Buffalo music teacher getting international recognition

The students in Amy Steiner's jazz band can see just how much music means to her.

"That's one thing I love about her," Amario Marshall, a 12th grade percussionist, said. "She has a passion for music that has never burned away."

The Hutch-Tech High School band director takes pride in what she does. Steiner has been teaching for 22 years, the last 19 in Buffalo Public Schools.

"The kids know that I expect the best from them because I completely believe in every single one of those kids," she said.

That passion for music, while well known at Hutch-Tech, is now being noticed internationally.

Steiner is one of five instrumental music teachers invited to attend the Midwest Clinic free of charge. More than 800 teachers from around the world applied for the honor. The band and orchestra conference is the largest of its kind in the world.

"Attending this [conference] will allow me learn new strategies in the band classroom, network with band directors from around the world, meet and have professional conversations with world-renowned composers and conductors, and also bring back all that I have learned and share with the Music Department in the Buffalo Public Schools," Steiner said.

When it comes to the importance of arts education in schools, Steiner points to statistics she has recorded for Buffalo Public Schools the last seven years. In that time, every single student who participated in instrumental music from 5th to 12th grade graduated high school.

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