Our Director

Dr. Christopher Selby has been conducting the high school orchestras at the Charleston County School of the Arts since 2012. He is the author of Habits of a Successful Orchestra Director, Music Theory for the Successful String Musician, and co-author of the Habits of a Successful String Musician series, a collection of string method books for middle and upper level orchestras published by GIA. He is an active clinician and conductor, and has presented sessions at two Midwest Clinics, five American String Teacher Association (ASTA) National Conferences, and numerous state conferences across America. Dr. Selby regularly guest conducts Regional and All-State Orchestras, and he currently directs the high school orchestras at the School of the Arts in Charleston, SC. Under his direction, the School of the Arts HS Orchestras performed at the 2019 Midwest Clinic, and they won the 2016 ASTA National Orchestra Festival’s top award of Grand Champion in the competitive public school division.

Dr. Selby earned his music education degree from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, and a Masters and Doctorate of Musical Arts degrees in Orchestral Conducting from the University of South Carolina. Before coming to SOA, Dr. Selby taught orchestra in traditional elementary, middle and high schools since 1992. He was the Orchestra Coordinator in Richland School District Two from 2001 to 2012, where he taught high school and supervised the district’s orchestra curriculum and instruction.

Dr. Selby was the President of the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA) from 2011-2013, and he served two separate terms as the President of the state’s Orchestra Division. He was named the SC ASTA Orchestra Teacher of the Year in 2009. He is a contributing author for Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra, vol. 4 and has written articles for NAfME and in ASTA’s American String Teacher.

Dr. Selby lives in Mount Pleasant, SC with his children, Alex and Kate, and his lovely wife, Margaret, who teaches orchestra at Laing Middle School.