Fort Smith Public Schools
Hackett, Arkansas
Karen Jeter is currently Director of Orchestras at Chaffin Middle School and Assistant Director at Southside High School in Fort Smith, Arkansas where she incorporates her extensive Suzuki Method training into a traditional orchestra classroom setting. She is also Associate Concertmaster of the award-winning Fort Smith Symphony, recognized internationally for its recordings of Arkansas African-American composers Florence Price and William Grant Still on Naxos Records. Much of her prior orchestra teaching experience is from the School Town of Highland in Northwest Indiana, where she taught grades 5-12 for 7 years and increased program enrollment by 400%. Her middle school and high school orchestras in both Indiana and Arkansas have received consistent Division I ratings at ISSMA and ASBOA Organizational Contests.
Ms. Jeter earned her Undergraduate Degrees in Music Performance and Education from Ball State University and later a Master’s Degree in Conducting from the Jordan College of the Arts, Butler University, where she was Assistant Conductor of the Butler Symphonic Orchestra. During this time she participated in numerous conducting seminars and workshops across the country which included working with Larry Rachliff, Donald Portnoy, Christopher Wilkens, Paul Vermel, and Stanley DeRusha. She founded/directed the Fort Smith Symphony Youth Orchestras and has been active with the Fort Smith Symphony’s educational outreach programs which includes annual Symphony-in-the-Schools and Earquake concerts.
Suzuki training and certification was received from the Suzuki Institutes of Chicago, Colorado, Seattle-Pacific, and Stevens Point. Her passion for the method inspired her to establish and direct the River Valley Suzuki School of Music in Fort Smith. She has studied under renowned Suzuki teacher-trainers Nancy Lokken, Yuko Honda, Patricia D’Ercole, Enid Cleary, Susan Bear, Alice Joy Lewis and most recently Winifred Crock (author of Pattern Play and Learning Together).
Highlights of Ms. Jeter’s violin performance experience includes Concertmaster and Associate Concertmaster with the Fort Smith Symphony for the past 26 years as well as being a member of the Fort Smith Symphony String Quartet and the Fort Smith Symphony’s electronic string quartet, JOLT. Prior to moving to Arkansas she performed regularly with the Fort Wayne Philharmonic and the Northwest Indiana Orchestra. She has also been a guest clinician and/or conductor for numerous All-region clinics, festivals, Suzuki Institutes, workshops, and prominent summer camps in Indiana and Arkansas.
Ms. Jeter and her esteemed Fort Smith Public School colleagues have worked together to successfully implement a Suzuki inspired “Every Child Can” beginner string program across the district. The FSPS district is very fortunate to have an administration that values and encourages innovative instruction, and has made it possible to design and present this unique curriculum to its students in an effort to consistently improve retention, mastery, whole child development, and a joyful passion for learning.
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Viva Suzuki! Inspiration for Middle School Orchestras
Saturday, July 22, 2023
10:15 AM – 11:15 AM CST