The Symphony of Rutherford County
Celebrating 23 Years of Service to Our Community
Symphony Board of Directors
Joe Goodwin is President of the symphony. Joe is a native of Mullins, SC and has been a resident of Rutherford County for the past thirty years. He is married to Marsha Goodwin, cellist for the symphony, and has been a member of the Symphony of Rutherford County for the past twelve years. With a music background that spans 45 years, he serves as lead percussionist for the symphony. He was drum major of his high school band as well as drummer for several dance bands. He is a member of the Spartanburg Community band, plays with the orchestra at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg and is a former member of the Foote Hills Community band. His hobbies include driving fast cars and flying radio-controlled airplanes.
Nancy H. Womack is treasurer/secretary of the symphony. She is retired from Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC where she served as an English instructor and then as Dean of Arts and Sciences. She plays viola in the symphony. She is also on the board for the Isothermal Community College Foundation and works as a volunteer at the college’s performing arts center. She enjoys gardening, entertaining family and friends, reading, and writing.
Betty Jo Carpenter is President Emeritus and served an the symphony’s president for twenty years before retiring at the end of the 2007-2008 season. She and her husband Ed are long-term residents of Rutherfordton, NC. She is a retired music educator, minister of music, private voice and piano instructor, and soprano soloist. Betty Jo serves on the Converse College Allumnae Board and has been on the Board of Directors of the Symphony of Rutherford County since its inception in 1988. She chairs the History Committee and serves as a Sunday School teacher at the First Baptist Church of Forest City. She is a member of the Lamar Stringfield Music Club, the Rutherford Historical Society, and the Delta Kappa Gamma Society.
Seth Carson has played the trumpet since age twelve and is a music education graduate from Appalachian State, where he excelled in musical performance. Seth participated in many state and regional-level honors ensembles throughout high school, including All-State Band and Orchestra. He is well known as one of the areas premier trumpet soloists and plays principal trumpet with the Thermal belt Brass Quintet and the Foothills Community Band. He enjoys the hobby of making lamps out of musical instruments.
Marsha Goodwin Marsha has been a member of the symphony for the past 12 years. She is currently playing cello but in the past has played clarinet and bass clarinet. She is married to Joe Goodwin, lead percussionist and president of the Symphony. They have four grown children and two Yorkshire terriers. Marsha is a graduate of Appalachian State University where she earned a BS in education. She currently teaches in the Rutherford County School system. She also plays in the Spartanburg Community band, the orchestra at First Baptist Church in Spartanburg, and has previously played with the Caldwell Community band and the Foote Hills Community band. Her hobbies include reading and collecting vintage instruments.
Bill Haden, MD, is a Board Certified general surgeon with Rutherford Surgical Associates and is Vice President of the Symphony. He is a graduate of UNC-CH both undergraduate and medical school. He completed a five-year surgical residency at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. Bill’s wife is Susan and they have 4 children, all presently college students. He began playing violin at age 40 and wishes he had started earlier so he would not be the perennial last chair in the second violin section.
Kim Hollifield is currently a Senior Vice President with the State Employees’ Credit Union in Forest City, NC, where she has worked for 19 years. She plays the flute and piccolo in the Symphony of Rutherford County as well as playing when needed with the Spartanburg Community Band and local churches. She is on the Advisory Council for East Rutherford Middle School and volunteers at that school as well as Sunshine Elementary in Rutherford County. She obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from North Carolina State University and has also studied music for over 35 years. She is married to Roger Hollifield and has two children, Will and Matt.
Alice McCluney joined the Symphony of Rutherford County at the age of 10 in 1989. During her exemplary tenure in the symphony she has played both violin and flute and continued participating even while away at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro where she earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Elementary Education. Upon graduation, Alice returned to Rutherford County and worked for the Rutherford County School System as a 6th grade mathematics teacher from 2001 until 2005. In 2006, she joined Isothermal Community College as the College Liaison for High School Programs and earned her Master of Arts Degree in School Administration in 2007. She served as concert mistress until the 2008-2009 season. She lives in Spindale with her husband, Jeremiah and their daughter Miah Grace.
Mary Stringfield Oates–a name that is synonymous with music in Rutherford County where she has taught music since 1949. She earned both her BA and BM degrees from UNC-CH. She continues to teach private piano and violin lessons to forty students each week and serves as the Minister of Music for the Presbyterian Church of Rutherfordton. She plays violin and serves as 2nd Vice President for the Symphony of Rutherford County. She was the first recipient of an orchestra award that was established in her honor.
John Walker is a life-long music educator who taught high school vocal music for forty years in California before returning to Rutherford County where he continues to do substitute teaching. He is the Minister of Music at the First Baptist Church of Spindale, the host facility for Symphony rehearsals. He plays bass with the orchestra and also for a Kentucky bluegrass group, The River Road Boys.
Sharon Lawrence has played professionally with a number of symphony orchestras: Virginia Symphony, Roanoke Symphony, Opera Roanoke, and Richmond Symphony. Currently she is playing with Asheville Symphony, Greenville Symphony, Hendersonville Symphony, Spartanburg Philharmonic, Brevard Philharmonic, and Charlotte Philharmonic. For twelve years, she taught at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, teaching applied strings, music education classes and directing the university orchestra. She has also directed the Southside Strings Community Orchestra hosted by Hampden-Sydney College. Mrs. Lawrence holds BM and MM degrees in violin performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University. Mrs. Lawrence is founder and artistic director of the Rutherford Chamber Consort, an ensemble of classically trained professional musicians, which perform great chamber music for the citizens of Rutherford and surrounding counties. http://www.rutherfordchamberconsort.com Mrs. Lawrence also directs Strings of Evensong ~ a performing ensemble, comprised of mostly the students of Mrs. Lawrence. In addition to classical playing, Mrs. Lawrence is an experienced fiddler. She has played Celtic fiddle, bluegrass, and old time for a number of years. She has studied and worked with many world-class fiddlers: Bobby Hicks, Richard Greene, Martin Hayes, James Kelly, Laura Risk and Alan Jabbour. Joy and enthusiasm of these various styles are evident in her teaching, and she encourages students to experience great adventures in music making.