Kathleen Montes
Adjunct Instructor of Music
/prod01/twu-cdn-pxl/media/images/music/Kathleen-Montes-300px.jpg)
Contact
Phone: (940) 898-2500
Email: kmontes1@twu.edu
Degrees
MMT, Texas Woman’s University
BM, University of North Texas
Profile
Kathleen Montes, MMT, MT-BC serves as an adjunct faculty member for TWU’s Music Therapy Program and oversees the written assignments, clinical documentation, and musicianship development for several levels of undergraduate practicum. Kathleen also works as a hospice music therapist in the Dallas area and uses music to help provide support and comfort during the end-of-life process for patients and their families.
Before her career in music therapy, Kathleen studied music education at UNT. She played bassoon in the Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Symphony Orchestra, sang in the Women’s Chorus, and played marimba and vibraphone in the Green Brigade marching band. During the summers of 2009 and 2010, she performed in the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps front ensemble. After graduating, Kathleen became a music educator and mentor and specialized in Orff Schulwerk pedagogy. She taught K-5 elementary music in Fort Worth ISD for three years. Kathleen also loved teaching private lessons and watching her students learn and grow. She taught bassoon lessons in several districts for ten years and bass guitar lessons for the occasional jazz band student.
Despite her love of teaching music, Kathleen always felt that something was missing - something more meaningful. Hospice music therapy was always one of the career options floating around somewhere in her mind, especially after experiencing a lot of loss and witnessing the power and beauty of music during the end-of-life process. In 2017, she left her career as an elementary music educator and began the graduate equivalency music therapy program at TWU with her heart set on working in hospice. Kathleen eventually managed to get through her hospice music therapy internship that started February 2020, right before the pandemic changed the world, and then began to work full time at that same hospice inpatient unit later that year.
When she’s not working, Kathleen enjoys crocheting, gardening (indoors and outdoors), traveling with her husband, attending concerts, spending time with her dogs, and fostering rescue greyhounds. Her preferred music includes: Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Green Day, Audioslave, Soundgarden, and AC/DC.
Page last updated 12:16 PM, February 20, 2024