Chatham County String Program

Triangle Youth Music - Chatham County

Triangle Youth Music is proud to offer free after-school violin classes to two elementary schools in Siler City. 

Both Virginia Cross Elementary School and Siler City Elementary Schools are Title I schools, with over 89% of the students receiving free and reduced lunch 90% identifying as Black and/or Latino. 



This program is in partnership with Chatham County Schools in keeping with our goal of increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in our programs. We are grateful to the music teachers at each school, Courtney Benton and Tracey Harvel, as well as the school and Chatham County administrative staff for their support. The Triangle Youth Music violin teachers Deborah Wood and Miriam Bryant, are local Chatham residents who each offer over 20 years of string education experience. 


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    Miriam Bryant has been teaching and leading others in musical activities for over 30 years.  She earned a Master’s of Arts in teaching from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and held  K-12 Music Educator certification 2005-2018.  Mrs. Bryant taught in the public-school sector for 8 years as a music educator at the high school level in strings, chorus, music theory, and music appreciation classes.  Additionally, she taught elementary music in typical and atypical blended pre-K classes and in special needs class settings of varying abilities. Mrs. Bryant also taught fiddle with the Chatham County Junior Appalachian Music organization for several years and lead various children and adult choirs at her church Currently, Mrs. Bryant teaches private lessons in violin, piano and voice in Lee and Chatham County. In addition, Miriam is a violin instructor at the elementary school level for the Chatham County Schools strings program.    She is a continuing in her seventeenth year as a member and violin section leader of the Lee County Community Orchestra and performs regularly at churches and community events.  Professional organizations include membership in the Music Educators National Conference and the American String Teacher’s Association.  

     

    “Ms. Miriam” bases her teaching methods on the pedagogy of Suzuki, Bornoff, Kodaly, and student led processes to develop technique, intonation, and tone.   In addition to teaching and playing music, Ms. Miriam enjoys cooking, knitting, birding, hiking and being a Mimi to her grandsons.


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    Omar Ruiz-Lopez (he/they) is a Latin-Americana artist whose music bridges old-time, Celtic, and Latin-American fiddle traditions with indie folk songwriting. A bilingual singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Omar brings classical training, emotional depth, and a cross-cultural perspective to the stage — drawing inspiration from artists like Nick Drake, Bruce Molsky, and Elliott Smith.


    Omar Ruiz-Lopez is also a distinguished musician and educator currently based in Hillsborough, NC, with a remarkable command over multiple instruments, including violin, viola, guitar, and mandolin.


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