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Time:

Wednesday
December, 18, 2019
03:00 PM - 03:45 PM

Location:

Ballroom W196

Category

MIDDLE SCHOOL JAZZ ENSEMBLES

Conductor

Renee E Todd

Performer Details

Performer Bio Synopsis

Ligon GT Magnet Middle School is one of Wake County's Gifted and Talented as well as Academically Gifted Magnet Schools. Our diverse student body comes from the North and East sections of Wake County as well as our neighborhood. Our school offers over 100 electives with an emphasis on Arts. With nine Arts teachers and over 800 students enrolled in Arts classes, our school motto is fitting, Academics + Arts = Achievement. Our music curriculum allows students the opportunity to sing or play in ensembles from beginning to advanced including 3 choirs, piano class, 3 string orchestras, guitar class, 4 concert bands, and 1 jazz band. Our Jazz Ensemble is a yearlong auditioned group that meets daily during the school day with after school rehearsals and sectionals. Many of the jazz students are also members of community ensembles, like Triangle Youth Jazz, which has placed in the Jazz at Lincoln Centre’s Essentially Ellington Competition in New York City for the last four years. Most members of the Jazz Ensemble are also members of the Ligon Wind Ensemble, which was chosen to participate in the 2020 Music for All National Concert Band Festival in Indianapolis. In 2018 the Wind Ensemble was an invited Ensemble in the Music for All Southeastern Regional Band Festival and the Jazz Ensemble was selected to play at NCMEA, our state music conference, where Ligon’s full orchestra played in 2016 and the Wind Ensemble played in 2015. We are fortunate to have a parent booster organization that supports us with fundraising that has allowed us to bring in clinicians, commission new works, and travel to Chicago, Indianapolis, Disney World, New York City, and Atlanta.

Ligon Magnet Middle School Jazz Ensemble

Conductor's Bio

Ms. Todd is currently in her eighth year as Director of Bands at Ligon GT Magnet Middle School and twenty-seventh year of teaching music. Under the direction of Ms. Todd, the Ligon Band program has grown to over 230 band members, with four wind bands and a jazz ensemble achieving superior ratings at both local and national music festivals. Ligon Bands will have a banner year as the Wind Ensemble was selected to perform in the 29th Music For All National Concert Festival in Indianapolis in March of 2020 while the Jazz Ensemble was selected to perform at the prestigious 73rd Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in December 2019. In 2018, the Ligon Jazz Ensemble performed for NCMEA (NC Music Educators Convention) in November and Ligon Wind Ensemble recently was awarded as an invited ensemble at the Music For All-Southeastern Regional Concert Band Festival in Atlanta in 2017 and selected to perform at NCMEA (NC Music Educators Convention) in 2015. Ms. Todd was honored in 2019 to receive the Award of Excellence by the Central District Band Directors Association. In 2018 she received Jazz Educator of the Year from the NC Central Region Jazz Educators and in 2016 awarded Band Director of the Year for the NC Central District. In 1993, Ms. Todd received her Bachelor of Science in Music Education from the University of Maryland College Park, where she studied under John Wakefield, Emerson Head and L Richmond Sparks. While in college Ms. Todd was the drum major and trumpet section leader of the Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band and recipient of the Otto Sibenachen- Most Outstanding Musician in the top wind band at Maryland. Before her appointment at Ligon, Ms.Todd was nominated Teacher Of The Year at both Dillard Drive and Wendell Middle Schools. She has served for site host for the Central District Band MPA and Wake All-County Band and served on the board for the Central District Band Association. Ms. Todd is a member of the National Association for Music Education, American School Band Directors Association, National Band Association, the North Carolina Music Educators Association, and Tau Beta Sigma. As an active guest clinician and conductor, Ms. Todd is scheduled to direct several NC District Middle School Bands including the Southeastern All-District and South Central All-District Bands in 2020. In 2018 she conducted the Northwest All-District Band. Ms. Todd has conducted the Red Jr and Blue Jr Bands at UNCG Summer Music Camp, the Eastern, Central and Western Region Middle School Jazz Bands and the North Carolina Area Independent Schools Honor Band. She has served or is scheduled as a guest clinician for the Buncombe, Cleveland, Davidson, Durham, Johnston and Forsyth All-County, Bands. Ms. Todd is an active freelance trumpeter as well as a private instructor in the Triangle area

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