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Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project: Interview with Gwen Armwood

Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project: Interview with Gwen Armwood

Titles: Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project: Interview with Gwen Armwood (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Gwen Armwood, a native of Fargo, North Dakota, received her Bachelor of Music Education with a cello minor at Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, Louisiana and completed a Masters in Educational Administration at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Before joining Neuqua Valley High School (Naperville, Illinois) in 2001 she taught in Wayzata, Minnesota as director of the Wayzata High School Orchestras and Wayzata East, West and Central Middle School Orchestras. In the 1995-96 season she was elected as Minnesota Orchestra Director of the Year and most recently in October 2001, she was elected by Minnesota ASTA as School Orchestra Director of the Year. She also served on the Minnesota Music Educators Association Board of Directors and held offices on the MNSOTA Board of Directors. During her fifteen years in Wayzata, her orchestras maintained a busy schedule of concerts and festivals throughout the community as well as internationally. Her middle school orchestras performed in 1988 and 1993 at the Mid-West Band and Orchestra Clinic and also at the MENC convention in 1992. The high school orchestra performed in the Vienna Competition, 1989 and the Bournemouth, England, Music Makers Festival, 1994 where the orchestra received the first place trophy. Her orchestras performed in Carnegie Hall, 1992 and 2000 and the Illinois Music Educators Association Convention, January 2001. Ms. Armwood is in her third year at Neuqua Valley High School. During her tenure at Neuqua, Ms. Armwood has worked to expand the orchestra program. She was responsible for the creation of the ninth grade Honors Orchestra and planning the first orchestra tour to Toronto, Canada. Ms Armwood has also worked with the chamber orchestra students to promote quartet playing in the community, thereby increasing the visibility of the Neuqua Valley Orchestra programs. August 2003, Ms. Armwood created an inter-district "Welcome Back" orchestra camp with Waubonsie Valley High School to promote musicianship among our high school students. Last year Ms. Armwood was selected by an orchestra senior as one of the District 204’s "Most Influential Educators". Ms. Armwood has also made her mark on the Chicagoland music community during her short time at Neuqua Valley. In the summer of 2002, Ms. Armwood taught a cello class for string educators at VanderCook College of Music. She also served as a guest conductor for a middle school orchestra at the February 2003 Minnesota Music Educators Association Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Gwen Armwood describes the string program where she taught in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and recounts the circumstances that brought her to the Wayzata secondary orchestra program. She describes the structure, size and organization of the Wayzata program and its growth during her thirteen years within the system along with the increasing visibility of the orchestra as a result of tours and playing engagements in the Twin Cities area. She discusses district support for music, music opportunities that cross economic and academic lines and her views on the importance and advantages of music education for every child.

Dates

  • 01/09/2001 (Creation)

Creation

Identifiers

  • Library Call Number: OH 109
  • Accession Number: AV2007.12.2

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Project

Quantity: 1.5 hours sound cassette 13 pages transcript

Format

  • Content Category: sound recordings
  • Content Category: text

Measurements

  • 00:23:03 running time

Subjects

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Wayzata Elementary String Program Oral History Project: Interview with Gwen Armwood

Documents

Audio:

Audio Part 1

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