Performer Details
Performer Bio Synopsis
Liberty High School in Frisco, Texas, houses grades 9-12 and opened its doors in the fall of 2006 as only the 4th high school in the Frisco Independent School District and in the fall of 2016, Frisco ISD will open its 10th high school.
In its short 10 year history, the Liberty Orchestra and Band programs have been leaders in the development of the individual musician placing numerous students in All Region and All State groups as well as maintaining a track record of ensemble excellence with consistent UIL Sweepstakes Awards for their concert programs and marching band. The Liberty High School Band was 2nd runner-up in the Class 4A TMEA State Honor Band competition in 2011 and the Liberty High School String Orchestra (in their first-ever submission) finished 5th place in this year's Class 5A TMEA State Honor Orchestra competition. Currently there are 250 band students and 150 orchestra students. Both programs are growing next year by at least 25%.
Members of this ensemble were featured at the Texas Music Educators Association convention in 2013 as the Class CC Honor Full Orchestra and again in 2014 as the Class CC Honor String Orchestra from Fowler Middle School (one of Liberty High School's two middle school feeder programs). Vandeventer Middle School, opened in the fall of 2012, is Liberty's other primary feeder middle school.
This is only the fourth year since Liberty opened its doors that the full orchestra has performed as an ensemble. During the UIL season, they meet two times a week for an hour each to rehearse together.
Liberty High School Symphony Orchestra
Conductor's Bio
A graduate of Baylor University with a degree in Music Education, Julie Blackstock is in her first year as the Director of Orchestras at Liberty High School in the Frisco Independent School District. Prior to teaching at Liberty, Ms. Blackstock taught in the Carrollton/Farmers Branch Independent School District for sixteen years, twelve of those at Creekview High School. Under her direction, the orchestras at Creekview consistently received top ratings in UIL contests and at festivals around the country. In August of 2007 and 2012, the Symphony Orchestra from Creekview was named first runner-up in the TMEA Honor Full Orchestra Competition, and continued to rank in the top ten orchestras in the state. This year, her first at Liberty, the Camerata Orchestra placed 5th in the finals for the TMEA Honor String Orchestra Competition.
Ms. Blackstock has also been a frequent adjudicator and clinician for UIL, Solo/Ensemble contests, and festivals around the state, including Plano, Richardson, Mesquite, Arlington, Fort Worth, Dallas, Irving, Lewisville, San Angelo, Abilene, Wichita Falls, Clear Lake, and Sam Houston State University. During the summers, she regularly works at the Baylor University High School Orchestra Camp as a cello section leader and directs one of the chamber orchestras. In the past, Ms. Blackstock has served as a clinician/conductor for the Plano Summer Strings Camp, Lewisville and Mesquite All-District Orchestras, and Regions 5 and 25 All-Region Orchestra. She has also served as Assistant to Kevin Krentz, Music Director of the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival in Winthrop, WA, and has mentored students from Seattle University.
Formerly the Region 24 Orchestra Division Chair, Ms. Blackstock is proud of her memberships in the Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Orchestra Directors Association, Texas Music Adjudicators Association, Mu Omicron, and is honored to be a member of Who’s Who Among American High School Teachers. She also served on the University Interscholastic League’s Prescribed Music List committee which chooses selections to be included on the PML for UIL contest performances.
When not at work, Ms. Blackstock enjoys spending her time reading, watching movies, hanging out with her niece Maike, nephew Noah, taking photos, and dreaming of vacations in Colorado and the Pacific Northwest.
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Mr. Jamie Weaver is in his first year as Director of Bands at Liberty HS after serving for two years as Associate Director and eleven years prior to that as Director of Bands at Creek Valley Middle School in the Lewisville ISD (Hebron HS cluster). Before his tenure at Creek Valley, Mr. Weaver was the director of bands at Groesbeck Middle School in Groesbeck, Texas. While in Groesbeck, his middle school band was awarded the first UIL Sweepstakes award in the history of the school and was named a State Finalist in the ATSSB Outstanding Performance Series in 2000. He concurrently served as assistant director at Groesbeck High School where they were named State Finalist in the TMEA State Honor Band Competition in class AAA.
As founder of Front and Center Motivational Seminars, Mr. Weaver spends approximately 100 days each calendar year presenting leadership and team-building seminars for teachers and students around the United States. He has been on staff at the Music for All Summer Symposium since 1991 and became Director of the Music for All SWAG Team in 2002. He can be found “at-the-gate” each fall at many of the Bands of America Fall Marching Band Regional Championships as well as Grand Nationals Championships leading bands onto the field.
Mr. Weaver is one of only three to serve as drum major of the University of Kentucky “Wildcat” Marching Band for four years and has been an instructor with the nationally acclaimed George N. Parks Drum Major Academy since 1991. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Mr. Weaver studied trumpet with Vince DiMartino, Bob Thompson, and Terry Everson and was awarded honorary membership into the Theta Epsilon chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi.
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