Orchestra Director
Dr. Christopher Selby is the 2022 Teacher of the Year at the School of the Arts in Charleston, SC where currently teaches six high school orchestra classes. His orchestras performed at the 2019 Midwest Clinic, and they won the 2016 ASTA National Orchestra Festival’s top award of Grand Champion in the competitive public school division. He is also the author of Habits of a Successful Orchestra Director, Music Theory for the Successful String Musician, and co-author of the Habits of a Successful String Musician series, a collection of string method books for middle and upper-level orchestras published by GIA. He is an active clinician and conductor, and has presented sessions at numerous Midwest Clinics, American String Teacher Association (ASTA) National Conferences, and state conferences across America.
Dr. Selby earned a music education degree from the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut, and a Masters and Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from the University of South Carolina. His teaching career began in Fairfax County, VA in 1992. From 2001 to 2012, Dr. Selby was the Orchestra Coordinator in Richland School District Two where he taught high school and supervised the district’s orchestra curriculum and instruction. He then moved to Charleston, SC and returned to teaching full time in the classroom in his current position at the Charleston County School of the Arts.
Dr. Selby regularly guest conducts Regional and All-State Orchestras across the southeast. He has held national leadership positions in ASTA and NAfME. Dr. Selby was the President of the South Carolina Music Educators Association (SCMEA) from 2011-2013 and he served two separate terms as the President of the state’s Orchestra Division. He is a contributing author for Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra, vol. 4 and has written articles for NAfME and in ASTA’s American String Teacher.
