About the Directors

Chelsey Kurtz Sweatman, originally from Connellsville, PA, currently serves as the Choir Director for Bridgetown Middle School in the Oak Hills Local School District in Cincinnati, OH. She taught five years of Elementary Music at Delshire Elementary also in the Oak Hills Local School District. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2011 at Delshire Elementary. Most recently, Chelsey was selected to represent Oak Hills as their 2013 Hamilton County Teacher of Excellence Award winner for her dedication and excellence in education and awarded the Spirit of Delshire Award for her love and passion of teaching music to children.

Under her direction, the BMS Choirs have consistently received Superior Ratings and Best Overall Awards at the Music in the Parks Competition in Cincinnati, OH. Most recently, in 2017, the 7th & 8th Grade Mixed Choir was selected to participate as one of the Featured Guest Choirs in the Annual Feast of Carols Concert at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.

Chelsey has been an  Associate Director for the Cincinnati Youth Choir, Ensemble-in-Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Preparatory Department, conducting Piccolo Coro and Blue Ash Satellite Choir as well as a member of the CCC Summer Festival Staff. Under her direction, Piccolo Coro was selected to perform at the Chorus America Conference and the Ohio Music Education Conference. 

She received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying with a voice concentration. In addition, she holds an Orff-Schulwerk Level I Certification from the University of Kentucky.

While at CCM, Chelsey received the Spirit of Community Award for outstanding leadership, and was named the College’s Presser Scholar for outstanding academic and musical achievement in music education.  She also served as an intern for Cincinnati Youth Choir for three years of her undergraduate studies.

Chelsey was selected as a Ohio Music Education Conference presenter with the Cincinnati Children's Choir. She has worked as a Regional Rehearsal Director for the Ohio Music Education Association All-State Elementary Choir.

She is currently a member of the National Association for Music Education and the Ohio Music Educators Association.

Chelsey enjoys spending time with her family! She is married to Kevin Sweatman, OHHS Band Director. They have two beautiful boys, Weston Kennedy (9), and Lincoln Edward (7)!

Emily Power-Huhtala is the middle school band and orchestra director at Bridgetown Middle School in the Oak Hills Local School District (Cincinnati, Ohio). She holds a Lead Teacher Professional License, Master Teacher certification, a Teacher Leader Endorsement and an Administrative License from the State of Ohio. She has led the building in the redesign of their advisory program and helped to rebuild the BMS Music program. Emily was selected as Teacher of the Year by the Bridgetown Middle School PTA in 2014. She is very proud of all of her BMS Music Students and their continued success!

A 1997 Lakota High School graduate, she went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Music Education degree Summa Cum Laude from Miami University where she held leadership positions in the Delta Omicron chapter and MENC chapter. She also earned a Master of Educational Leadership degree from Miami University. She holds a Master of Music degree from the College Conservatory of Music (U.C.) where she was also the instructor for woodwind methods and the Assistant Director of the Junior Cincinnati Youth Wind Ensemble as part of her assistantship. Her primary instrument is clarinet.

Having taught music grades 1-12, she has a very diverse experience with teaching music. While she currently teaches middle school (her favorite age level). She has taught band students grade 5-12 including concert band, marching band, winter drumline, and jazz band ensembles, general music grades 1-8, orchestra grades 5-8, and choir grades 5-8, as well as directing middle school Jr. musicals. She is the former Director of Bands for Norwood City Schools and was an Assistant Band Director and Elementary General Music specialist for the  Northwest School Districts. Her students have been members of various honor ensembles.

Her teaching philosophy focuses on building community within the classroom and helping students to become self-actualized and reflective learners. She is most proud of the progress that has been made at Bridgetown Middle School. The program when she arrived did not offer orchestra within the school day and only offered choir in two grades for half a year. She was the choir, band, orchestra, and musical director. During her time there she has built the program to improve student access the point that there is also a wonderful full time choir teacher with choir now offered full year at all grade levels, orchestra within the school day once more, and the band program has continued to thrive under her leadership.

She enjoys spending time with her husband, Brian Huhtala, (a band director in the Cincinnati Public School District) and two cute and stubborn dachshunds!