Brewster Music Teacher Retires

After more than three decades of hitting the right notes as a music teacher at two of the Nauset District's elementary schools, Eddy and Orleans Elementary School Director of Instrumental Music Leah Belliveau is retiring.

Who is Leah Belliveau?

21 JUNE 2024 - BREWSTER, MA -  Leah Belliveau has taught music in Nauset School District elementary and middle schools for thirty-five years. In her most recent role as director of instrumental music at Brewster’s Eddy Elementary School, she led the school’s band and taught elementary schoolers a wide range of instruments. A music lover since childhood, Belliveau first picked up an instrument herself — a clarinet — in the fourth grade, with the encouragement of her father, a tuba player, and her own elementary school music teacher. Since then, teaching music has been her “dream job,” she told LCTV.

What legacy will she leave in Nauset Schools and on Cape Cod?

As a music teacher, Belliveau has inspired countless students and colleagues, even encouraging Eddy Elementary Principal Steven Guditus to pick up the trumpet after thirty years, which he now plays regularly at school concerts. Some of her students have gone on to become music teachers in Cape Cod and beyond. Belliveau also started Kid News, a program on Lower Cape TV that features reporting from elementary and middle school students and gives the community a glimpse into the happenings of the Nauset School District. 

What’s next for Belliveau and for Eddy Elementary?

In her retirement, Belliveau hopes to travel, spend time outdoors and learn more instruments, she said. She will also continue running Kid News on a volunteer basis. She hopes to expand its programming, she said, to include even more schools in the district, giving Cape Cod students a chance to learn about reporting and storytelling and giving the community a look into the school day. Stacey Faris, currently Eddy's general music and chorus teacher, will take over Belliveau's role in instrumental music. Eddy Elementary will also expand its instrumental music program to offer lessons to younger grades, Guditus said.