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Below is a bio of Summit Parkway's past and present band directors who have paved the way to success for our band students.
Maria E. Lee, Summit Parkway Middle School's Director of Bands, is a native of Texas and a product of Richland District Two. After graduating from Spring Valley High School in 1988, she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Music with an emphasis in Music Education from Columbia College in 1992. Her post-graduate studies include courses in music and computer technology, computer graphics, band literature, music education curriculum and administration, and the Alexander Technique. In December of 2007, Mrs. Lee earned a Masters degree in Music Education from the University of South Carolina.
Mrs. Lee is a woodwind specialist. She has studied her primary instrument, the saxophone, with Ms. Lauren Meccia and Dr. Clifford Leaman from the University of South Carolina. She served as the woodwind instructor for the Spring Valley High School Bands in Columbia from 1999 to 2015 and has taught saxophone privately in Richland District Two since 1999. Students who have studied in her studio have consistently earned top chairs in the South Carolina Band Director's Association Region and All-State Bands. Some of her former private lesson students and band students have continued performing at the collegiate level, earned degrees in music education or performance, and now have teaching jobs or jobs in the music industry.
Mrs. Lee is currently in her thirty-first year of teaching. She has taught in public schools at both the high school and middle school levels. She served as Director of Bands at A.C. Flora High School in Columbia, South Carolina from 1993 to 1999. Under her direction, the A.C. Flora Bands consistently earned Superior and Excellent ratings at marching and state concert festivals.
Mrs. Lee has been teaching at Summit Parkway Middle School since 2000. She has conducted the SPMS BANDS in performances such as the 2019 Charleston Music Festival, the 2018 and 2017 Southern Star of Music Festival in Atlanta, GA, the 2015 South Carolina Music Educators Association Conference in Columbia, SC, the 2014 and 2012 Charleston Music Festival in Charleston, SC, the Southern Division Music Educators National Conference in 2007 in Charleston, SC; the Midwest Clinic in December of 2002 in Chicago, IL; and the South Carolina Music Educators Association in 2001 in Greenville, SC.
During her tenure, the Summit Parkway Bands have consistently received Superior ratings at both state and regional concert festivals, and have been awarded the SCBDA Outstanding Performance Award. Both the seventh and eighth-grade bands have earned Superior ratings at the Grand National Adjudicators Invitational and the Dixie Classic Festivals. In 2002, the eighth-grade band was named the Grand NAI Festival Honor Band. In 2003 and 2004, the band was awarded first place in the All-American Festival. Her band programs have also earned Superior ratings at various Carowinds Music Festivals.
Mrs. Lee has been a committee member of the Tri-District Arts Consortium of Columbia, South Carolina. She was involved in the audition and selection process of students who are admitted into the wind and percussion ensembles and served as wind ensemble teacher, music theory teacher, and band teacher of the Tri-District Arts Consortium Concert Band for six years.
Mrs. Lee earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/Music in 2003 and earned re-certification in 2013 and in 2023. She is also a scorer/reader for Pearson's National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification.
Mrs. Lee has been awarded the National Band Association Citation of Excellence Award. Mrs. Lee maintains professional affiliations with SCBDA, MENC, and SCMEA.
Mrs. Lee and her husband have two children, two daughters-in-law, and three grandchildren.
David C. Allison earned a Masters degree in Music Performance from the University of South Carolina after undergraduate studies at Ithaca College and at the Eastman School of Music. He has taught in public schools, privately, and at the college level.
Mr. Allison served as Summit Parkway's Director of Bands for eighteenth and 1/2 years as Director of Bands at Summit Parkway Middle School. Under his direction, the Summit Parkway Bands have earned superior ratings at SCBDA’s Concert Festival for 17 consecutive years; they have earned superior ratings at Carowinds, the Orlando Festival of Music, the All-Star Music Festival in Orlando, FL, the All-American Festival in Orlando, the Grand National Adjudicators Invitational, and the Dixie Classic Festival in Atlanta, GA. At Grand NAI, the ensemble received top honors among middle school bands in 2000, 2002 and 2005.
The Summit Parkway Middle School Bands earned the SCBDA Outstanding Performance Award for 17 consecutive years under the direction of Mr. Allison. In 2001, the Summit Parkway Honor Band performed at the South Carolina Music Educators Association In-Service Conference in Greenville, SC; and in 2002, they performed at the MENC National Biennial In-Service Conference in Nashville and also at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. In April 2001, the Summit Parkway Jazz Band was featured at VH-1 Save the Music inaugural event on the steps of the South Carolina State House in Columbia with Hootie and the Blowfish. In November 2002, the Honor Band was asked to perform for President Bush upon his arrival in Columbia. In February 2007, the Honor Band performed at the Southern Division MENC Convention in Charleston, SC.
