June 15, 2025 Kathryn M. (Winner) Prompt: How Has Naxos Music Library Impacted Your Music Education? I have been surrounded by music and community bands my entire life. At 11, I chose saxophone to be my instrument and have been playing it for the last decade. In that time, I have had many different musical experiences as I switched schools and went off to college. At one time, I planned to be a music major. That fell through, but my love for band and music stays steady. My college does not have a music major as our music program dwindled and there were not enough people to sustain it. However, our band program is growing again, and I have been able to have a role in its growth. I am able to play with both our wind and jazz ensembles. As one may expect from a school with such a small music program, there are not a large amount of resources put towards the program, like NAXOS. Luckily, I can access NAXOS through their partnership with the Association of Concert Bands. When NAXOS was first introduced to me, it was presented as a place to listen to classical music, and that is how I used it for the first several years. It is a place to listen to classical music, but it is also so much more. Now, I have found the education section the most useful. The encyclopedia of information about composers comes in handy when researching for writing program notes for our concerts. As a part of my history work, I have had to write papers on composers, and NAXOS is always the first place I look for that information because I can trust that the information will be accurate. It also allows me to set the mood for my paper by having music by that composer right there on the same page. One of my roles in our ensembles is to create a list of recordings of the pieces we are performing for each concert. The rest of our band has no qualms about listening to music that is an illegal recording, but I have been thoroughly taught about music copyright and always wish to ensure that the recordings are legal. My band mates are not able to access NAXOS, but when I am searching other platforms, I do my best to find recordings that have been labelled as being copyrighted by NAXOS if I cannot find one directly from the publisher. NAXOS has so many helpful functions that have enhanced my music education, particularly as much of that education has been on my own. I would not be in the place I am now if it were not for NAXOS and the plethora of resources they have to offer.