Rhoda Kay Roberts
Strings Director
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Rhoda Kay Roberts joined the IVYSO for the 2021-22 season as our new Strings Director. Rhoda is now in her second year with us here at the IVYSO.
She is a 2020 graduate of Illinois State University with her degree in violin performance. While a student there, she pursued conducting opportunities, leading a student-organized orchestra for non-majors, teaching with String Project, and taking private conducting lessons with Dr. Glenn Block. Hailing from Gridley, Illinois, Rhoda serves as a regular with the Illinois Valley Symphony Orchestra in the viola section. She also teaches at Maestro and Mi in La Salle and at The Music Shoppe, Inc. in Normal, IL. |
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Aelsa is an alumna of the Illinois Valley Youth Symphony Orchestra. After playing as concertmaster as a student beginning in 2014, Aelsa went on to attend Illinois Valley Community College where she studied management and music. In May 2019, she graduated Summa Cum Laude from Illinois State University with a a B.S. in Music. Up through her sophomore year of college, Aelsa remained active in the IVYSO and the Illinois Valley arts community as a whole. She worked in 2016 as the personal assistant to the NCI ARTworks president, volunteered as an intern to the business manager of the IVYSO, and directed the IVYSO's entry-level ensemble, the Junior String Orchestra, in 2017. She studied conducting and pedagogy under Maestro David Commanday and piano under Mrs. Pamela Bates at Eureka College for a year. In 2018, she transferred to complete her B.S in Music at ISU, studying conducting under Dr. Anthony Marinello III, piano with Dr. Tuyen Tonnu, and orchestral performance under Dr. Glenn Block. She went on to begin graduate studies at Illinois State University as a communications scholar, with a focus on social media and family communications. She now works primarily based out of her home in Bloomington, Illinois, where she lives with her husband, Keith, influencing their own youth: their children Eli and Vera. In addition to her work with the IVYSO, her full-time job is writing for Atlanta-based social media marketing agency Sociallyin. She also side-hustles as Artful Strategies, contracting communication services for artists and events. |
Aelsa Woods
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