I’m Erzsie DeRichmond — a researcher, writer, and advocate based in Seattle, Washington. This site is home to my work at the intersection of equity, access, and what happens when young people are given the tools to find their voice through music. Whether you’re a fellow researcher, a music educator, a school administrator, or a parent who has watched music change a child’s life, I’m glad you’re here.

I came to this work personally. I grew up without a music program in elementary school — and I felt that absence, even if I didn’t have words for it at the time. Finding choir in middle school changed things for me. It gave me community, confidence, and a place to belong at an age when belonging is everything. That experience has never left me, and it is the quiet engine behind everything I do.

I’ve spent the better part of a decade studying, writing, and advocating for the idea that music education isn’t a luxury — it’s infrastructure. My doctoral dissertation, which I’m completing at National University, examines how culturally responsive music education practices and community social capital sustain general music programs in under-resourced Title I schools. It’s qualitative, it’s personal, and it centers the voices of the educators, administrators, and community members who fight every budget cycle to keep music alive for the kids who need it most.

Beyond the dissertation, I publish on music education equity and policy, co-created NK Airplay Radio to amplify music education awareness through community-centered programming, and attend school board meetings so that the data doesn’t have to speak alone. I believe that research only matters if it reaches the people who can act on it — and this site is part of how I try to make that happen.

Here you’ll find my writing on music education equity, culturally responsive pedagogy, and arts program policy; updates from my doctoral research; and the advocacy work that connects the two. Take a look around, and don’t hesitate to reach out. This work is better when it’s in conversation.