Kathy Rad will be the main conductor this year with the Tulsa Honors Orchestra. Kathy has taught music to students of all ages in the greater Tulsa area including Jenks, Broken Arrow, and Tulsa Public Schools. She currently teaches strings at Chouteau, Burroughs and Academy Central Elementary Schools through the Tulsa Symphony “Master Music Teacher” program and directs the Tulsa Honors Orchestra at the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. She taught Cello at Northeastern State University and is now on the faculty at Tulsa Community College, where she teaches Cello and directs the Tulsa Cello Choir.
Kathy plays Cello in the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Tulsa Ballet, Tulsa Opera, and Tulsa Rock Quartet and is Principal Cellist of the Light Opera Oklahoma Orchestra. She was Associate Principal Cellist of the International Orchestra in Graz, Austria, has performed live on National Public Radio and has recorded on the Universal-Republic record label. Kathy Rad is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Women, Who’s Who in Education, Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Who’s Who in the World. Kathy is honored to be the 2011 recipient of the Bart Betow Memorial Education Award given by the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa.
Jody Naifeh founder of the Tulsa Honors Orchestra 32 years ago, is an accomplished violinist and private Suzuki violin teacher. Jody maintains a full studio, is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Violin, is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Hyechka, Wednesday Morning Musicale and Tulsa Accredited Music Teachers Association. Jody has a Bachelors in Music Education from the University of Tulsa and is a former member of the Tulsa Philharmonic. Jody performs with Larkin, the Four Fiddlers of the Apocalypse and the Brady Orchestra. Jody has trained with Mark O'Connor in his new American Method of String Teaching in NYC summer of 2009.
Jody has most recently founded "Woodystock": the Naifeh family’s annual music festival, in which all proceeds go to science and engineering scholarships to Sapulpa high school students in memory of late husband, Woody Naifeh, given over thirty-thousand in scholarship money in the past eight years. Jody also organizes performance tours with her daughter, Karen. Past performance tours: Italy in 2001, Ireland in 2004, Austria in 2007, including performances at Schoennbrunn Palace in Vienna, , the Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg and Reichenstein Hall in Poysdorf. A performance tour of Argentina including Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls took place in June of 2011. Our next performance tour is planned for Italy in the summer of 2013.
Jody Naifeh most recently received a Governor's Arts Award for Community Service from Governor Mary Fallen in November of 2011. Our family and many students and parents went to the Oklahoma Capitol for the amazing ceremony - we are all so amazed and proud of Jody Naifeh!
Karen Harmon regularly plays with the Electric Rag Band, Larkin, and the Four Fiddlers of the Apocalypse. She has opened up for Loretta Lynn, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers, Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, Bugs Henderson, the Hot Club of Cowtown, the Paladins, Split Lip Rayfield, Deke Dickerson, Southern Culture on the Skids and has performed with Wayne Newton, Meredith Monk, the Red Dirt Rangers, Red Alert, Freakjuice and the Brady Orchestra. Violin styles include Rock, Blues, Classical and Irish Fiddling. Karen's emphasis is on improvisation and she runs a jazz strings workshop for her string students through the Jazz Hall every summer.
A Nationally Certified Teacher of Violin, Karen is a member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas, Hyechka Music Club, Tulsa Accredited Music Teachers Association. Oklahoma Music Teachers Association through National Music Teachers Association. Karen has taught private violin lessons for the past 20 years and conducts the Debutante Orchestra and co-conducts the Chamber Orchestra of the Tulsa Honors Orchestra.
Karen organizes performance tours to enrich the lives of her violin students. Past performance tours: Italy in 2001, Ireland in 2004, Austria in 2007, including performances at Schoennbrunn Palace in Vienna, (was Mozart’s favorite place to perform), the Hellbrunn Palace in Salzburg and Reichenstein Hall in Poysdorf. A performance tour of Argentina including Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls took place in June of 2011. Karen and Jody's students performed three joint concerts with students from the Manuel De Falla Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. A performance tour of Italy is being planned for the summer of 2013.
