Florida Orchestra Association

Dr. Gail Barnes

DR. BARNES teaches undergraduate and, graduate courses in addition to supervising instrumental student teachers at the University of South Carolina. She also serves as area coordinator of music education.

Her duties as Director of the USC String Project include overseeing a staff of preservice teachers instructing over 350 students from the community. Since her appointment, she has devised a curriculum for the students and increased the use of video technology in student and teacher instruction. She directs the advanced middle school ensemble “Intermezzo.” Her experience includes eighteen years of public school teaching all age levels of school orchestra. Her performing experience includes being a member of the viola section of the Virginia Symphony and Opera Orchestras and the Puccini Festival Orchestra in Torre del Lago (Italy).

Dr. Barnes received her B.M. and M.M. from the University of Michigan and her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. She has articles published in American String Teacher, The Journal of String Research, Update, Music Educators Journal and the Journal of Research in Music Education. She edited a book titled Applying Research to Teaching and Playing Stringed Instruments that includes work by eighteen leaders in string education.

Her research interests focus on string teaching, teacher education and motivation in both music teachers and students. She has presented papers at conferences of the Music Educators National Conference, American String Teachers Association and the College Music Society.

Dr. Barnes has presented sessions for in-service and pre-service teachers in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts New York, North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. She has conducted student honor ensembles in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina.

GEORGIA LAMBROS EKONOMOU , a native Atlantan, received her Bachelor of Music Education from Northwestern University, and a Master of Music Education from Georgia State University.  Additionally, she studied conducting at the Conductor’s Institute in South Carolina under Harold Farberman and Donald Portnoy.

Georgia has been an Orchestra Director for 30 years.   Before coming to Paideia, she taught at The Lovett School in Atlanta. While at Lovett, the Lovett Chamber Orchestra performed at the 1990 MENC National Conference in Washington DC. Her Lovett Orchestras also performed at the Georgia Music Educators Conference in Savannah, in 1997, and at the International Association of Jazz Educator’s Conference in Atlanta, in 1997. She currently conducts three orchestras at Paideia. Under her leadership, The Paideia Chamber Orchestra performed at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center in 2005 and at Jordan Hall in Boston in 2007.

A violinist, she performs with the Atlanta Opera Orchestra, and has performed with the Woman’s Jazz Orchestra of Los Angeles, the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, the Emory Chamber Players and other ensembles in the Atlanta area. In 1991, she was awarded Lovett’s Woodward Award for excellence in teaching. She presently conducts the Atlanta Junior Chamber Orchestra, the preparatory orchestra of the Emory Symphony Youth Orchestra.  In January 2009, she conducted the 7th/8th grade All-State Honor Orchestra in Florida.

Dr. Alex Jimenez

DR. ALEX JIMENEZ became the fourth director of orchestral activities since 1925 at the Florida State University College of Music in 2004. Since becoming director of orchestral activities, Dr. Jiménez serves as music director of both the University Philharmonia and the University Symphony Orchestra. Under his leadership, the University Symphony Orchestra has recorded on the Naxos label and appeared in a nationally broadcast performance of Ellen Zwilich’s Peanuts Gallery on PBS that earned Best Performance of 2007 by the National Educational Television Association. Dr. Jiménez oversees a successful graduate conducting program. His students have been selected to participate in workshops and professional conducting opportunities throughout the United States and in Europe, including League of American Orchestras Conducting Workshops, the South Carolina Conductor’s Institutes, and the Pierre Monteaux Conductor’s Workshop.

Dr. Jiménez has served as director of orchestras and instrumental music on the faculties of Palm Beach Atlantic College and San Francisco State University. In demand as a guest conductor and adjudicator, he has conducted honor and university orchestras, and adjudicated orchestra festivals throughout the United States and in Europe. He has collaborated with such noted composers as Martin Bresnick, Ellen Zwilich, John Harbison, Ladislav Kubik, and Krysztof Penderecki. He has also collaborated with soloists and ensembles as diverse as Denyce Graves, Bobby McFerrin, the Canadian Brass, Daniel Roumain, and NEXUS.

