{"id":53088,"date":"2023-03-06T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-06T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=53088"},"modified":"2023-03-06T11:10:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-06T16:10:09","slug":"ross-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2023\/03\/ross-01\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Conductors Highlight EMS Instrumental Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joel Ross \u201801 and Amy Birdsong<\/strong> were guest conductors for EMS and Dock Academy instrumentalists at EMS on March 3 and 4. Sixty-eight students, including 24 from Dock Academy in Lansdale, Pa., benefited from the encouragement and expertise brought by Ross and Birdsong. <\/p>\n

They rehearsed a day and a half together, and performed for families and guests Friday evening. <\/p>\n

After graduating from EMHS in 2001, Ross earned a bachelors degree in music education with a concentration in voice from Messiah College in Grantham, Pa. In 2011 he completed a master\u2019s in music in conducting at Shenandoah Conservatory. He has performed with several professional choirs in Washington, D.C., including Chantry, an early music ensemble, and the National Cathedral Choir. He sang for six years with \u201cSons of the Day,\u201d an all-male a cappella septet, and currently sings and is music director for \u201cGood Company,\u201d a semi-professional a cappella sextet based in Harrisonburg. <\/p>\n

Ross is in his 17th year of teaching in Shenandoah County, where he directs the string orchestra programs at Signal Knob Middle School and Strasburg High School and teaches dual enrollment music theory and musical theatre. He writes an original murder mystery each year for his musical theater class and regularly composes and arranges music for the Strasburg High School String Ensemble. He is the founder and administrator of \u201cShenandoah Summer Strings,\u201d a week-long summer orchestra camp in Shenandoah County. Under Ross\u2019 direction, the Signal Knob and Strasburg orchestras have received \u201cexclusively superior,\u201d and \u201cexcellent\u201d ratings at District Concert Assessment. In 2014, Ross was presented with the John D. Hodson Academic Service Award, an honor given to one person each year for outstanding contributions to academic excellence at Strasburg High School.<\/p>\n

Under Ross\u2019 direction, the orchestra performed \u201cBrandenburg Concerto No. 4, 3rd movement,\u201d by J.S. Bach, arr. M. Jasinksi; \u201cShaker Dance and Lament,\u201d by J. Clemens; \u201cSinfonia in Gi Minor,\u201d J Ross; \u201cMoondance,\u201d by Va. Morrison, arr by M. Hopkins; \u201cFlop-eared Mule,\u201d a traditionalal American tune, arranged by A. Dabczynski.<\/p>\n

Professor Birdsong earned a bachelor of music and a minor in jazz studies at James Madison University, and a master\u2019s degree in music education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently in the process of completing her Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in Wind Conducting at JMU.<\/p>\n

Birdsong began her professional career in Henrico County at Varina High School. She received Henrico County Public School\u2019s \u201cFirst Year Teacher Award\u201d for Varina High School. Subsequently she started the band program at Hanover High School. Her concert ensembles consistently received Superior ratings at Assessment, and combined with successful seasons in marching band, earned multiple Virginia Honor Band designations. In 2016 she was named \u201cTeacher of the Year\u201d for Hanover High School.<\/p>\n

In addition to her responsibilities at HHS, Birdsong was also the director of the Richmond Symphony Youth Concert Orchestra, performing semi-annually at the Carpenter Theater at CenterStage. She was a founding and performing member of the Commonwealth Winds in Central Virginia, and currently performs with the Valley Wind Ensemble. <\/p>\n

Under Birdsong\u2019s direction, the festival band performed \u201cCyclone,\u201d by Michael Oare; \u201cRhythms and Riffs,\u201d by Brian Balmages; and \u201cByzantine Dances,\u201d by Carol Brittin Chambers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so special to have Joel and Amy here at EMS to lead this experience which is so memorable for our students and visitors,\u201d said Maria Lorcas, EMS strings teacher who coordinated the event.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joel Ross \u201801 and Amy Birdsong were guest conductors for EMS and Dock Academy instrumentalists at EMS on March 3 and 4. Sixty-eight students, including 24 from Dock Academy in Lansdale, Pa., benefited from the encouragement and expertise brought by Ross and Birdsong. They rehearsed a day and a half together, and performed for families\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":53096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[21,58],"class_list":["post-53088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-music","tag-orchestra"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53088"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}