Ranney’s Sobieski to Conduct Central Jersey Intermediate Orchestra

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Ranney’s Sobieski to Conduct Central Jersey Intermediate Orchestra
TINTON FALLS – Ranney School faculty member and All-School Orchestra Director Dorothy Sobieski was selected to conduct the Central Jersey Music Educators Association (CJMEA) Intermediate Orchestra for 2014.
The CJMEA, a sector of the New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA), provides in-service and enrichment opportunities for practicing and retired teachers and prospective music educators, as well as sponsoring various festivals and all-state performing groups for K-12 students.
“I am very honored by this selection and to represent the growing Ranney Orchestra program,” Sobieski said. “It is not common that an instructor from a private school gets this opportunity and I am excited to work with students that represent the highest level of performance and skill in our area. It is a very rigorous process for them, and I look forward to hearing them combine as a group.”
Sobieski was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. She began her music education at age 7, studying the violin and later the viola at the Karol Szymanowski School of Music. She went on to receive her Master of Music degree with honors in viola performance at the Fryderyk Chopin Music University, the largest and oldest music institution in Poland. Sobieski earned a second Master of Music, also with honors, from Louisiana State University and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University.
Sobieski joined Ranney School in 2008 and has been working on the continued development and expansion of the Ranney School String and Orchestra programs ever since.
Last month, the CJMEA held auditions for the intermediate orchestra and, once the selection process is complete, the musicians will begin practicing Sobieski’s repertoire. Her selections include: “Three Pieces in Old Style” by Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki, “Hoedown form Rodeo” by Aaron Copland, “Sing Sing Sing” by Louis Prima and “Variations on Paganini” by Robert McCashin.
Sobieski will work with students in rehearsals and will conduct the final performance on March 9 at Ridge High School in Basking Ridge.