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Nancy Roth Volunteer Director, Hunterdon Musical Arts As Volunteer Director of Hunterdon Musical Arts, it comes as no surprise that music has always played an important role in Nancy's life. From the time she was a girl in Michigan, Nancy knew she wanted to teach violin. She studied performance and education at Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio with plans to earn a Master's degree and teach in a university. As fate would have it, Nancy met her future husband, Lee, during her first week at Oberlin and they dated through college. In 1958, Nancy set sail aboard the Queen Elizabeth to study for a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. She said it was a "wonderful, amazing year," made even better when Lee joined her that summer and the couple, chaperoned by Nancy's mother, toured Europe. After graduating college, Nancy and Lee married and moved to Ithaca, N.Y. where Lee was studying at Cornell Law School. Nancy taught violin at Wells College and had her first child, Barbara. Two years later, the Roths moved to Branchburg to be close to the Somerville firm where Lee had accepted a position. In 1963, Branchburg and the surrounding area didn't have much to offer in the way of music or culture, so Nancy began commuting to New York City to attend classes at Julliard. She was expecting her son Jon, and was overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of New York. She put her education on hold to stay home with her family, but joined every musical ensemble in a 50-mile radius, playing with Princeton, Plainfield and Colonial Symphonies and the Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra. In 1965, Nancy was asked to start a strings program in Watchung schools. She jumped at the chance and launched a program using the Suzuki Method, which she learned first-hand from Shinichi Suzuki at an Oberlin workshop. A few years later, she left Watchung to develop a similar program in Readington Township schools. After it was firmly in place, Nancy left to begin teaching privately. Always a busy mom, Nancy was a leader for her daughter's Brownie troop and a den mother for Cub Scouts. She taught her own children violin and volunteered with the American Cancer Society. Inspired by the idea of forming a community orchestra, Nancy and colleagues Jan Norvell and George Balog held the first All-County Strings Fest in December 1979 to form a core strings group. In 1980, auditions were held for the Hunterdon Symphony, and the musicians gave their first performance that June. As the Symphony grew, the need for a chorus became apparent and in 1985 the Hunterdon Choral Union was born through the efforts of Nancy and Brent Miller. In the meantime, a chamber group was also formed and Hunterdon Musical Arts (HMA) was christened as the umbrella unit for the three groups. With Nancy at the helm, the programs have grown tremendously. "Saturday Strings" is the arm of HMA that reaches out to youngsters with a desire to play strings in an ensemble setting. The program also offers beginner lessons to young violinists. The Saturday morning program, held at Clinton Presbyterian Church, attracts 90-100 students each week. Nancy's schedule is hectic and she says "music has taken over my whole life." But she has no regrets nor any plans to retire. |
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