March 2 & 3, 2022

Welcome

Welcome to the 2022 District IV Orchestra Festival. Today we are celebrating the hard work done by our orchestra students and their awesome teachers! We want this experience to be all about education and encouragement! We want every student to leave here today knowing just how awesome they are and what they can do to make even greater music in the future! We are not here to compare or compete but, rather, we are here to celebrate these fine orchestras! Each of you has a very important part today in making this a success!

Please feel free to clap and truly celebrate all of the groups as they finish their performances! We want them to know how great they all are! At this time, please silence all cell phones and remember no flash photography during today’s performances.

Dr. Sandy Goldie

Sandy Goldie teaches undergraduate and graduate music education courses at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she is the string music education specialist and Assistant Professor of Music Education. Before her recent move to Richmond, Virginia, she spent several years teaching string music education courses at the University of Florida where she completed her PhD and was awarded the David Wilmot Prize for Excellence in Music Education. She is an active  guest conductor  and clinician across the country, working with many honors groups, all-regions, youth orchestras, as well as conducting the 2009 All-State Orchestra. Having worked as a public school orchestra teacher for fourteen years and with school-aged string students for more than 30 years, Dr. Goldie enjoys working with students of all ages.

Dr. Goldie is a frequent guest speaker and music teacher professional development clinician and has presented her research and ideas at state, national and international conferences (NAfME, ASTA, The Midwest Clinic, VMEA, TMEA,  ISAME and others). She has worked to promote music education at the local, state and national levels through leadership positions in professional organizations such as VASTA (President of VA chapter of the American String Teachers Association and former SC President), VMEA (President-Elect of High Education Division) NAfME (former executive board member, SCMEA orchestra division), VVS (Executive Board, Virginia Viola Society, former SC President-Elect)  as well as serving on  Arts Advisory councils at the local and school levels.

Dr. Goldie completed her PhD in Music Education at the University of Florida, her Master’s Degree in Music Education at the University of Georgia and her Bachelor’s degree in Music and Music Education at the University of South Carolina

Ms. Veronica Jackson

After graduating from W. G. Enloe – Magnet High School (Raleigh, North Carolina) in 1985, Ms. Jackson studied violin at the University of Miami (Coral Gables) with Dr. Marla Meutschler (Paul Rolland protégé) and Dr. Earl Sanders at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Graduating summa cum laude from NCCU in 1991, she began teaching orchestra in Wake County elementary, middle, and high schools in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ms. Jackson moved to Richmond in 1994 and began teaching in Henrico County Public Schools, where she worked for 17 years at several schools including Byrd Middle School, Godwin High School, Freeman High School, and Tucker High School. In Henrico County, she coordinated the Strings Discovery Program designed to introduce stringed instruments to rising 6th graders. Ms. Jackson’s orchestras were known for outstanding performances throughout the district. While teaching in Henrico County, her high school orchestras performed at the Virginia Music Educators’ State Convention in Norfolk, VA. Her orchestras have also received superior ratings in national competitions in Chicago, New York, Toronto, and Boston. Ms. Jackson was a 2010 finalist for the R. E. B. Award for Teaching Excellence. In July 2012, Ms. Jackson was selected to participate in the Music Educators’ Conducting Workshop at The Julliard School. This week-long program was for the 30 music educators from around the country who were selected by their resume and video-audition. As an active musician, Ms. Jackson enjoys performing in several ensembles including Prince George’s Philharmonic Orchestra, Capital City Symphony, Takoma String Ensemble, and Colour of Music Festival (Charleston, SC). Other affiliations include membership and past president of the Virginia Chapter of the American String Teachers’ Association, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and National Association for Music Educators

Elizabeth Keville-Hughes

Elizabeth began Suzuki violin lessons at the age of three in Greenville, North Carolina with Nancy Kostek and later with Katherine Jenkins. While a student at East Carolina University, she studied with Fritz Gearhart, Ara Gregorian, and Joanne Bath. She received her Bachelor of Music in Music Education from ECU in 2001 and her Master of Music in Violin Performance with a concentration in Suzuki Violin Pedagogy in 2002. Mrs. Hughes has registered long term teacher training with the Suzuki Association of the Americas for volumes 1A-10. Her public school teaching career began as the general music teacher in 2001 at Falkland Elementary School in Falkland, NC. Upon moving to the Triangle in 2002, she began working with the Wake County Public Schools as an orchestra director, serving Wakefield Middle and Wakefield High where her orchestras and chamber music ensembles received Superior ratings at the NC Music Educators Eastern Regional Orchestra Festival and the NC Eastern Regional Solo and Ensemble Festival for many years. Many of her students at the junior high and high school level were accepted to the NC Eastern Regional All State Orchestra as well as the Honors Orchestra.

Mrs. Hughes joined the Durham Public Schools strings faculty in 2007 and was part of the DPS family until moving back to Pitt County in June 2016. She was the founding artistic director of the Morehead Montessori Suzuki Program and the Lakewood Montessori Middle School Orchestra. Her groups frequently collaborated with Triangle area professional music ensembles such as The Beast and Kickin’ Grass.

Mrs. Hughes has served on the faculty of the NC Suzuki Institute since 2002. She is also on the faculty for the Virginia Suzuki Institute and the Pennsylvania Suzuki Institute. She has been a summer clinician for the Community School of the Arts in Charlotte, NC, and a guest clinician for the Suzuki School of the Arts in Hickory (NC), a clinician for the Chapel Hill Cooperative Suzuki Project Fall Workshop, and the orchestra director for SCOrE (Summer Choral and Orchestra Extravaganza) at UNC. She has made guest conducting appearances with the Onslow County (NC) 7th and 8th grade Honors Orchestra as well as the Chesapeake, VA District Junior High Orchestra.

Currently, Mrs. Hughes is the orchestra director at JH Rose HS and CM Eppes Middle School in Greenville. She has eighteen years of classroom experience. She enjoys volunteering with the Junior League of Greenville, NC and serving on the Farmville Community Arts Council Board of Directors as president. She resides in Farmville with her husband, Robert, and their two children, Murray (age 13) and Hazel Kate (age 10).

Mary Dart (Sight Reading Judge)

A violinist since age 7, Mary Dart performs and teaches throughout the Hampton Roads area.  Mary earned a Bachelor of Music in Education with an emphasis in performance from Old Dominion University.  She is the director of orchestras at Lafayette High School and Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, Virginia, since 2010.  For the past five years, Mary has been a violinist in the Hampton Roads Philharmonic.  She is the fiddle player in Steel River Country Band and The Irish Drinking Band as well as a member of the Jamestown String Quartet and the Col Vita String Quartet.  Mary resides in Williamsburg and enjoys horseback riding and ballroom dancing in her free time.