Jan Garverick

TODA Orchestra Director of the Year - 2016

Jan Garverick is a dedicated music educator who delights in helping students and teachers learn more about string pedagogy. It’s one of her many passions. In her 43 years of teaching, Jan has been dedicated to the enrichment of life through music and finds fulfillment in the fact that many of her former students have become orchestra directors.

Jan is currently the Director of Orchestras at MacArthur High School in the North East Independent School District in San Antonio.  She earned degrees in English and music as well as a Ph.D. in Fine Arts with a major in Music Education from Texas Tech University.  Beginning her career as an itinerant string teacher in the elementary schools of NEISD, Jan has taught strings from kindergarten through university levels. In NEISD, she organized and implemented the first middle school string program, developed a high school string program, and founded the NEISD Summer Orchestra Workshop, serving as its first teacher and coordinator for twelve years. Jan has served in every office of the Texas Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, including President. An active member of the Texas Music Adjudicators Association, the Texas Music Educators National Conference, Texas Music Educators Association, Mu Omicron, and the Texas Orchestra Directors Association, Jan has presented clinics at TMEA, TODA and at National ASTA. In addition, she has taught at the Texas Tech Orchestra Camp for twenty-two summers.

Jan’s recent publications, Music for Harp(s) and Young Strings, are string arrangements in collaboration with harpist Gail Barber. Jan was also a contributor to the MENC Benchmarks for Student Compositions. In 2006, she authored four chapters for a reference book entitled Teaching Music Through Performance, Volume Three.  Her most rewarding research in pedagogy was her dissertation entitled Selected Pedagogical Needs of the String Class as addressed in the Compositions of Carold Nunez. Many members of TODA were primary contributors of statistical data for her  research.  Jan has received many accolades during her career, including the Southwestern Bell/UIL Award for Excellence in Teaching for 1999–2000; the MacArthur High School Teacher of the Year Award in 2004; induction into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame in 2005, representing the professional education category; the ASTA National Elizabeth A. H. Green Award in 2006 for demonstrating a current and distinguished career in a school orchestral setting; and MacArthur’s 2006 Trinity Prize winner for Excellence in Teaching. We are honored to recognize Jan Garverick for her many accomplishments as a music educator with the 2016 Orchestra Director of the Year Award.