Myra Rhoden is the director of bands at Fayette County High School in Georgia and founder of the Athena Music and Leadership Camp. Myra is the recipient of numerous teaching awards, including being named the 2018 NAfME Band Director of the Year.

Topics

• Myra’s story of growing up in Tuskegee, Alabama in a family that valued the arts, and how her high school band director created an environment that encouraged the students to do things outside of the school.
• The inspiration behind Myra’s decision to become a music teacher rather than a math teacher and the lesson she took from her first job teaching beginners in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
• “Don’t make excuses, figure out what you can do with what you have” and other advice for young teachers.
• Winning the NAfME 2018 “Band Director of the Year” and what she feels might be most responsible to her success at Fayette County High School.
• The genesis of the Athena Music and Leadership Camp and what it means for the students who go to the camp.

Links:

• Myra Rhoden
• Myra Rhoden named 2018 Band Director of the Year
• Athena Music and Leadership Camp
• Tchaikovsky: March Slav (arr. for band)

Biography:

Dr. Myra Rhoden serves at the Director of Bands and Fine Arts Department Chairperson at Fayette County High School in Fayetteville, Georgia. Located approximately twenty miles south of downtown of Atlanta, the Fayette County High School Band program has performed at national and international venues and consists of a competitive marching band and winter guard, three concert bands, a jazz band, and several chamber ensembles. Recent invitational performances include the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) In-Service Conference, the Kennesaw State University Concert Band Festival, and honor band festivals at the University of Alabama, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Georgia. Her marching bands have been finalists at Bands of America Regional and Super-Regional Championships and have won numerous Grand Championships at area competitions.

Dr. Rhoden has been awarded the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence on four occasions, has been named STAR Teacher at FCHS, was named Teacher of the Year on two occasions, was selected for membership in the Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, and was presented the 1995 Sallie Mae First Class Teacher Award, a national award given to one teacher in each state for an outstanding first year of teaching. She recently presented a clinic at the 2017 GMEA In-Service Conference and was named the National Band Director of the Year by the National Association for Music Education for the 2017-2018 school year. She is the founder of the Athena Music and Leadership Camp, a summer band and orchestra camp for middle and high school-aged girls that was created to promote musical excellence while emphasizing self-esteem and leadership skills, and the New Notes Band Camps, summer day camp programs for middle school musicians in the metropolitan Atlanta area.

Before joining the faculty at Fayette County, Dr. Rhoden taught at the middle and high school levels in Alabama. A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, she received the Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees in Music Education from the University of Alabama and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Rhoden serves as a GMEA All-State Band Organizer and has served as the GMEA District VI Band Chairperson. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Southeastern United States (SEUS) Honor Band Clinic at Troy University, served on the Board of Directors for the Alabama Bandmasters Association, and is honored to be a clinician and adjudicator throughout the southeast. She resides in Fayetteville with her husband, Errol Jr., and son, Errol III.