The Artist-in-Residence (AiR) program brings professional WFSO musicians directly into local middle and high school orchestra classrooms, giving students access to personalized instruction and mentorship throughout the school year.
Each year, WFSO Artists-in-Residence provide more than 600 hours of professional string instruction, working alongside orchestra directors through one-on-one mentorship, small-group sectionals, and classroom support. This hands-on instruction helps students strengthen their technique, build confidence, and deepen their understanding of music.
Beyond developing stronger musicians, the AIR program gives students the opportunity to learn directly from working professionals, offering insight into continued music study, college opportunities, and potential careers in music. Most importantly, these relationships help foster a connection to music that can last well beyond the classroom.
How It Works
Through a partnership with Wichita Falls ISD, the WFSO places professional musicians directly into grades 6-12 orchestra programs. The teaching artists show up weekly, leading one-on-one coaching sessions, small-group lessons and sectional rehearsals during class. They also work side-by-side with school orchestra directors, filling in gaps and strengthening programs that might not otherwise have access to this level of support.
The Instructors
The people making this happen are working professional musicians that live and work in our community.
Gina Menden
Ms. Menden is a freelance musician and educator, who performs as a violist for the Wichita Falls Symphony, contributes to youth music programs around North Texas, and has taught private violin lessons for over 25 years. She has guided students to earn music scholarships, gain acceptance to a variety of competitive camps and university music programs, and become professional musicians and teachers, themselves. As a member of Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA), she has served as an adjudicator and clinician for TMEA’s Region 6 orchestra program since 2015. Ms. Menden currently works as conductor of the Wichita Falls Youth Symphony Orchestra’s “Philharmonic,” a group she spearheaded in 2012, offers violin and viola lessons at Fain Elementary through the YSO’s Gail Key Academy of Music, teaches private violin/viola lessons at home, and serves as a WFSO Artist-in-Residence, providing valuable assistance to WFISD orchestra programs.
Barbara Kavanaugh
Mrs. Kavanaugh brings a career’s worth of international experience to the cello section of the WFSO. She trained at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., then spent three decades freelancing in that city, performing at the Kennedy Center and Wolf Trap. Her career took her further still — to the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and concert halls in Beijing, including seven trips to China between 2010 and 2015 for teaching and performance. She served as principal cellist with the Asaph Ensemble and the MasterWorks Festival. She relocated to Wichita Falls in 2018 and has been a fixture of the WFSO ever since. In addition to teaching students through the AiR program, she is the Stringsemble Conductor for the Wichita Falls Youth Symphony Orchestra and teaching private lessons.
Nancy Cook
Ms. Cook has been part of our orchestra for 45 years — and her story with WFSO started right here, as a student in the WFISD strings program. She went on to earn a music education degree from Midwestern State University and spent 35 years in public education: 25 in the classroom and 10 as a Math and Science Curriculum Specialist. She now represents WFSO musicians on the Players Committee and the Board. When she works with a student in a Wichita Falls school, she’s knows what it’s like to grow up as a young musician in this community!
Dr. Amanda Hamilton
Dr. Hamilton is a violist and violinist based in Wichita Falls, Texas committed to creating a thriving musical community for people to participate in at all levels through performance and pedagogy. She has been playing viola for nineteen years and joined the WFSO in 2022. Currently, Dr. Hamilton holds positions as section violist of the Wichita Falls Symphony Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, Texarkana Symphony Orchestra, and Sherman Symphony Orchestra, faculty in the Music Department of Midwestern State University, Violin and Viola Instructor with the Gail Key Academy of Music, Artist in Residence at the WFSO, and violin and viola coach at the Wichita Falls Youth Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Hamilton completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts while serving as Teaching Assistant to Dr. Daphne Gerling and a Master’s in Music studying with Dr. Susan Dubois at the University of North Texas and earned a Bachelor of Music at Florida State University under the instruction of Dr. Pamela Ryan.
What Students Get Out of It
There’s a difference between knowing the notes and feeling confident enough to play them in front of people. Regular, individualized feedback from a professional musician closes that gap faster than a classroom setting alone. Students build stronger technique, but they also build the kind of confidence that carries into performance.
There’s something bigger happening too. Programs like this help create a generation of young musicians in Wichita Falls who know each other, grow up playing together, and come to think of music as part of their community — not something that happens somewhere else.
Learn More
If your student is in a WFISD orchestra program, there’s a good chance they’ve already worked with one of these instructors. To find out more about the WFSO’s education programs, visit wfso.org/education.
Give to the WFSO
Your support helps make programs like Artist-in-Residence possible, bringing professional musicians into local classrooms and providing students with meaningful, hands-on musical experiences. When you support the WFSO, you invest in the next generation of musicians and music appreciators across Texoma.
