As a product and proponent of quality music education, I know the importance of having music in the lives of children, especially as the world around us continues to change.
Someone else who knows this and puts it to great use is award-winning educator and children’s entertainer Heather White-Luckow (“LOU-koh”), who performs as Heather Feather. She fuses elements of jazz, blues, folk, pop, and more into music that touches on themes of creativity, and thinking outside the box, as well as inclusivity, acceptance, and belonging.
The native Newfoundlander is a classically trained musician with a doctorate in Music Theory and has been celebrated by parents’ and music organizations, alike. She’s also won the East Coast Music Award for Children’s Entertainer of the Year just last year.
However, perhaps more than these awards and accolades, Heather is celebrated by countless children, parents, and teachers and she creates and shares music that adds a tremendous amount to all those kids she entertains. She joined me recently from just outside of Montreal to tell us a little more about the musical world of “Heather Feather.”
Your story is pretty amazing: born in Mt Pearl, Newfoundland, trained as a french horn player and vocalist, studying music at Memorial University, McGill, and more … and then a diagnosis (and, it could be argued, covid, as well) brought about a change. Tell us a little more about your musical journey into this incredible role as a children’s entertainer.
It’s been a really wild, twisty-turn-y road so I’m just rolling with it! I remember, specifically with jazz and writing, I first heard really great jazz arranging from Ken Knowles at Memorial [University]. When I was growing up in Newfoundland doing my undergrad, Ken Knowles was teaching the jazz arranging course and I was studying composition and theory. He was teaching as he was actually singing and playing the trombone which was the beginning of my interest in jazz.
I also had an interest in kids but was primarily academic. But it wasn’t until I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and I had my own son which caused me to take some time off. I realized that I loved this and I could do this all day. I was asked more and more ‘Can you do a kids class? Could you use your education skills and teaching kids to create a curriculum for us?’ And it just grew, year after year [until] it became a full-time job.
What do you say to people who look at arts and music education as frivolous, or unimportant when it comes to learning and development?
As soon as your child is 18 months, two years old even, when your child is singing with you and doing things, you are developing all the areas of child development. I generally [focus] on four or five areas. You’ve got your cognitive development, your language development so being able to listen and to speak and comprehend. You have your fine motor, your gross motor and your social/emotional circle. So all of these things are being developed through music, it’s one of the only activities that hits on everything at once. It also provide a sense of self, exposing kids to new things, tapping into the creative side. There’s so much there!
You can learn more about Heather Feather’s music, live shows, and educational entertainment at heatherfeathermusic.com and you can hear lots of her great recordings on her Bandcamp page.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.