Joan Griffing

Dr. Griffing teaches violin and viola, coaches chamber music, and conducts the EMU orchestra. She is also concertmaster of the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival Orchestra and the Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra, and is a violinist with the Virginia Symphony and the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina. In the spring of 1999, she premiered a Violin Concerto written for her by Terry Vosbein, composer-in-residence at Washington and Lee University. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University, where she studied with Tadeusz Wronski, and her D.M.A. in violin performance from Ohio State University. Her chamber music coaching has been under artists such as Joseph Gingold, Janos Starker, James Buswell, Gyorgy Sebok, Boris Berman, the Fine Arts String Quartet, and the Tokyo String Quartet. Ms. Griffing has performed as concertmaster with the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Austria and Italy as well as with the Colorado, Grand Teton, Norfolk, and Spoleto Festivals in this country. She is also a founding member of Tal Consort, a chamber music group based in the Shenandoah Valley. Recent international appearances include a tour of Taiwan in 2004 with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra, a series of recitals and master classes in May of 2006 in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil, a lecture recital in Adelaide, Australia at the International Viola Congress in June of 2007, and a series of chamber music performances in the northeastern part of Brazil in August of 2007 .

B.M., M.M., Indiana University
D.M.A., Ohio State University

see performances below

(From June 2007-June 2008)
June 10-17, 2007, Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, Harrisonburg, VA: soloist, chamber musician and concertmaster.
June 29-July 3, International Viola Congress, Adelaide, Australia, co-presenter of lecture recital on the chamber music for violin and viola by Georges Migot.
July 5-28, Eastern Music Festival, Greensboro, NC, faculty violinist and teacher.
August 11- 16, Chamber music concerts and master classes with Musica Harmonia Ensemble at Universidade Federal da Paraiba and Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil.
September 7-9, Virginia Symphony, orchestral violinist, Norfolk, Newport News, VA.
October 6, Faculty Violin Recital, EMU.
October 7, Bach Festival historic house tour, chamber musician, Rockingham county.
October 12, 13, Celebration of Song and Sound, Homecoming, orchestral conductor,
EMU.
November 2, dedication ceremony for Sandler Center, Virginia Symphony, Virginia Beach, VA.
November 3, 4, Virginia Symphony, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, VA.
November 10, Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra, concertmaster, Lexington, VA.
November 17, “Gala”, EMU Music Department concert, orchestra director and concertmaster.
November 18, Community Mennonite Church, offertory music.
November 18, Asbury United Methodist Church, offertory music.
December 1, coached EMU student Kara Glick for her Senior Recital, EMU.
December 4, Midday Music in Advent recital series, EMU Piano trio, Asbury United Methodist Church, Harrisonburg, VA.
December 16, Advent Choral Vespers, Muhlenberg Lutheran Church, concertmaster of chamber orchestra, Harrisonburg, VA.
December 21, Christmas at the Paramount, The Oratorio Society of Charlottesville-Albemarle, VA.
January 11, 12, 13, 2008, Virginia Symphony, Norfolk, Newport News, Virginia Beach, VA.
January 18, Musica Harmonia chamber music concert: Schubert Trout Quintet, EMU.
January 19, Music Harmonia hosted a bass recital, EMU.
January 20, Music Harmonia chamber music recital: Schubert and Piazzolla, Mary Washington University, Fredericksburg, VA
January 27, Musica Harmonia chamber music recital, Schubert and Piazzolla, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC.
January 28, Musica Harmonia chamber music recital, Schubert and Piazzolla, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, NC.
February 9, Shenandoah Symphony Orchestra, concertmaster, Lexington, VA.
March 2, Rockbridge Chamber Singers Chamber Orchestra, Bach and Handel, Lexington, VA.
March 7,8,9, Virginia Symphony with Sir James Galway, Norfolk, Newport News, Virginia Beach, VA.
March 21, Good Friday Tenebrae Service, violinist, Muhlenberg Lutheran Church, Harrisonburg, VA.
March 27, EMU Orchestra concert with soloist Jennifer Cooper, conductor, EMU.
April 5,6, Virginia Symphony, Norfolk, Newport News, VA,
April 12, coached EMU student Bebhinn Egger for her Junior Recital, EMU.
April 26, presented a master class as part of the “Meet the Professor” series sponsored by the American String Teachers Association, Burke, VA.
May 10, Bach Festival chamber musician, Barnes and Noble, Harrisonburg, VA.
May 11, Virginia Consort Chamber Orchestra, Charlottesville, VA.
May 20, Virginia Symphony recording session: Christmas classics, Norfolk, VA.
June 8-15, 2008, Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, concertmaster, soloist and chamber musician, Harrisonburg, VA.
June 29-August 2, 2008, Eastern Music Festival, orchestral violinist, chamber musician and teacher, Greensboro, NC.

November 18, Community Mennonite Church, prelude and offertory music.
November 18, Asbury United Methodist Church, offertory music.
Development visit to a donor in Fairfax, VA with Sam Weaver and Loren Swartzendruber, February 2008.

Shenandoah Valley Preparatory Music Program receives city support in continuing string program in city schools. Begun as an outreach project of the SVPM Program in 2003
funded by state and city grants, the city strings program was funded this year by the Harrisonburg City School system because of the success of the outreach program. EMU Preparatory teachers were paid this year by the city to teach 4th and 5th grade string students in all four elementary schools with expansion planned to the middle and high schools in the future.
Student awards:
EMU students:
Senior Violin major accepted in to graduate school in violin performance at Penn State University.
Jumior violin major invited to return to the Dominican Republic to teach violin to students through a Catholic mission
Awarded grant from Luray Arts Council
Preparatory students:
High school senior, violinist, won concerto competition and performed a concerto movement with the Shenandoah Valley Youth Orchestra, accepted by audition to Regional Orchestra, accepted by audition into George Mason University as music major.
High school senior violist, won concerto competition and performed a concerto movement with the Shenandoah Valley Youth Orchestra, accepted by audition into five colleges, will be attending College of William and Mary, accepted by audition into Eastern Music Festival, accepted by audition to Regional and All-State Orchestras.

American Federation of Musicians
American String Teacher Association

Undergraduate Council
Homecoming concert committee
Music Scholarship committee chair
Undergraduate Enrollment Strategies Committee