Our Director

Linda Gartner, Director of Sycamore Community Summer Singers

Linda Gartner, Director

Sycamore Junior High has been home to Linda Gartner for the last twenty eight 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. 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 has co-hosted the OMEA Large Group Adjudicated Event for 16 years where her choirs continually receive superior ratings.  Sycamore JH choirs have performed at the OMEA Queen City Convention, National Middle School Association Convention in Cincinnati and at Music in the Parks festivals in Nashville, St. Louis, Chicago, Toronto and Sandusky, 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 European tour of Prague, Salzburg and Vienna as director of the Sycamore Community Summer Singers.  Since the first European Tour, SCSS has performed in Venice, Florence, Rome, Rothenburg, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia.

2012 will see Mrs. Gartner preparing the Sounds of Sycamore (a choral group comprising of Sycamore Junior High singers) to compete in the 2012 World Choir Games to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio. The World Choir Games is the largest choral event in the world and will be held for the very first time in America in July 2012.

She resides in Symmes Township, a suburban area of Cincinnati, Ohio 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 compliance associate living in Chicago, Illinois.

Alex Thio, Accompanist: Alex Thio is collaborative pianist and piano instructor based in Cincinnati, Ohio. A native of Singapore, he pursued his undergraduate studies in piano performance at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana. He continued his academic pursuits at the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music where he attained the Masters of Music degree in Piano Performance. As a collaborative pianist, Mr Thio has appeared in performances and competitions organized by the North American Brass Band Association, the International Women’s Brass Conference and the International Tuba Euphonium Conference and will be one of the official collaborative pianists for the IWBC 2010 in Toronto, Canada. He has also collaborated in concert with brass artists such as Gail Robertson, Stacy Baker, Jay Hunsberger, Timothy Northcut and Earle Louder. He is also the pianist for the tuba-euphonium duo called the SymbiosisDuo.

He is an active adjudicator for evaluation festivals and piano competitions such as those organized by the American Guild of Music. Mr Thio is staff accompanist at the Northern Kentucky University where he is collaborative pianist to vocal and instrumental undergraduate students in the music department. Mr Thio serves as choral accompanist to the Sycamore Junior High in Blue Ash, Ohio. He is also a private piano instructor and continues to offer piano and music theory instruction to students of all ages and performance levels within the Cincinnati area.