Carolyn Vandiver, Orchestra Director

Carolyn Vandiver is currently the orchestra director for the Stephen F. Austin High School Orchestra in Fort Bend ISD where she has taught since the school's opening in 1995. This is her 30th year to teach orchestra in Texas. Vandiver began her teaching career as one of the founding members of the Arlington ISD String Program in 1972.
Vandiver's orchestras have received consecutive UIL Sweepstakes for over 25 years. In Dec. 2003, Austin's full symphony orchestra performed at Midwest Clinic in Chicago. Since its beginning ten years ago, Austin's Orchestra has had 65 TMEA All-State Orchestra members.

Vandiver holds a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from West Texas A&M University, and a Master's degree in Music from Texas Women's University. She is a member of the Pi Alpha Alpha chapter of Pi Beta. Vandiver is a member of TMEA, TODA, TMAA, ASTA, MENC and TCTA. She was instrumental in the founding of and has been the orchestra manager of the Virtuosi of Houston, a chamber youth orchestra, since its inception in 1996. This year marks her seventh year as a conductor of the String Orchestra of the Houston Youth Symphony.

Vandiver's life revolves around her husband of 30 years, Jack, a choral music instructor at Alief Hastings High School, and their four children. Ashley is currently a master's student at the Royal Conservatory in den Hague, Netherlands, and Courtenay is a master's student at the New England Conservatory of Music. Both girls were four year All-State Symphony Orchestra members. Everitt's music interest include voice and viola. Emileigh, a cellist, is a three-year member of the All-State Symphony Orchestra and a junior at HSPVA. The Vandiver family attends Calvary Church at the Fountains. They are lifetime members of the Assembly of God Church.

Alisa Pederson is the founding director of Travis High School Orchestra which was formed in part from Ms. Vandiver's Austin High School Orchestra. Her students, friends of Austin High School Orchestra, have been included in this trip opportunity. Ms. Pederson was previously the director of Fort Settlement Middle School Orchestra, also in Sugar Land, Texas.

The Orchestra
Stephen F. Austin High School Orchestra was founded in Sugar Land, Texas in 1995 with only 16 members. Under the direction of Carolyn Vandiver, the orchestra program has swelled to include 105 students and two orchestras.
During the eleven years of growth, Austin High School Orchestra has excelled and consistently ranked as one of the best high school orchestras in the state of Texas and in the United States. Because of their excellence, Austin High School Orchestra has been invited and performed at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois, performed twice at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and many other venues including Director's Choice in San Francisco, CA. Since the orchestra founding 11 years ago, 65 students have been accepted into the All-State Orchestras - an unmatched achievement by any other school in Texas.
Beginning with the 2005/2006 school year, a new high school, William B. Travis High School, was founded to assist in accommodating the rapid growth of suburban Sugar Land. In part, Austin High School students help to found this new school and, in the tradition of excellence for our area, a new orchestra was formed. Members of this new orchestra, friends of Stephen F. Austin High School Orchestra, will travel and perform with Austin High School Orchestra in their upcoming trip to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic.