Tara Villa Keith

I am in my twenty-first season as a professor of music and director of the Davidson College Symphony Orchestra (DCSO). I was the music director for 11 seasons with the Lee County Community Orchestra (LCCO) in Sanford, North Carolina, and I have served as a guest conductor, cover conductor, and pre-concert speaker for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra where was the premiere instructor for their Symphony 101 adult education program.

In 2019, I was recognized as an Honored Artist of The American Prize, a series of non-profit national competitions in the performing arts. Honored Artists are individuals who have proven themselves to be artists of sustained excellence over a number of seasons as laureates in the competitions. Under my direction, the DCSO was the national winner of The American Prize 2018 for orchestral performance in the collegiate division. I have also placed in several other American Prize competitions for conducting and orchestral programming, and in conjunction with Artist Associate Jacquelyn Culpepper, I won the Metrolina Theatre Association’s Award for Outstanding Musical Direction/Conducting for Davidson College’s 2011 production of Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

Outside of Davidson, I have conducted orchestras throughout the south and northeast, and have particularly enjoyed serving as a clinician and guest conductor for middle and high school orchestras in North Carolina. I have also guest conducted orchestras in Brazil and Germany, and in Bulgaria, I won the first Varna International Conducting Competition in 2007. I also worked with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in the Czech Republic as a 2008 League of American Orchestras Women Conductors Grant recipient.

Please visit my website for my full professional bio.

Teaching

MUS 003 Keyboard Proficiency

MUS 012 Davidson College Symphony Orchestra

MUS 110 Exploring Music

MUS 121 Introduction to Music in Western Civilization

MUS 221 Studies of Styles & Composers: Percussion & The World

MUS 222 Women in Music

MUS 226 Opera

MUS 227 History of the Orchestra

MUS 236 Social Dance & The Orchestra

MUS 312 Conducting

MUS 321 Impressionism

MUS 401 Senior Seminar: 19th & 20th Century Scandinavian Music