VASTA: Virginia String Teachers Association

Gretta Sandberg

President

Gretta Sandberg retired in June 2009 after 42 years as an orchestra director in the elementary and high school levels in Arlington and Fairfax Counties.  She retired from McLean High School and Haycock Elementary School in Fairfax, where her orchestras consistently received "Superior" ratings at festivals and adjudications.  Ms. Sandberg built an exchange program between her top orchestra, the Chamber Soloists of McLean HS, and the youth orchestra (Detmolder Jugend Orchester) at the Grabbe Symnasium in Detmold, Germany (1995 - present).

Ms. Sandberg graduated from the Univ. of Minnesota with a B.S. in Music Ed and received her M.Ed. from George Mason Univ.  She was Founder and Director of the Arlington Honors Orchestra, Co-Founder and Director of Arlington All-County High School Orchestra and Artistic Director of Chamber Music of Arlington (1990 - 1998).  She is a member of MENC, ASTA, and was the 2007 VASTA Orchestra Director of the Year.

Lucy Manning

Past-President

LUCY MANNING directs the orchestra, teaches violin and string methods, and coordinates the chamber music program as Asst. Professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. The recipient of the 2007 Virginia String Teacher of the Year award from VASTA, she regularly conducts and adjudicates school orchestra festivals in the country.
A graduate of West Virginia University, University of Illinois (including study with Paul Rolland), and University of South Carolina, she brings extensive experience as a violinist, violist, and chamber musician to the podium as a former member of numerous professional orchestras where she also appeared as soloist.  Dr. Manning is the author of Orchestral “Pops” Music: A Handbook, published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.

Charlotte Dettwiler

Secretary

A cellist, Charlotte Dettwiler comes from Ontario, Canada where she attended Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Western Ontario. She is a performer with extensive experience, a strong music education advocate and an orchestra director. For complete bio, click here.

Carol Stone

Treasurer

Carol Stone, strings teacher and arts manager by profession—with degrees from 
Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley—maintains an active teaching studio in Northern Virginia and is the founding instructor of the StringStart program for early violin and viola study at John Adams, the Arts Designated Elementary School in the City of Alexandria.  The Executive Director for five years and currently the Financial Director of the Left Bank Concert Society, Ms. Stone has also taught mathematics at Virginia Tech and the Urban School of San Francisco. She founded the ongoing Blacksburg Community String Orchestra while living in Southwest Virginia. Associate principal violist of the Annandale Symphony for six years, Ms. Stone has studied violin and pedagogy with David Salness and viola with Doris Lederer and has served as the ASTA CAP Exam Co-Chair and Bowed-Strings Site Director for Northern Virginia.

Elizabeth Blakeslee

Member-at-Large, Northern Region

Elizabeth Blakeslee is second harpist with the National Symphony Orchestra. For her bio, click here.

Deanna Kringel

Member-at -Large, Eastern Region

Deanna Kringel is currently in her tenth year as the Director of Orchestras at Oscar F. Smith High School in Chesapeake as well as the beginning strings teacher at several feeder elementary schools. She has directed the Williamsburg Youth Orchestra’s String Orchestra for five years and is listed in Marquis’ Who’s Who in American Women, Who’s Who in America, Who's Who in American Education, Who’s Who in America’s Teachers and National Honor Roll's Outstanding American Teachers. Deanna has served as a guest conductor and adjudicator throughout Virginia. Deanna is also a free-lance musician performing violin, viola, and flute throughout the Hampton Roads area.

Lisa Maynard

Member-at-Large, Western Region

Dr. Lisa Maynard is a professor at James Madison University.  For her complete bio, click here.

Mike Mitchell

Member-at-Large, Southern Region

Visit Mike Mitchell's website at www.mikemitchellmusic.com

Donovan Stokes

Member-at-Large, Northwestern Region

Elizabeth Blakeslee

Fingerboard Editor

Liz Blakeslee is second harpist with the National Symphony Orchestra, an enthusiastic musician who is passionate about teaching, and very active in the national capitol area musical scene.  For her complete bio, please click here.

Margaret Whiteside

Website Administrator

A violinist whose first love is chamber music, Margaret Whiteside freelances in the Washington, D.C. area and has a violin studio in Fairfax, VA.  Currently she serves as assistant concertmaster of the Arlington Philharmonic.  She has played with many local groups including the Fairfax Symphony, the Washington Sinfonia, the Washington Bach Consort, Capitol City Opera, Maryland Opera, and the Strolling Strings.  Before that she played with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and Artists Internationale Opera.  Margaret received her B.A. from Cornell University and pursued graduate work at Northwestern University.  She also has a certificate in computers from CDC and has worked as a technical writer, but very much enjoys sharing her love of music with young people.