Where am I?
The Directors
Patrick Jackson
KHS Symphonic Orchestra Director
North Kirkwood Middle School Orchestra Director
4th Grade Strings
Patrick.Jackson@kirkwoodschools.org
314/213-6100, ext. 7256
Patrick Jackson’s instructional leadership and commitment to music education is legendary in the Kirkwood School District. He has been honored in Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers by former students. Jackson was the recent recipient of the Missouri American String Teachers Association’s “Secondary String Educator of the Year” award. In addition, the Kirkwood School District honored him as the 2003-04 Teacher of the Year. Jackson was also the 2003 Emerson “Excellence in Teaching” award winner and was recognized the following year by The St. Louis American as one of its “Excellence in Education” honorees.
His orchestra has won local, state and national acclaim for the past 21 years. In March 2010, the KHS Symphonic Orchestra performed at the famed Carnegie Hall, selected as one of three high school orchestras in the nation to do so. In June 2011, Mr. Jackson received the Yale Distinguished Music Educator Award from the Yale School of Music. Prior to his joining the Kirkwood School District, Jackson taught in the Normandy School District and St. Louis Public Schools.
Mr. Jackson’s former students have won first prize in prestigious strings competitions including the Avery Fisher Prize, the Sphinx Competition, and the Young Concert Artist Guild.
Jackson’s students have also attended top music schools nationwide, including The Juilliard School, Eastman School of Music, Yale School of Music, New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
A native of McComb, Mississippi, Jackson received his B.M.E. from Jackson State University and his M.M. in Double Bass performance from the St. Louis Conservatory of Music. Daughter Patrice Jackson, a cellist, was recently signed to Columbia Artists Management and performs around the world.
Jackson served on the MSHSSA advisory committee for music. He is a member of the American String Teachers Association, M.M.E.A., M.E.N.C., and is past vice president of the High School Orchestra for the St. Louis All-Suburban Music Educators Association. He is also the new Director of Webster Community School of Music’s Young People’s Concert Orchestra.
Joseph Kaminsky
4th grade strings teacher
jckaminsky25@sbcglobal.net
Joseph Kaminsky has taught violin for over 36 years and is currently Associate Professor of Violin at Webster University, Adjunct String instructor at UMSL, Beginning Strings teacher at Kirkwood Schools for the last 14 years, and director of the Kirkwood Academy of Music. His teachers have been Almita Vamos, Roland Vamos, Shinichi Suzuki, John Kendall. He is one of only two registered SAA Suzuki teacher trainers in Missouri. Since 2000 Mr. Kaminsky has authored over 20 pedagogical articles appearing in national publications, developed the "Vibrato From the Ground Up” DVD for teaching vibrato, and has authored a set of violin technique books. Mr. Kaminsky was named Mo ASTA Studio Teacher of the Year in 1999 and has been invited to teach workshops and seminars in 33 different states, Canada, Puerto Rico, at the 2006 International String Conference in Singapore, and at the 1999 World Suzuki Conference in Matsumoto Japan. His former students have played or currently are playing professionally in the Arkansas, Ann Arbor, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Syracuse symphonies.
Fariga Drayton
KHS Concert Orchestra Director
Nipher Middle School Orchestra Director
5th Grade Strings
Farigo.Drayton@kirkwoodschools.org
At age 11, Ms. Fariga E. Drayton began cello studies with Kirkwood Orchestra Director Patrick Jackson. After graduating from Kirkwood High School in 1995, she went on to pursue her Bachelor’s Degree in Cello Performance from the University of Kentucky. She later completed her Music Education Certification from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Ms. Drayton’s first job after graduating from college was in the Kirkwood School District teaching fifthh Grade Orchestra with Mrs. Kelly Judge from 2002-04. From 2003-11 Ms. Drayton was employed with the Alton Community Unit School District No. 11 teaching fourth and fifth grade Orchestra at several elementary schools and seventh and eighth grade Orchestra at Alton Middle School. From 2004-11, her Middle School Orchestras received First Place and First Superior Ratings at the Illinois Grade School Music Association Organizational Contest. Her advanced chamber group, Schumann Chamber, received First Superior ratings every year at Solo and Ensemble Contest. This group competed in the Six Flags Music in the Parks Competition where they placed first in their division six out of the seven years they competed and was asked to perform at the Illinois Music Educator Association State Conference in January 2011. Ms. Drayton also won Heart of the School (Teacher of the Month/Alton Middle School) in February 2011 for her dedication to the music department and success of Schumann Chamber.