Mr. Allison was named the 1998-99 Summit Parkway Teacher of the Year. He was named in School Band & Orchestra magazine’s Fifty Teachers Who Make a Difference n in 2001, and was awarded the Citation of Excellence by the National Bandmasters Association in 2001, 2002 and 2007. Mr. Allison has conducted numerous band and orchestra clinics, and has authored articles on trumpet pedagogy for publications including the South Carolina Bandmaster. In May 2003, he was a featured presenter at the Iowa Bandmasters Clinic; in February 2003, he was guest conductor of the Ridge View High School Band’s performance at the University of Southern Mississippi Band Clinic, and in March 2005, was guest conductor of the Ridge View Band at the Bands of America National Concert Festival.
Under his direction, the Spring Valley Viking Bands have consistently received numerous Superior ratings at various marching festivals and competitions. During his tenure, the Spring Valley Symphonic Band has earned Superior ratings in Grade VI class music literature at the South Carolina Band Directors’ Association Concert Festivals. The Spring Valley Bands have annually earned the SCBDA Outstanding Performance Award. The Spring Valley Symphonic Band was the 2009 Grand National Champion of the All-Star Music Festival Season.
With the help of Spring Valley’s faculty and administration, Mr. Allison has worked to allow opportunities for students to continue in the Spring Valley Band programs while concentrating on their rigorous academic courses. He has also worked to create an instrumental music curriculum at the district and state level.
Students under Mr. Allison’s direction have earned seats in the South Carolina Band Directors’ Association’s Region Three Bands and All-State Bands., Bands of America National Honor Band, MENC National Honor Band. His students have also participated in band clinics at the University of South Carolina, Winthrop College and Furman University. Students under his direction have also earned seats in the Richland Two’s District Orchestra and in the South Carolina Youth Philharmonic. Mr. Allison has had several students earn music scholarships and continue onto majoring in music performance and music education, or performing at the collegiate level.
As a trumpet player, Mr. Allison continues to perform in both the classical and commercial fields, in shows, recording sessions, clinics, and teaching. He has performed with many orchestras in New York, Kansas, Oklahoma, south Carolina, and Georgia. He is a founding member and solo trumpet of the Palmetto Brass, and performs in the Dick goodwin Big Band and the Palmetto Concert Band. Mr. Allison is Principal Trumpet Emeritus of the South Carolina Philharmonic. He has also appeared as guest soloist with the Savannah Symphony, the South Carolina Philharmonic, the University of South Carolina Symphony, and the S.C. Chamber Orchestra. The Besson - Courtois Company has named Mr. Allison an Artist/Clinician for Besson - Courtois Trumpets.
Mr. Allison earned National Board Certification in Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood/Music in 2002. He maintains professional affiliations with the SCBDA, MENC, NBA, ITG and Phi Beta Mu.
Mr. Allison and his wife, Wanda, have an adult daughter and son-in-law. He has recently retired from public education.
Dr. Jerry Gatch, is a native of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A graduate of Lexington High School, he went on to complete the Bachelor of Music Education, Master of Music in Theory and Composition, and Doctor of Musical Arts Degrees at the University of South Carolina. He studied horn with Robert Pruzin, composition with Dick Goodwin and Sam Douglas, and conducting with William J. Moody.
Dr. Gatch helped open Summit Parkway Middle School in 1990. Dr. Gatch served as Summit Parkway Middle School's Director of Bands from 1990 to 1993. His groups consistency earned Excellent and Superior Ratings while under his direction. Prior to opening Summit Parkway, Dr. Gatch served as Band and Orchestra Director at Bethel Hanberry. He is currently the Director of Bands at Lexington High School in Lexington, SC.
Under his direction, the Lexington Bands have consistently received Superior Ratings at State, Regional and National Festivals and Contests. His Wind Ensembles have won National Adjudicator Invitational Competitions and have been showcased at the SCMEA In-Service Conference, USC Band Clinic, NBA/CBDNA Southern Division, MENC Southern Division, Bands of America Regional Concert Band Festival, and at BOA National Concert Band Festival.
Dr. Gatch is active as an adjudicator, clinician, arranger and performer. He has been a guest conductor for many honor bands and orchestras across the country. He is a free-lance conductor and performer on horn and bass and continues to arrange and compose for many different media. In addition to the Lexington High School Band, Dr. Gatch conducts the SC Philharmonic Youth Orchestra and the Lexington United Methodist Choir. Dr. Gatch has been awarded the National and Associations Citation of Excellence. Dr. Gatch is a Past-Prestident of the Palmetto Concert BAnd, which performed at the prestigious Mid-West Clinic in 1999 and 2009. He maintains professional affiliations with MENC, SCBDA, SCMEA, ABA, the Percussive Arts Society, Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Beta Mu.
Dr. Gatch and his wife, Sidney, have an adult daughter, son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild. He is currently the Director of Bands for Newberry College.
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