By Gabrielle Moore

Whitney Andersen was literally raised to be a music teacher.

Her mother was a choir director and her father was a band director and is the principle trumpet player of the Dallas Wind Symphony. She says she also had fantastic music teachers growing up, her high school choir director ultimately leading her to music education.

Andersen joined the Warrensburg High School staff before the 2017-2018 school year as the new choir teacher. She moved to Warrensburg from Addison, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.

Before moving to Warrensburg, Andersen taught sixth through eighth grade at Curtis Middle School. She also helped with the high school choirs. Along with teaching, she has sung professionally through Transfiguration Episcopalian Chorale for the past five years and has performed in churches in England, Scotland and Wales.

After high school, Andersen attended Texas Tech University where she originally studied vocal performance but switched to music education. In college, she had the opportunity to sing a solo at Carnegie Hall and also sang the school’s alma mater at graduation.

Although Warrensburg is much different from Dallas, Andersen has found comfort in its “small town feel.”

“Everybody knows each other,” she says. “When something happens in the community, everyone knows about it, and that’s not necessarily something you get in a big city.”

As for her new school, Andersen says she has enjoyed “the challenges of high school” and picking a more difficult repertoire for her students.

Andersen says her favorite part of music is the “chills a moment can give you.” She says her favorite part of teaching choir is when a piece finally clicks, and “there’s a moment happening within the choir, and it’s something students will never forget.”

The Warrensburg choirs are busily preparing for their competition season, one Andersen says she is eager to begin.

Gabrielle Moore is a junior Rookie Reporter at Warrensburg High School.