Fairview Performing Arts Center

This event includes a FREE concert conducted by Dr. Myra Rhoden and 

Ms. Audrey Murphy

April 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM

(This is a clear bag event)

Ms. Audrey Murphy is in her second year as Band Director at East Cobb Middle School in Marietta, Georgia.  Prior to this appointment, she was Band Director at Hopewell Middle School in Milton, Georgia from the opening of the school in 2004 until 2023. Under her direction, Hopewell ensembles earned consecutive Superior ratings in performance evaluations and appeared as guest performing ensembles at the University of Georgia Middle School Band Festival, the Music for All Southeastern Regional Concert Band Festival, and the Music for All National Concert Festival.  The Hopewell Middle School Symphonic Band also performed as a featured ensemble for the Georgia Music Educators Association In-Service Conference in 2010 and 2019.

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Ms. Murphy is a graduate of East Carolina University.  She has performed as a clarinetist with the Long Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Charlotte Civic Orchestra, the Capital City Opera Company of Atlanta, Tara Winds, the Georgia Wind Symphony, and Atlanta-based woodwind quintet Highland5.

Ms. Murphy has served as a guest clinician and adjudicator throughout the United States.  She has received the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence on four occasions for her contributions to the field of concert band. She is also a recipient of the North Fulton Jaycees Outstanding Young Arts Professional Award and was named 2010-2011 Hopewell Middle School Teacher of the Year.  In 2022, she was featured in the “50 Directors Who Make a Difference” issue of School Band and Orchestra Magazine.  Most recently, she was conductor of the 2024 Georgia Middle School All-State Band.  Ms. Murphy currently serves as Elementary/Middle School/Junior High School Representative on the National Band Association Board of Directors, and chairs the National Band Association/Alfred Music Young Band Composition Contest Committee.

Dr. Myra Rhoden is the founder of Athena Music and Leadership (athenacamp.com), an all-girls music program created to promote musical excellence while emphasizing leadership skills.  Recently retired after serving thirty years as a high school band director in the public schools of Georgia and Alabama, she now serves on the faculty at the University of West Georgia where she conducts the Symphonic Band and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Music Education.  Dr. Rhoden frequently serves as a guest conductor for state, regional, and university honor bands and is honored to have presented sessions at The Midwest Clinic, various national, state and regional conferences, and for school systems and professional development clinics throughout North America. She is the author of Through My Music: Inspiring the Next Generation of Leaders, published by GIA Publications.

A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, Dr. Rhoden was named the NAfME 2018 National Band Director of the Year, has been awarded the Outstanding Service to Music Award from Tau Beta Sigma, the Golden Rose Award from Women Band Directors International, multiple Citations of Excellence from the National Band Association, and has been named STAR Teacher and Teacher of the Year.  She had the distinct pleasure of being a guest conductor for the United States Air Force Band and the United States Army Field Band of Washington, D. C. and the Tara Winds of Atlanta, Georgia.  She was elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association in 2023, is a member of the Phi Beta Mu International Bandmasters Fraternity, and serves as a Conn Selmer Educational Clinician.  Dr. Rhoden holds degrees from the University of Alabama and the University of Southern Mississippi and resides in Fayetteville, Georgia with her husband, Errol Jr. Their son, Errol III, is a freelance musician based in Los Angeles.