About

GRASSFIELD ORCHESTRA

The Grassfield Orchestra is made up of three separate performing groups and approximately 216 students. Our orchestra is in its 15th year of existence and already, we are building a tradition of excellence.

In 2009-2010, our Chamber Orchestra won the coveted Music Festivals Grand National Championship as the top performing group to participate in their clinic/workshop division. In 2016, we were awarded Music Festival National Champions. Hard work pays off as Grassfield Orchestra has received superior ratings every year for assessments.

Our parent organization, GOPA, is run by great parents that love their children and work hard to ensure that they get the best musical experience possible!

Grassfield High School has several performing musician groups:

Freshman Orchestra
Concert Orchestra
Chamber Orchestra
Polyphonix

All of our performing groups are hard working, outstanding groups and the orchestra as a whole is a big happy family!

Meet Mr.V

Director of Orchestras, Grassfield High School

Mr. Steve Vutsinas or, “Mr. V” as he is called by his students, is a 1988 graduate of the East Carolina School of Music. Mr. V graduated cum laude with a degree in violin performance and a minor in viola performance. He received a second degree from East Carolina in music education.

Mr. V began his teaching career in 1989 in the Pitt County School System near Greenville, North Carolina where he taught orchestra for 10 years. He also coached boys’ varsity basketball there, and his teams won 2 state championships. Also, while teaching in Eastern North Carolina, Mr. V’s orchestra won an esteemed National Championship in the North American Music Festivals. During his teaching career, Mr. V has had the awesome privilege of teaching some of the greatest students in the world.

Mr. V’s orchestras at Grassfield have consistently received superior ratings at the district and national level. His Chamber Orchestra was also selected to perform at the prestigious Virginia Music Educators Association conference at the Homestead.

Mr. V was Grassfield High School’s Teacher of the Year and was also a finalist for Chesapeake Teacher of the Year in 2014. Mr. Vutsinas was also selected as a top ten finalist for the inaugural Grammy Music Educator of the Year in 2014 from a list of over 33,000 music educators from across the United States.

Mr. V is married to his lovely wife, Sandi, and the couple has 3 amazing children: Andrew, Samantha and Asher!  In his “free” time, Mr. V enjoys playing the bass guitar at church and playing golf with his friends. He also is fortunate to spend his summers on the mission field in Thailand and Tanzania supporting orphans in those countries.

2023-2024 GOPA

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Larry Sunderland
PRESIDENT

Jessica Boone
VICE PRESIDENT

Zoe Norris
TREASURER

Melissa Williams
SECRETARY

VOLUNTEERS

Darcy Torres
FUNDRAISING COORDINATOR
gforaiseright@gmail.com

Malinda Heizer
VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR
gopavolunteering@gmail.com

Reach Out

WAYS TO CONNECT

We’d love to hear from you. Just complete the following form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.