Dr. Ray Edward Church
Instructor of Music
N.C. School of Science and Mathematics

Classes

Concert Band
Wind Ensemble
Jazz Ensemble
Music Composition and Theory

Dr. Ray Edward Church, a native of Hickory, North Carolina, has been on the faculty of NCSSM since 1986 and currently is conductor of the Wind Ensemble, Concert Band, and Jazz Ensemble.  Additional teaching duties include Music Composition, Arranging and Theory courses and a Distance Learning Music Technology Workshop for North Carolina music teachers. 

Church previously taught in the North Carolina public school systems of Catawba and Nash Counties and as a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Previous conducting positions include the Greensboro Civic Concert Band and the Piedmont Youth Symphony of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

His musical education and training include degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of North at Greensboro and the University of Miami at Coral Gables, Florida. At the University of Miami, Church studied conducting with Frederick Fennell and conducted the University of Miami Chamber Wind Ensemble. He also performed as an orchestra oboist for many years, including the Fort Lauderdale Symphony, the Miami Opera Orchestra, the Miami Beach Symphony, the Western Piedmont Symphony, the Greensboro Symphony, the Durham Symphony, and the Tar River Symphony. 

As a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, Church studied at the Freie Universitaet Berlin and conducted doctoral research in acoustics, psychoacoustics, and music perception.  His doctoral dissertation is entitled, "Intonation Tendencies of Selected University Flute, Oboe and Clarinet Players",  which relates to the effects of instrument timbre on pitch perception.