Active in the music community, Dr. Jiménez serves as President of the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA). Since 200 Dr. Jiménez has been music director of the Tallahassee Youth Orchestras, Inc, an organization with nearly 200 students and six ensembles.

Karrell Johnson

KARRELL J. JOHNSON received his Bachelor’s degree in viola from the University of Texas at Austin and his Master’s degree in music education from the University of Illinois in Urbana.  His major viola studies have been with Albert Gillis, Paul Rolland and John Garvey.  Mr. Johnson studied orchestral conducting with Alexander Von Kreisler and Bernard Goodman.  His public school teaching began in Wichita Falls, Texas and continued in Freeport, Texas, where he implemented the orchestra program in the Brazosport School District.  Mr. Johnson was on the faculty at the University of Georgia from 1969 to 1973 teaching applied viola, chamber music, music education, string pedagogy and conducting.  He was the violist in the University of Georgia Faculty String Quartet, Faculty Baroque Ensemble, and also served as associate conductor of the University Symphony.  Mr. Johnson’s extensive background as a soloist and ensemble performer includes performances in Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, California and New York. Mr. Johnson has performed the Walton viola concerto with the Shreveport Symphony as winner of the Shreveport Symphony Competition and has performed chamber music in Carnegie Hall.  From 1973 to 1989 he served as Director of Fine Arts in the Dallas Independent School District. Mr. Johnson has served as principal violist of the Wichita Falls Symphony for twenty five years, and during the 1995-96 season was named  interim Artistic Director and Conductor. As an active member of Texas Music Educator’s Association – Vice President and Orchestra Division Chairman 1977-79, American String Teachers Association – President Texas Chapter 1976-78, and Texas Orchestra Director’s Association, he exemplifies his strong support and leadership in Music Education. Mr. Johnson has served on the faculty of the University of North Texas in String Education since 1996 and is Director of the University String Project.  As a conductor of All-State and All-Region Orchestras, violist, educator, clinician and adjudicator, Johnson is highly respected throughout the United States.

Dr. James Plondke

DR. JAMES PLONDKE has served as a teacher and orchestra conductor during a career spanning almost 40 years.  He presently serves on the orchestra faculty of the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, Georgia, teaching students third through twelfth grade.  In 2008, he retired as Professor of Music at Valdosta State University, completing a 25-year career in higher education.  He formerly served as on the faculties at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin and University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee.  Dr. Plondke was the Music Director of the Valdosta (GA) Symphony Orchestra for fourteen years and Music Director and Conductor of the Ocala (FL) Symphony Orchestra for eight seasons.  He began his career at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois where he served as Orchestra Director and Department Chairperson. 

    Dr. Plondke received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Instrumental Conducting from the University of Wisconsin—Madison.  There, he was awarded the Richard C. Church Award in Conducting.   A Bronze Tablet graduate of the University of Illinois, with degrees in Music Education and Performance, he received the Master of Music degree in Music History and Literature from Northwestern University.  His formal education also includes studies in orchestral conducting at the University of Cincinnati and studies with leading conductors in professional workshops and master classes.

    Dr. Plondke has been very active as a guest conductor, adjudicator and clinician.  He has given master classes, clinics and workshops, and has conducted student festival, all-state, professional, and community orchestras in seventeen states.  In 2005, he was a guest conductor with the National Orchestra of Ireland in a concert broadcast live nationally.  In the summer of 2004, Dr. Plondke taught in the Georgia Universities Regent’s Study Abroad Program in Montepulciano, Italy.  He has served as Orchestra Division Chair on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Music Educators Association and as President of the Georgia Chapter of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA/NSOA).  Dr. Plondke has been active as a chamber music recitalist on the double bass.  His research interests include conducting, string pedagogy, and the symphonies of Joseph Haydn.