SU alum Erin Althen to earn SAMMYs educator accolade, hall of fame induction
Erin Althen’s former student Grace Lesselroth took private flute lessons with Althen while she was in high school. Lesselroth wasn’t surprised to learn about Althen’s Music Educator of the Year award as she prioritizes the well-being of her students. Md Zobayer Hossain Joati | Inclusive Journalism Fellow
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Throughout high school, Erin Althen spent the majority of her free periods in the band and chorus rooms. One day during her sophomore year, her band director asked her to teach a private flute lesson to a freshman. It was then that she realized she wanted to be a music teacher.
“I taught the lesson, worked on band music and played my flute while they were working, and when I finished, I was like, ‘This is it. This is what I want to do,’” Althen, a Syracuse University alum, said. “That was the moment that it absolutely clarified for me that I wanted to be a band director.”
Now, 44-year-old Althen has been named Music Educator of the Year for this year’s Syracuse Area Music Awards Hall of Fame. Her work as director of bands and chair of the Fine Arts department at Westhill High School earned her the award, according to the SAMMYS website.
Althen will officially be inducted into the SAMMY Hall of Fame on Thursday ahead of Friday’s award show. In addition to Althen’s classroom presence, she is also the co-conductor of the Syracuse Youth Wind Symphony and co-founder of the CNY Music Teacher Mentoring Program.
Grace Lesselroth, an SU and Westhill High School alum, took private lessons with Althen throughout high school. Althen inspired her to study music education herself, Lesselroth said. Now at Boston University, Lesselroth is in a graduate program to become a music educator, like Althen, she said.
“What sets Erin apart is how she prioritizes the well-being of her students and the program,” Lesselroth said. “It’s not, ‘These kids are going to do whatever I say.’ It’s, ‘How can we work together to prepare for this concert and this community?’”
Althen graduated with a degree in music education from SU in 2003. During her undergraduate studies, Althen was a drum major and conductor of the marching band’s Sour Sitrus Society, part of the Wind Ensemble, a University 100 tour guide, a Remembrance Scholar, a University Scholar and a School of Education class marshal.
Through these opportunities, Althen was able to be a band director before working professionally and in a leadership role, she said.
When her high school band teacher asked Erin Althen to teach a private flute lesson to another student, it inspired her to go into music education. Althen’s priority, caring for her students, got her inducted into this year’s Syracuse Area Music Awards Hall of Fame as she received the Music Educator of the Year award. Md Zobayer Hossain Joati | Inclusive Journalism Fellow
In Althen’s final semester of college, she was placed in student teaching at Westhill High School. The week after she graduated, Althen began her graduate degree in music education at SU.
But a few months later, Althen missed Westhill High School so much that she stopped by to visit her former students while on Thanksgiving break. She learned a band teacher had just resigned, and they needed someone to fill the spot. So, Althen returned four days a week, teaching music lessons at the middle and high school while completing her graduate degree.
During that transition, Elisa Dekaney, associate provost for strategic initiatives and Althen’s former professor, saw Althen craft her teaching style. She saw the resemblances between how Althen acted as a student and how she taught others.
“Erin is the person who is not just interested in the very highly accomplished — even though she’s a very accomplished flutist — but she can get the student who’s not so interested and get them into something that they will like,” Dekaney said. “That is her biggest strength.”
Dekaney said she was not surprised when she heard of Althen’s SAMMY recognition, she said. Named one of the 25 semifinalists for the 2025 and 2026 Grammy Music Educator Award, Althen is no stranger to recognition, Dekaney said.
Althen’s teaching has even convinced some of her former students, like SU senior Katie O’Leary, to pursue the same path at the same school that Althen did.
“She makes every single student, every single person that she talks to, feel like they are important, they are cared about and they deserve to be where they are,” O’Leary said. “Her door is always open.”
O’Leary met Althen the summer after eighth grade, when O’Leary began taking private flute lessons with her, which she continued through high school in Marcellus. O’Leary said Althen showed her the impact a teacher can have on a student — a direct reason she decided to study music education at SU.
Working with students like O’Leary and Lesselroth is only one of many highlights of teaching music, Althen said.
“This is the job of my dreams. This is the life I’m so happy to be living,” Althen said. “I have moments all the time where I actually pause as I am teaching, as I am conducting, as I am with a group of kids, and I just think, ‘I am so lucky.’”
