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Barbara Tappa, a choir teacher at Ferris High School, has no illusions of grandeur. She knows that most of her students won’t continue with music after they graduate. So, she tries to leave them with something that will stick.

“I’m trying to teach the kids empathy and trying to understand what that means,” she said. “That the picture is bigger than me.”

That philosophy, combined with a string of excellent performing groups and a penchant for leadership earned Tappa the 2015 Washington Music Educators Association high school music educator of the year award.