Orchestra will be offered at all four middle schools, Ninth Grade Center, and Frenship High School, providing students with a unique opportunity to explore string music education.
Radcliffe, a celebrated music educator with over 20 years of experience, has won numerous awards for her outstanding work in string education. She is the recipient of the 2006 American String Teachers Association Marjorie Keller Young Teacher of the Year Award and was named a 2014 Top 20 under 40 leader in Abilene.
Radcliffe’s dynamic string performance group, Revolution Strings, has performed at several music education conventions, toured Europe, China, and Nashville, and performed with award-winning artists.
Dr. Ryan Smith, Director of Bands and Fine Arts Coordinator at Frenship, says Radcliffe will be a great addition to the Frenship family to help launch the new orchestra program.
"We are extremely excited about our new Director of Orchestras, Darcy Radcliffe. Mrs. Radcliffe comes with amazing experience as a performer and educator,” said Dr. Smith. “The thing that excites me the most is her ability to reach each student and share her passion for music. Our students are going to greatly benefit from her love of students and her innovative outlook on music education!"
The new program will provide Frenship students with many benefits, including more performance and cross-curricular opportunities at the middle school and high school levels. Frenship already has several students who play string instruments and participate in Youth Orchestras of Lubbock and other various local music ensembles, and now these students will have access to great string education from Frenship's orchestra directors.
In addition, orchestra students will have the opportunity to join existing Frenship music productions, such as the fall musical performance, which combines theater, choir, and band students in the production. Eventually, the program will grow to allow the performance selections for full orchestra, similar to those performed by the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra.
As the program continues to develop, Frenship looks forward to the positive impact it will have on its students and the broader community.
Information about instrument selections will be shared in the coming weeks to all those who have registered for orchestra next year.