see one thing as something else, which aided in the creation of Consenses.  

A real-life example of this is that at Tabor, Osborn and Taylor performed in the same band, The Slip, during different years. The two of them never overlapped because Osborn’s only year at Tabor was her senior year in 1993—the year after Taylor graduated. In a Consenses-esque situation, both of them had completely different experiences with the same band in the same place.  

Taylor’s first foray into music was at Tabor with The Slip, whereas Osborn had been singing and playing the cello since she was seven years old. Boch also started musical theater when she was four years old.  

Each of these Tabor alums has a different story and relationship with music. Yet, they all agree that music helps bring people together, and felt so strongly about that fact that they were compelled to dedicate their professional lives to reaching out to others through music and art. They all cited creating and being surrounded by creative people as one of the most important and enjoyable aspects of what they do.  

“Time just evaporates at the mercy of creativity,” says Taylor. 

Similarly, Osborn said, “The collaboration with other creative humans is really what I live for.” 

In the spirit of Consenses and the shared passion for music that these three alums have, they were all asked the same question: “Why Music?”  

Despite their similarities, they all had very different answers.  

Taylor said, “There’s nothing so exciting as painting something invisible on the canvas of silence.” 

Osborn said, “Music connects us to ourselves, each other, and any other dimension that might exist.” 

And Boch kept it simple: “Why not?”

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