About the District 7 Orchestra
The string orchestra program in Spartanburg School District 7 is the oldest organized musical organization in the state of South Carolina. It began in the 1920-21 school year with a single strings class of only 3-5 students taught by Mrs. Marie Upton. Fast forward one hundred years to the 2020-21 school year, and there are more than 500 string players taught daily across 10 campuses and by 6 full-time orchestra teachers in Spartanburg School District 7.
In its earliest years, students took private lessons that were supplemented by ensemble experiences at school. In the mid-1950’s, faculty members from Converse College mentored students in District 7’s schools and also conducted some of the ensembles. Beginning in the 1970’s, the Spartanburg High School Symphony played for numerous prestigious state and national conferences held in Atlanta, Charleston, Chicago, Dallas, Orlando, and New Orleans. The orchestra also began a tradition of international summer performance tours every 3-4 years that still take place today. These life-changing travel and performance opportunities have taken Spartanburg High School’s students and their music to Australia, Austria, California, Czech Republic, China, Fiji, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, and Switzerland as American musical ambassadors.
District 7’s orchestra students throughout the years have participated in Region and All-State orchestras, Solo and Ensemble festivals, Concert Festivals (now called Concert Performance Assessments) and a very unique tradition of very advanced students being chosen to perform a (solo) Concerto movement with the SHS Symphony or Chamber Orchestra. When these well-known concertos have been performed abroad, some of the orchestra program’s deepest and fondest memories and connections with people of foreign lands were formed. For example, performing Bach in Leipzig, Mozart in Salzburg, and Beethoven and Haydn in Vienna was an unforgettable opportunity on the orchestra most recent trip in 2019 to Germany and Austria.
Mr. Jeff Kuntz, Orchestra Coordinator
Mr. Jeff Kuntz has served as the District 7 Orchestra Coordinator since 2009. He is also the conductor of the Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, and Viking Orchestra at Spartanburg High School. Mr. Kuntz is originally from Clearwater, Florida, where he graduated from Largo High School and was a violist in the Pinellas Youth Symphony and a charter member of the Suncoast Sound Drum and Bugle Corps. He studied viola privately with Edward van Aalten (Florida Orchestra) and Harold Newton (Chicago Symphony) prior to attending Furman University as an undergraduate student. While at Furman, Mr. Kuntz was played viola in the Furman Symphony Orchestra, trombone in the Furman Jazz Ensemble, and euphonium in the Furman Symphonic Band. He was also a 3-year drum major of the Furman University Paladin Regiment marching band. He studied viola with Dr. Daniel Boda (Greenville Symphony) and conducting with Dr. Robert Chesebro and Professor Jay Bocook. Upon graduation, Mr. Kuntz was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve Signal Corps and he served overseas as a platoon leader in the Panama Canal Zone for the successful U.S. Operation Costa Abajo.
The pursuit of a graduate degree led Mr. Kuntz to accept a full assistantship to the University of Southern Mississippi, where he wrote drill and music for the Pride of Mississippi Marching Band, played euphonium in the USM Wind Ensemble, trombone in the USM Jazz Ensemble, and viola in the USM Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Kuntz studied conducting with Dr. Thomas Fraschillo and applied viola with Mrs. Jerrie Lucktenberg, who was a legendary teacher and performer originally from Spartanburg, SC.. Also a student at USM at that time was a young football player named Brett Favre.
After teaching band and orchestra in his hometown of Clearwater, Florida and playing viola in the Tampa Bay Symphony, Mr. Kuntz permanently relocated to Spartanburg, SC in 1999 where he served as a band director at Dorman High School, Gable Middle School, and Gaffney High School. His first gig in town was playing viola in the Converse College Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the Mozart Requiem. The career opportunity to come to Spartanburg High School in 2009 allowed him to put all of his past musical experiences to full use, as the SHS Symphony was a full orchestra that merged numerous members of the school’s band program with the strings to perform full orchestra literature. Subsequently, Mr. Kuntz was appointed to the All-State Committee of the South Carolina Music Educators Association Orchestra Division as the All-State Band/Orchestra Liaison, in which he coordinates the membership of the full orchestras for South Carolina’s annual all-state orchestra weekend. The SHS ensembles under Mr. Kuntz’s leadership have consistently earned Superior ratings at the SCMEA Concert Performance Assessment, and the SHS Chamber Orchestra was a featured performance ensemble at the 2011 SCMEA Professional Development Conference. While at Spartanburg High School, Mr. Kuntz has led and conducted performance tours of California, Italy, Germany, and Austria.
