Mandy Traylor Cavanaugh is a graduate of Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Wheaton, IL where she studied music education, conducting, piano, and voice. She serves as Chorus Director and Guitar Teacher at Carnage Middle School.  In her 11 years of teaching she has taught elementary music, middle school music, and private piano and voice lessons, but has found her joy in middle school Chorus. Middle school is the time when students discover new abilities, talents, and interests that they will continue to pursue as they grow older. Mrs. Cavanaugh finds her joy and passion in leading students on this journey of musical discovery!

Mrs. Cavanaugh is active in her professional development, maintaining memberships in the American Choral Director’s Association (ACDA) and North Carolina Music Educators Association (NCMEA). She served as a guest lecturer at ACTABS in Houston, TX in 2013. She traveled to Kenya that same year to serve as a summer guest music educator at MBEWAU Academy in Mombasa.​

Mrs. Cavanaugh's teaching skills are supported by extensive performance and collaboration experience. Her broad choral background includes early studies under Dr. Lynne Gackle and Dr. Sandy Babb in Gulf Coast Youth Choirs, participating in five ACDA conventions as well as the Heritage Festival of Gold and the Beijing International Choral Festival. She has been privileged to sing under Dr. Anton Armstrong, Dr. Andre Thomas, Dr. James Mulholland, Dr. James Franklin, John Nelson, and composer Kryzstof Penderecki. At Wheaton College, she studied with Dr. Mary Hopper and Dr. Paul Wiens, and sang with the Wheaton Women’s Chorale and the Wheaton Concert Choir.

Performances of major choral works include Handel's Messiah, Bach's B Minor Mass, Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Berlioz's Requiem, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, Durufle's Requiem, Faure's Requiem, Howells Requiem, Rutter Requiem, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Mahler's Symphony No. 2, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, ​Orff's Carmina Burana, Poulenc's Gloria, Rutter's Gloria, and Vivaldi's Gloria. Mrs. Cavanaugh also sang the National Anthem at the ACC Semi-Finals in May 2019. Mrs. Cavanaugh sings with Schola Cantorum at Christ Church on Capitol Square, as well as the Raleigh Bach Soloists. 

When she’s not teaching or singing, Mrs. Cavanaugh enjoys spending time with her husband, traveling, baking, and whitewater rafting in the Great Smoky Mountains.