Samohi Director Of Orchestras Given Top Honor

   Joni Swenson, Director of Orchestras at Santa Monica High School, has been named the 2004 California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Leblanc Orchestra Educator of the Year Award.
   Swenson was nominated for the award by fellow music educators from around the state and was selected as the winner of this prestigious award by the CMEA State Board. She will accept her award in Sacramento on March 19.
   Swenson came to the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in September 2002, after serving as Orchestra Director for ten years at Lincoln High School in San Jose. During her tenure there, she took her groups to London and Carnegie Hall.
   She is frequently invited to guest conduct student groups at festivals around the state, and has served as the Vice President of CODA (California Orchestra Directors Association), and on the board of the CMEA’s Bay and Capital sections.
   In 2001, a San Francisco classical radio station, KDFC, gave her the Music Educator of the Year award.
   A District spokesperson said, “We are very proud to have Joni Swenson working with our students in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. This year Ms. Swenson will be traveling to Prague with the Santa Monica High School Symphony Orchestra, where they will perform and show Europe that the City of Santa Monica is a place where students receive a fantastic. well-rounded education.”