In 2019, the SHS Chamber Orchestra collaborated with Ballet Spartanburg to produce an innovative project called ‘#collectiveworks’, in which the live student orchestra performed the music for live choreography on stage at the Chapman Cultural Center. This type of professional project has rarely been attempted by a high school ensemble. Mr. Kuntz has had previously collaborations with the local arts community, singing the role of Antonio for the Spartanburg Repertory Company’s 2002 production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, conducting the pit orchestra for Ballet Spartanburg’s 2004 production of Bernstein’s West Side Story, and conducting the pit orchestra for the Spartanburg Repertory Company’s 2005 production of the musical Fiddler on the Roof.
Mr. Kuntz is a National Board Certified Teacher, and he has completed all of the coursework for the doctoral degree in music education from Boston University. His wife, Janet Kuntz, is the band director at McCracken Middle School, and their son, John, is an all-state cellist and cross country runner at Spartanburg High School.
Helen E. Tipton, Elementary Orchestra Coordinator
Teaching Orchestra is the family business for Mrs. Tipton . As a young child she was fortunate to come from a family full of orchestral musicians and teachers who had a passion for giving the gift of music to others. Mrs. Tipton began playing the violin at age 7 with the help of her violinist grandmother and a private violin teacher. Participating in music camps, public school orchestra, youth orchestra, the local symphony, and a myriad of other experiences all helped to shape her love of music. As a violinist she has performed with many orchestras, travelled around the world, and even once played on national TV with Kathie Lee Gifford.
After getting a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Bowling Green State University in Ohio, Mrs. Tipton moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1996 to teach in Spartanburg School District 7. In addition to starting many young children on their instruments in elementary school and receiving Superior Ratings with the Spartanburg High School Orchestras at CPA, Mrs. Tipton has been active at the state level as a judge, and a guest conductor for Region Orchestra and All-County Orchestras. She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Orchestra Division for SCMEA as the Concert Performance Chair in South Carolina and locally she is the Vice President of the Board of Directors for The Piedmont Chamber Orchestra as well as the Chair of Education for the Spartanburg Philharmonic Board of Directors which founded the Spartanburg Philharmonic Youth Orchestra in 2019.
After a rewarding day of teaching at Pine Street, Jesse Boyd, and Spartanburg High School, Mrs. Tipton enjoys spending time with her husband, three children, and a houseful of pets. Photography and drone photography are among Mrs. Tipton's favorite pastimes, after she practices her violin of course!
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Allison Key
Mrs. Key is the orchestra director and fine arts department chair at McCracken Middle School in Spartanburg School District Seven. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Music Education and her Master's degree in Education (TESOL) from South Carolina. During her fourteen years of teaching, Mrs. Key's orchestras have participated in various events and festivals including SCMEA Concert Performance Assessment and have consistently received superior ratings. Mrs. Key is an active member in the American Strings Teachers Association and the South Carolina Music Educators Association. For ten years, she has served the SCMEA Orchestra Division in various roles such as Secretary, Conference Chair, and currently serves as President-Elect. She has been a guest conductor for region orchestras and adjudicated orchestras in SC. She performs with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Carolina Quartet, and volunteers with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Mrs. Key enjoys spending time with her husband, Jeff, and their two children, Ava and Henley. They love hiking and camping, cooking, and family movie nights.
