The Schreiner String and Orchestra program is looking for students who wish to continue their performance life on and off campus with options from a full Symphony Orchestra to string chamber ensembles, including service projects bringing music to those in need.
The program is open to any major, including Music majors. Students with diverse career paths will find that continuing their love of string instrument performance at Schreiner will enrich their personal and professional lives. Schreiner offers engagement scholarships to qualified string players regardless of major.
String students can audition and perform with the Symphony of the Hills, a local professional orchestra that plays in the beautiful Kathleen Cailloux Theater in Kerrville. They offer five full concert performances per academic year and rehearse on the Schreiner University campus. Students also have on-campus performance opportunities with the String Orchestra, and chamber music programs.
Music masterclasses will be held with string students observing and participating with guest artists and string faculty on and off campus!
Eugene Dowdy
Eugene (Gene) Dowdy is Director of Music and Coordinator of Strings at Schreiner University and Conductor and Artistic Director of the Symphony of the Hills in Kerrville, Texas. Dowdy served for 23 years as director of orchestral studies and instrumental conducting at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and, upon his retirement in 2019, was named Professor Emeritus. Dowdy was the assistant conductor of the Mid-Texas Symphony from 2009-2013 under David Mairs, and also guest conducted the Camerata de Coahuila, the state orchestra of Coahuila, Mexico.
Dr. Dowdy has collaborated with outstanding artists in prestigious venues across the United States and in Europe including appearances with the Brubeck family of Jazz musicians, internationally-acclaimed Baroque violinist Rachel Podger, the progressive rock band KANSAS, Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, the Dave Alexander Band, and in world premieres of numerous orchestral and operatic works. The UTSA Orchestra, under Dowdy’s direction, performed as the featured university orchestra at the 2017 TMEA Convention, and has performed by invitation and on tour in Texas, Mexico, and Italy.
Dowdy grew up as the youngest of four children in a musical family, and began violin studies with Achille DiRusso in Corpus Christi, Texas. His parents both completed college degrees as they raised children. Dowdy received the doctoral degree in orchestral conducting with James Dixon at the University of Iowa, a master’s degree in music education from UTSA with Donald Hodges, and the bachelor’s degree from UT Austin, where he was awarded a Performance Certificate in Violin, studying with Vince Frittelli, and taught in the University of Texas String Project under Phyllis Young. He taught award-winning public school orchestras for nine years in San Antonio’s NEISD, conducted orchestras for nine summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp, and served for over 20 years as honorary Resident Conductor of the Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. Dowdy is past president of both the Texas Orchestra Directors Association and the Texas Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, and a former executive director of the National String Project Consortium.
Dowdy is an active guest conductor, having appeared with orchestras and festivals around the United States as well as in Mexico, Austria, France, and Italy. He is a member of numerous professional and honorary societies including the American Federation of Musicians (Local 23), Pi Kappa Lambda, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Sigma Alpha Iota (Friend of the Arts), and Mu Omicron. Gene and his wife Stacy reside in Kerrville and have two musical daughters widening the circle.
Theresa Britt, violin, strings
Theresa Britt is a professional musician living in the Texas Hill Country. She performs as a violinist, fiddler, guitarist and vocalist. She performs as a fiddler a number of bands in the Texas Hill Country and San Antonio area including Allan Hendrickson Band and Rex Allen McNeil Band. As a classical musician, she performs in Symphony of the Hills in Kerrville, San Angelo Symphony, and in string quartets for weddings, churches and events. Creatively, she arranges music for fiddle, string orchestra and is a singer/songwriter. Over the past five years, Theresa has been working on her own project, the Dirty Rotten Swing Band that has a rotating cast of players and performs Western Swing, Jazz, and Blues. Theresa Britt & the Tall Boys is her new project focusing on country dance music including classic country, 90s country and Bob Wills style Western swing.
In 2012, Theresa completed a Master’s degree in Music at Texas Tech University. She received her Bachelor of Music from Texas Tech University in 2007. She studied violin in the studio of Dr. Kirsten Yon while at Texas Tech. In 2009 and 2011, Theresa traveled to Plzen Czech Republic to study at the International Music Academy in Plzen. In 2013, she gave a Masterclass at the Universidade Federal de Alagoas in Maceio, Brazil and taught a variety of courses to youth and young adults.
