As we reflect on ways to leverage music and music education to facilitate communication, collaboration, creativity, and cohesion, we can look to models from the past for inspiration. Louis Armstrong is one figure who was known for building bridges through his music, his life, and his legacy. His career has served as an exemplar of the power of music to bring people together and to foster intercultural communication and musical exploration. Armstrong was one of the first popular recording artists, he was a key figure in shaping jazz as an American art form, he traveled the world as a cultural ambassador, and along the way, he broke down racial barriers and built bridges between people through his music, his trumpet, and his life (louisarmstronghouse.org).The Louis Armstrong House Museum (LAHM) Educational Foundation developed a Summer Teaching Institute as an immersive professional development experience excavating Armstrong’s life and legacy as connected with the birth of jazz, his cultural ambassadorship, his fighting of injustice during the Civil Rights Era, and his innovative cultural contributions to the world (Riccardi, 2020). The goals of the institute involve supporting teachers by building bridges from archival materials to practical classroom discovery, building bridges from the past to the present, and building bridges of communication about race, culture, barriers, community, innovation, musical excellence, and perseverance. Participants spend time in Armstrong’s former home, the new museum, concert space, and archives; while also hearing from musicians, the museum director, other scholars and artists; and participating in bricolage creation, interactive dialogue, and collaborative curriculum design. By the end of the 5-day session, participants share lessons, mini-units, and modules they have developed. Although, the summer teaching institute is still in nascent stages, it has been acknowledged for providing a rich and transformative experience for many participants. The interactive and immersive model may provide insights into effective and meaningful professional development for music educators.This paper will explore the multi-dimensional experience of participation in the LAHM Summer Teaching Institute, utilizing a phenomenological research design (Moustakas, 1994). Data presented will foreground the participant experience to better understand the potentially transformative nature of immersive professional development for in-service educators. Affordances and challenges of participation will be included.