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Linda Gartner, Founder & Director of SCSS
Sycamore Junior High School (SJH) in Cincinnati, Ohio has been home to Linda Gartner for the last twenty seven years. She directs the 7th Grade Treble Tones, 8th Grade Treble Tones, Chorale and assists in the teaching of the SJH Concert Choir. In addition, Mrs. Gartner co-directs the Sycamore Junior High Boy Choir. Teaching responsibilities also include the bi-annual variety show and several Broadway musicals. Musicals that have been part of the Sycamore Junior High stage have included Oklahoma, Meet Me in St. Louis, Bye Bye Birdie, Annie Get Your Gun, Once Upon a Mattress, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella, Disney’s High School Musical and Beauty and the Beast. In addition, Mrs. Gartner was the former Director of Choristers, a children’s choir of 50 3rd-6th graders at Sycamore Presbyterian Church where she held this position for 18 years.
Mrs. Gartner attended Cottey College and Bowling Green State University, graduating in 1979 with a Bachelor of Music Education and in 1980 with a Master’s of Music in Choral Conducting. Mrs. Gartner has served as an adjudicator for Solo and Ensemble Events and co-hosted the OMEA Large Group Adjudicated Event for 14 years where her choirs continually received superior ratings. Sycamore JH choirs have performed at the Ohio Music Educators Association (OMEA) Queen City Convention – Cincinnati, OMEA Professional Convention – Columbus, Ohio, National Middle School Association Convention – Cincinnati and at Music in the Parks festivals in Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Toronto, Sandusky and Atlanta, receiving Superior Ratings. Professional recognition includes an Ohio Arts Council Grant to study the Alexander Technique using Baroque Repertoire with Mr. Karl Resnik and the Hixson Teacher of the Year Award. Mrs. Gartner has also been a five time nominee for the Disney Teaching Award. Mrs. Gartner is a member of the American Choral Directors Association as well as the Music Educators National Conference. During the summer of 2003, Mrs. Gartner completed her first SCSS European tour of Prague, Salzburg and Vienna. The SCSS tour was repeated again in 2005 and 2007 with performances including Munich, Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome, Heidelberg, Rothenburg, Innsbruck and Lucerne. In her spare time every fall, she is the Assistant Junior High Boys Soccer coach!
She resides in Symmes Township, a suburban area of Cincinnati, with her husband Neil, a marketing researcher/tenor, and is the proud mother of two sons, Mark, a private equity broker who lives in Newport Beach, California and Matthew, a financial representative living in Jacksonville, Florida.
