December 22, 2021
By: Bill Conger
In her first year at DeKalb Middle School music teacher Erica Birmingham wanted to do something special with her classes. So, she polled her students about what genres of music they liked. Taking the results, she used her creativity to weave together an 8th grade Christmas musical.
“I stitched them together through dialogue to create the story about what the Christmas time or holidays really meant to these people. It was about sharing love with everyone around you, getting together with your friends and family, and holding onto that childlike wonder no matter how old everyone was,” said Birmingham in a WJLE interview
The students’ recent performance in front of a packed house at the community complex was met with lots of laugher and even a few tears. That was just part of the whirlwind first semester Birmingham enjoyed since stepping into her new role. The 2017 D.C.H.S. graduate was helping out this summer with the high school band’s percussion section when she was asked to interview for the music teacher position.
“It came as a shock to me,” Birmingham said of the job offer. She had just graduated from Belmont University in April with a degree in Commercial Music.
“I was kind of scared but in a very exciting way,” she added. “It’s the unknown. I’m stepping into something that I’ve never stepped into before. It was just an exhilaration. Now, I get to do what I love doing and sharing my passion with other kids and creating a space for other kids to be passionate about their own interests and hobbies.”
Her passion was clearly evident whether Birmingham, who is also the Assistant Band Director, was on the ground repairing drums, kicking off the tempo to the next song, or dancing along with students in the football stands to the groove of the pep songs.
She first started developing her love of music as a child who would tag along with her mother, former Assistant Band Director Kelly Jo Birmingham.
“I grew up around music,” Birmingham said. “I was always on the marching field with high schoolers as they were playing music almost every day after school.”
“Erica was practically raised in the music world,” Kelly Jo Birmingham said. “After school, she was usually found on the marching band field with me, or in my music classroom, helping me lay out the instruments I was going to use in class the next day. Of course, as most children are, she was always curious about how to play those instruments and how each of them made music.”
Mother Birmingham joined band as a percussionist in 6th grade and went on to wear many musical hats in DeKalb, including assistant band director, percussion instructor, countywide general music teacher and high school chorus director.
“Erica always had an appreciation for all types of performing arts. However, it was her 5th grade year at Northside Elementary School when she really latched on to music. Until then, she was a very quiet, shy, and reserved child. She never wanted to stand out in the crowd or have attention drawn to her in any way. But in 5th grade, she sang two solos in the NES 5th grade musical that I was directing at the time. She joined beginning band the next year as a 6th grader at DMS.”
“As I grew older, it became a part of me,” Erica said. “It’s always been a way for me to express my thoughts and my feelings and my passions. By the time I got old enough to get into the high school marching band in 7th grade—I joined it because it was more time to spend with my mother— it actually became not something that my mother was a part of. It was all of me. It holds a special place in my heart, and she is absolutely a wonderful supporter of the arts and of her children. I wouldn’t be where I’m at without her supporting me along the way.”
Like her mother, Birmingham started off as a percussionist and then graduated to other instruments including the trumpet and French horn for the last two years in band. She became proficient in most instruments.
“I can pick up an instrument, practice, and learn with everyone else. I’ve grown fond of learning new instruments like piano, guitar, ukulele. I just like to bring in more knowledge and expertise so that I knew what I had to do over here and over here in these different areas.”
She added singing to her repertoire, and the talented alto refined her skills even more during college.
“My unique voice is my unique voice,” she said. “We were having to grow and cultivate that so that I wouldn’t go out and sound like Adele or another artist whose already out there.”
Birmingham had originally planned to take her talents upon graduation and audition for musical theater in Nashville. Later she had set her sights on opening a performing arts studio with her brother, Nicholas, a dancer. While she is currently an educator for the school system, Birmingham still holds to that dream to teach classical or commercial music or any type of dance to students after school. But for now she’ll continue to pursuing her passion next semester teaching music at DeKalb West School where she plans another performance for students there in the spring.