In previous seasons, she has performed with other ensembles throughout the state of Texas including the Midland Odessa Symphony and Chorale, the Plainview Symphony, the Caprock String Quartet in Lubbock, Mid-Texas Symphony in Seguin, Brazos Valley Symphony in College Station, the Any Given Sunday Band in Fredericksburg, with Outlier Texas of Lubbock, and for Rock Box Theater in Fredericksburg.
In 2021, her project, Dirty Rotten Swing Band performed at the Zug Jazz Night festival in Zug, Switzerland as part of her tour of Switzerland and Germany. In 2019, she performed with Outlier at Zug Jazz Night and performed multiple concerts in Austria and Germany. Theresa traveled across the US in 2018 and 2019 to a variety of private and corporate events as a fiddler with the Jonathan Moody Band. Other festivals she has performed with include the 2023 Taneycomo Festival Orchestra in Branson, Missouri and the 2021 Opera Maya Festival in Cancun, Mexico.
In addition to her performances, Theresa is active in educating the next generation of musicians. She is the director of the Fredericksburg Community Orchestras, a teacher for the Hill Country Youth Orchestras, and maintains a large private studio of violin, viola and cello students in Fredericksburg and Kerrville. In the spring of 2024, she is teaching violin and viola courses at Schreiner University and Angelo State University.
Theresa has attended the Starling Delay Symposium at the Juilliard School multiple years to sharpen her professional teaching and coaching skills, and throughout her career, she has attended teacher training through Suzuki Book 8 at various institutes across the US. Ms. Britt is currently working on a book that includes her own fiddle tune transcriptions for the young classical player to learn Texas style and bluegrass fiddle music.
Jennifer Cahill Clark, viola, strings
Schreiner Department of Music welcomes Dr. Jennifer Clark, viola & strings!
Jennifer Cahill Clark is adjunct professor of viola, violin, and strings at Schreiner University. She has recently joined Kerrville ISD as the orchestra director at Tivy High School. Jennifer and her family have moved to Kerrville and love the hill country. She received her PhD in Music Education from the University of North Texas where she was Viola Assistant to Dr. Susan Dubois and researched the relationship between musical self-efficacy and string student success under Dr. Debbie Rohwer. Jennifer ‘s Viola Performance degrees are from Texas Christian University as well as UNT.
Jennifer is principal viola of the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra and Schreiner’s own Symphony of the Hills. Her past orchestra experience includes the Richardson Symphony Orchestra, the Irving Orchestra, the Plano Chamber Orchestra, and others. She was principal and assistant principal in the East Texas Symphony, the Laredo Philharmonic, and the Victoria Symphony Orchestras.
Chamber music has also been an important part of Jennifer’s career and still is, including recitals in Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Austin, Denton, Vermont, and Colorado. In Corpus Christi, and as part of the Corpus Christi Chamber Music Society Series, Jennifer has performed with other principal players of the CCSO, including Concertmaster Dr. Elisabeth Adkins, Texas Christian University Professor of Violin and former Assoc. Concertmaster of the National Symphony. In addition to working with Dr. Dubois, Jennifer has studied with Dr. George Papich, Joni Baczewski, and Tom Demer, and had master classes or coaching sessions with Karen Tuttle, Heidi Castleman, Glen Dicterow, Karen Dreyfus, and Virginia Baron. She has attended music festivals in Vermont and Colorado, including the Manchester and Killington Music Festivals.
Jennifer’s school orchestras and individual students have won many awards and earned top scores at competitions, including concerto competitions, several all-state students and outstanding solo performers at TSSEC (Texas State Solo and Ensemble Contest). Her past teaching positions have included Assistant Professor of Viola and String Education at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she helped Dr. Eugene Dowdy with the String Division and the UTSA String Project, Texas A&M International University, Laredo Community College, Northside ISD, Boerne ISD, and Laredo ISD.