Jennifer Diehn
Jennifer Diehn received her BME from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and is currently halfway through her master’s program from USC Upstate. After college graduation, Ms. Diehn moved to Asheville, NC where she taught elementary, middle, and high school string classes for two years. Upon her marriage, she moved to Texas and taught middle school orchestra for seven years in the Katy Independent School District where she received numerous awards for her performance groups. Ms. Diehn recently spent seventeen years in Spartanburg District Six where her performance groups earned consistent superior ratings at Concert Festival, Carowinds Festival, and her Chamber Orchestras performed twice at the SCMEA Convention and the South Carolina Middle School Conference. Ms. Diehn taught the last three years in District Five at D.R. Hill where her students received the 2022 Outstanding Performance Award. Currently Ms. Diehn is teaching orchestra at McCracken Middle School in Spartanburg, District 7. Jennifer Diehn is a SC Region Conductor, and she enjoys leading middle school groups. Ms. Diehn teaches private cello lessons, sings in her church choir, performs for local churches, and attempts to keep up with her two grown sons, Nathan and Thomas.
Theresa Jenkins Russ
Mrs. Theresa Jenkins-Russ is a Professional Violinist in Classical and Alternative Styles and an Educator and Conductor. A native New Yorker, Mrs. Jenkins-Russ received her B.A. in Violin Performance from Wheaton College in 1985. While in Boston, she had the opportunity to study Violin from Nancy Cirillo at The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts In 1987 she earned a M.S. in Music Education from Long Island University in New York. She then went on to Hofstra University to take course work for a Doctorate in Educational Administration. In 2012 Mrs. Jenkins-Russ completed course work through Converse College for the Certificate of Secondary Educational Administration.
Since 1987 Mrs. Jenkins-Russ has taught high school and middle school strings and full orchestras in Mount Sinai Public Schools, Amityville Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools. In 2003 Mrs. Jenkins-Russ joined the orchestra faculty in Spartanburg School District 7. Mrs. Jenkins-Russ also teaches strings at Converse College’s the Lawson Academy. There she directs three ensembles and maintains a private studio teaching violin, viola, cello and string bass.
While in Boston, New York and Virginia, Mrs. Jenkins-Russ performed with several professional orchestras, including The Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic, The Pan-American Symphony, The Nassau Pops Orchestra, The South Shore Symphony, The West Islip Chamber Orchestra, and The Brockton Symphony. Currently, Mrs. Jenkins-Russ performs with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
Over the years Mrs. Jenkins-Russ has performed with many notable musicians including Dr. Billy Taylor, Mr. John Blake Jr., Mr. Marvin Hamlish, and Ms. Jennifer Hudson.
Mrs. Jenkins-Russ has held several positions in the professional music community. She is currently the Southeast Representative for NS Design Electric Instruments. From 2010-2012 she was the President of the SC ASTA (American String Teachers Association) and served on the Board of Directors from 2006-2014. In 2012 Mrs. Jenkins-Russ was chosen to conduct the Region 2 (Greenville) 7th -9th grade SCMEA Region Orchestra.
Mrs. Jenkins-Russ has written articles for national publications including “Strings Magazine”, “IAJE” (International Association for Jazz Education), “AST Journal” (American String Teacher Journal) and the SC ASTA Newsletter, where she was the editor.
Mrs. Jenkins-Russ lives in Spartanburg South Carolina with her Husband Leon, her dad Warren and their family pets.
John Kvasnicka
Mr. Kvasnicka teaches at Mary H. Wright Elementary, and Carver Middle school for Spartanburg School District Seven. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. He has worked for the USC String Project, Lexington School District Two, Sumter School District Two, Richland School District One, and Union County Schools. Mr. K (as his students address him) has played for the USC Symphony Orchestra as well as the Greater Spartanburg Philharmonic as a string bass player. Mr. Kvasnicka has served as All-State Chairman of the South Carolina Music Educators Association and is currently the SCMEA Orchestra Division Region Representative for Region One. He also maintains a private studio of students ranging from beginning to advanced levels.
