Carolyn
McMillan Vandiver
Carolyn Vandiver has been Director of Orchestras at Stephen F. Austin High School in Fort Bend ISD since the school opened in 1995. The program began with 16 students and will have 174 in the fall of 2010. Austin High School has been rezoned twice since it opened, to create George Bush HS and William B. Travis HS, and yet the program continues to thrive and grow.
Mrs. Vandiver teaches five levels of orchestra classes: Symphony, Philharmonic, Chamber, Sinfonietta and the Beginning Orchestra. Her responsibilities include music selection and preparation, directing the school musical, giving numerous concerts both at AHS and in the community at large, and the development and implementation of a college preparatory program.
Mrs. Vandiver earned a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from West Texas A & M University (1972) and a Master of Music from Texas Womans University (1980). She founded the Arlington ISD string program in 1972 and taught in the Dallas area until she moved to Houston in 1982. She taught orchestra in Pasadena and Baytown before moving to Sugar Land in 1994. She has been directing orchestras in Texas for 34 years.
Her orchestras have received consecutive
Sweepstakes at UIL Concert and Sight-
Reading Competition for over 30 years; receiving multiple sweepstakes awards
each year. (String Orchestras and Full Orchestras)
Since teaching at Austin HS, 96 of her students have been accepted to the
Texas All-State Orchestras.
The AHS orchestras have received numerous invitations, including two invitations to perform at the Midwest Clinic and Convention in Chicago 2003/2004 and 2008/2009. They were also asked to represent the State of Texas at the dedication of the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. but had to decline because of graduation conflicts. In 2001, the orchestra accepted an invitation to perform in Carnegie Hall, New York City. They were invited and performed again in 2005. Received an invitation from the Mayor of Salzburg, Austria and gave three performances in Austria and the Czech Republic in March of 2007. They have won competitions in New Orleans, San Francisco, Dallas, Corpus Christi and San Antonio. This past spring they won the Adjudicators Award for Outstanding Orchestra in the Heritage Music Festival in Boston. They have received an invitation to appear in Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2011. September, they will be the first high school orchestra to perform at an Astros game in Minute Maid Park.
Professional Memberships include: Texas Music Educators Association, Texas Orchestra Directors Association, Texas Adjudicators Association, Mu Omicron, Texas Classroom Teachers Association, and Pi Beta, the Creative and Performing Arts fraternity. She is an active UIL Concert and Sight-reading adjudicator, Region Clinician, In-Service Presenter, and teacher mentor. She has helped many student teachers and inexperienced teachers develop and improve their teaching skills. She has hosted and adjudicated, on numerous occasions, The Texas All-State Orchestra auditions and Texas State Honor Orchestra Competitions. She has written curriculum twice for the Ft Bend ISD. She has served on the Teacher recruiting and Teacher retention committee for Ft. Bend ISD. She has been named Teacher of the Year and has been given a yearbook dedication. She has served TMEA twice as Middle School Region Chair in Dallas and Pasadena. She has served as TMEA Region 17 Chair and presently is serving as TMEA Region 13 Orchestra Chair. In 2006 and 2007 she was TMEA State Orchestra Chair, overseeing all levels of orchestra from elementary to college for the state of Texas. She was one of the three original founders of “the Virtuosi of Houston” Chamber Orchestra in 1996 and served as manager for ten years.
This will be her 12th season as Co-Conductor, along with Ann Victor, of the Houston Youth Symphony String Orchestra. The Orchestra performs three concerts each year at Rice University’s’ Stude Concert Hall. She is listed in Who’s Who Among American Women and Who’s Who Among American Teachers.
Carolyn and her husband, Jack Vandiver, a high school choral director, have been married for 35 years. They are proud of their four children: twin daughters, Ashley (violin) Courtenay (cello), son, Everitt (voice, viola) and daughter, Emileigh (cello).
All three daughters were four year All-State
Symphony Orchestra Musicians. Emileigh
was ranked the number one cellist in Texas all four years of high school.
She is the second musician in Texas to ever achieve this level of
success. Everitt is currently
working in the Health Care Industry in Houston.
All three daughters are graduates of the New England Conservatory of
Music in Boston, MA where they work and reside.
The Vandiver’s are active members of Fellowship of Praise
in Stafford, Texas. They receive
great pleasure in working with young people and helping them develop their
musical and individual talents not only as future musicians of the world, but
also as productive and responsible members of society.
Courtenay
Justine Vandiver
AHSO is excited to welcome Ms. Vandiver as the Assistant
Director of Orchestras. We are honored to have a musician of her talent and
renown to work with our performers during the 2010/2011 academic year. She will
also assist the orchestra program at Sartartia Middle School with Ms. Ann
Victor.
Native
Texan, Courtenay Vandiver has been praised for her "wonderful technique and
creamy sound," (New Jersey Star Ledger) and dubbed an "expert
player", (The Boston Globe). She is a founding member of A Far Cry,
Boston's self-conducted chamber orchestra. A Far Cry was recently named
the newest ensemble in residence at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and
will open their Sunday Concert Series in the fall. In addition, the group
maintains a partnership with New England Conservatory and has also participated
in summer residencies at Yellow Barn's Young Artists Program and Kneisel Hall.
A passionate chamber musician, Courtenay has collaborated with the St.
Petersburg and Jupiter String Quartets, and the Young Eight. Festival
appearances include Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Schleswig-Holstein, the Leipzig Bach
Festival, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. Courtenay has taught for
Milton Academy and Project STEP while maintaining a private studio in Jamaica
Plain, MA. She has also served on faculty at Lyricafest, Yellow Barn's
Young Artists Program, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, and the Blue Lake
Fine Art's Camp.
Courtenay completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from New England
Conservatory with Academic and Artistic Distinction while under the tutelage of
Laurence Lesser and Paul Katz. During her studies, Courtenay founded
the Brando Quartet, an NEC Honors Ensemble, and won the Commencement Competition
garnering a solo appearance in Jordan Hall. Former governor Ann Richards
presented Courtenay with the Yellow Rose of Texas in recognition of outstanding
artistic achievement.
As cellist of the Calliandra String Quartet, Courtenay has toured multiple times
with Jethro Tull. In addition, she has recorded for Eurythmics' frontman
Dave Stewart. Locally she plays in the Samurai String Squad, a cello
quartet dedicated to 90's alternative music. In her spare time, Courtenay also
enjoys exploring her new found passion for pottery and finding ways to beat the
heat.