We are very fortunate to have a thriving band program at CEMS. Approximately 60% of Cape students participate in band at the middle school level. Our program includes fifth grade beginning band, sixth grade band, seventh grade band, and eighth grade band. Additionally, seventh and eighth grade students have the opportunity to participate in our extracurricular jazz bands. In recent years, we have been lucky to have the opportunity to take part in consortium commissions with composers Andrew Boysen Jr, Randall Standridge, and Frank Ticheli.
Proud to be a NAMM Best
Communities for Music Education designee since 2016. Recipient of the 2020 Dale F. Huff Outstanding Music Program Award |
Caitlin Ramsey has been the director of bands at Cape Elizabeth Middle School since 2010. Prior to her appointment at CEMS, Ms. Ramsey taught instrumental music at Massabesic Middle School and the Willard School. For the past seventeen years, she has been an active adjudicator, clinician, and guest conductor throughout the state of Maine and currently serves as the Eastern Division Representative on the National Council of Band Education. In 2020, Ms. Ramsey was named the Maine Music Educators Association’s Music Educator of the Year. Additionally, under Ms. Ramsey’s direction, CEMS bands have performed at the Maine Music Educators Association Conference.
Ms. Ramsey holds undergraduate degrees in horn performance and music education from Miami University as well as a Masters of Music from Kent State University. As a Maine Arts Teaching Fellow (2009), Mrs. Ramsey studied conducting with Frank Battisti and Charles Peltz at New England Conservatory of Music’s conducting symposium. Additionally, she attended the University of Southern Maine conducting workshop (2019) and studied with Eugene Migliaro Corporon and Dr. Jackie Townsend. Ms. Ramsey serves as the MMEA District I Secretary and as the coordinator of the D1 7/8 Honors Festival and the DI 6th Grade Honors Festival. She lives in Portland with her husband Tim, the band director at Gorham High School. |