Gulfport High School

Gulfport high School will once again host the Gulf Coast Junior High Honor Choir January 15 & 16, 2010.  The two-day event will assist in preparing students to audition for the Mississippi All-State Junior High Honor Choir, while also allowing students to work with an outstanding clinician.  This year's clinician is Mrs. Donna Crisler.

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Donna Crisler has been teaching and conducting choral music for over twenty-five years.  She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree with vocal emphasis from the University of Mississippi in 1973 where she received the highest average award in Music Education.  In college she was a member of the Ole Miss Concert Choir as well as The Group, a 12-member song and dance team that performed all over the southeast.  The Group also participated in the Anglo-Europa Choral Festival in England in 1972 where they won top honors.
     Mrs. Crisler has trained choirs in a variety of settings, including church music, elementary music, high school music, and her favorite, middle school music where she has focused her energies the last eighteen years.  Her teaching career began in Memphis with elementary school music.  She moved back to Mississippi and continued teaching elementary school until 1977.  From 1977-1986 she owned and taught in the Yamaha Music School which focuses on teaching young children, ages 4-7, keyboard and general musicianship.
      Following that, Mrs. Crisler taught at Jim Hill High School for six years.  During that time she took a fledgling music program which scored very poorly at festivals and turned it into a thriving program that received Superior ratings in performance as well as in sight-reading.  In 1992 she moved to Siwell Middle School where she taught for three years.  Her choir there received the top festival score for the multiple festival weekends at Disney Magic Music Days in 1995. 
Since 1995 Mrs. Crisler has been in the Madison County Schools, first at Rosa Scott and then at Madison Middle.  She developed award-winning choirs at both schools.  Her choirs have consistently been rated Superior at district, state, and national levels.  Her choir was chosen by audition to be a part of the National Children’s Choir in 1999 and the Southeastern Middle School Choir in 2001. For both of these her students rehearsed in New York City and performed at Carnegie Hall.  Her choir also performed Mozart by Candlelight with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2003.
     Mrs. Crisler’s choirs in Madison received the Grand Sweepstakes for Music Showcase Festivals in Atlanta in 2000 and in St. Louis in 2002 where they also received the Esprit de Corps award.  All three of her competition choirs also received Gold Superior ratings in Chicago in 2007’s Heritage Music Festival.  Most recently her boys won the Grand Sweepstakes in the Freedom Festival in New York in 2009.  All three of her choirs took top honors at that festival.
     In addition to her responsibilities in her school, Mrs. Crisler has been an adjudicator and clinician at the district level and was the Treble Choir clinician at the Alabama Young Voices Festival in 2008. 
Mrs. Crisler’s professional affiliations include the Mississippi Music Educators’ Association (MMEA), the National Association of Music Educators (MENC), and the American Choral Directors’ Association (ACDA).  She served as District 6 Treasurer from 1992-2009 and is currently the secretary of the junior high division of MMEA.
     Mrs. Crisler has been honored to have received numerous recognitions including the Marquis Who’s Who of American Teachers several times as well as Who’s Who of American Women twice.  She was chosen as a Jackson area Top 12 Metro Area Teacher in 2003 and the Mississippi Music Educator of the Year in 2006.