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Woodhaven High showcases United Sound program that pairs peer mentors with students with special needs
Summary
At its May 13 meeting the Woodhaven-Brownstown School District heard a presentation on United Sound, a peer-mentoring music program that adapts instruments and parts so students with special needs can perform with school bands; Detroit Harmony donated 13 instruments for participating students.
Woodhaven-Brownstown School District music teacher Brad Fernyars told the Board of Education on May 13 that United Sound pairs students with special needs with trained high‑school peer mentors so the new musicians can learn adapted parts and perform with the concert band.
United Sound is “a national organization that seeks to ‘remove barriers and foster social change through music,’” Fernyars said. At Woodhaven High School, new musicians choose an instrument and are placed in peer‑mentor groups of two to three current band students. Mentors are trained to teach basics, write adapted parts tailored to each student’s abilities and support a culminating public performance.
Fernyars said the program meets one to two times per week, and that the social ties formed between mentors and new musicians often extend beyond rehearsals. “Many of the groups form friendships that extend beyond the band room,” he said, and the peer mentors gain leadership and teaching experience while the new musicians join an ensemble that historically has been difficult to access.
The program’s instrument donations were highlighted as essential to expanding access. Fernyars said Detroit Harmony, a program affiliated with the Detroit Symphony, provided instruments so students could own, rather than borrow, their instruments. “Each student was given an instrument that now belongs to them rather than borrowing a school‑owned instrument,” Fernyars said. He listed donated items including five bell kits, several clarinets, trumpets, a baritone and “a ton of saxophones,” and asked the community to continue donating instruments or funds for supplies.
Fernyars showed classroom adaptations such as color‑coded sticky notes on a xylophone and short videos of students working through parts. He invited the public to the next concert on May 21 at 7:00 p.m. in the Woodhaven High School Auditorium, where United Sound students will join the band to play “You’ve Got a Friend in Me.”
The presentation preceded the board’s recognition of retirees and tenured teachers and did not include formal action items tied specifically to the United Sound presentation.
For more details, the district posted the program description and examples of adapted parts and donated instrument lists during the public presentation.