Ms. Drayton has also conducted the University of Kentucky Cello Ensemble, the University of Kentucky String Project, the All Suburban Middle School Honors Orchestra and the Alton Jr. Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has been teaching privately since 1993 and has coached cello sections in the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, Alton High School Orchestra and the Alton Youth Symphony.
With over 23 years of performing experience, Ms. Drayton is an active musician in St. Louis and surrounding areas. She has performed in many orchestra such as the Community Music School Young People’s Symphonic Orchestra (formally CASA), the All Suburban High School Honors Orchestra, the NAACP ACT-SO State and National Competition, SIUE Symphonic Orchestra, Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra (concerto competition winner), St. Louis Youth Symphony Orchestra, Missouri All State Orchestra, Interlochen Center for the Arts Camp World Youth Symphony Orchestra, University of Kentucky Symphonic Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, UMSL Orchestra, St. Louis Philharmonic and the Florissant Valley Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Drayton has performed with the Transiberian Orchestra (St. Louis Strings) over the past seven years during their holiday tour. In March of 2011, Ms. Drayton performed with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players in the Mid-West Tour production of The Mikado and The Pirates of Penzance. Ms. Drayton is also the co-founder of PrayzeHymn, an instrumental Gospel Group where she plays Gospel and Christian music. In June 2011, Ms. Drayton performed with the Southern Illinois Music Festival in Carbondale, IL where she played in an opera, a ballet, three full orchestral programs, educational concerts and several chamber music concerts featuring the Brandenburg Concertos. She is currently principal cellist of the University City Symphony Orchestra, which she has been a member of for the past 9 years; principal cellist of the Gateway Festival Orchestra for the past two summers; and, was recently appointed the principal cellist of the Alton Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Drayton is currently teaching Beginning Strings to the Kirkwood elementary students and is the director of the Nipher Middle School Orchestra and the Concert Orchestra at Kirkwood High School.
JoEllen Lyons
Originally from the Kansas City area, JoEllen Lyons received a degree in Music Performance from the University of Central Missouri and continued her studies at the California School of Music. She chose the cello because it was the same instrument her mother played. After moving to St. Louis, she performed with groups such as the St. Louis Philharmonic, Laclede Quartet, Bach Society, Masterworks Chorale, the St. Louis String Trio and Quartet, the Fox, and Muny. Along with the classic venues, JoEllen has had the pleasure of playing for the Pope and with Mannheim Steamroller, Led Zeppelin, Moody Blues, Bread, Pat Liston of Mama's Pride, as well as doing recording work on the side. Mrs. Lyons has served as an adjunct faculty member at UMSL, Lindenwood College, and the St. Louis Conservatory. She currently teaches privately in South County and has had the privilege of teaching the 5th grade strings for the past five years in the Kirkwood School District. The rest of her time is devoted to her husband and two sons.
Cynthia Bowermaster
4th Grade Strings
A versatile violinist, Cynthia Bowermaster, is active as both a performer and a teacher. She was a member of the Honolulu Symphony first violin section for 11 years before moving to St. Louis. She now regularly performs with the St. Louis Chamber Orchestra, the Webster Symphony Orchestra, the Fox Theatre Orchestra, the Bach Society of St. Louis and on the American Kantorei “Bach at the Sem” series. She also performs with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley, Idaho.
She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the University of Southern California in Violin Performance studying with Eudice Shapiro, Alice Schoenfeld and Glenn Dicterow.
She has been on the faculty at Iolani School, Honolulu, Hawaii, the DePaul University Suzuki program and the Suzuki-Orff School, Chicago, Illinois, and the Webster University Community Music School Suzuki program here in St. Louis.
In addition she maintains a private violin studio at home. She resides in Kirkwood with her husband, Tod, third horn of the St. Louis Symphony and their two children, Kathryn and Ryan.