North Georgia Honor Orchestra

The North Georgia Honor Orchestra is an event designed to bring together the most talented pre-college string instrumentalists in and around North Georgia. In order to be considered for participation, students must be nominated by their orchestra director (see criteria and link to online form, below). After nominations are evaluated, students will be invited by the Director of Orchestral Studies at Kennesaw State University to participate in this honor event. Invited students will need to confirm their intent to participate (see link to online form below).

Orchestra Directors

The Kennesaw State University Bailey School of Music invites you to nominate string students in your high school orchestra program who meet the following criteria to participate in the North Georgia Honor Orchestra:

1. Advanced technical and musical skill on their instrument;
2. Commitment to musical excellence, as individuals and as part of your orchestra program;
3. Actively and positively contribute to your orchestra program;
4. Ability to appropriately prepare the repertoire being performed by the North Georgia Honor Orchestra: TBA. (Bowed parts will be distributed to participants electronically at least two weeks in advance of the event)
5. Schedule availability to actively participate in the entire North Georgia Honor Orchestra experience.

Nominations are submitted via online form, which can be accessed by following the link below. To be nominated for this event by one’s director is a great honor. Students you nominate will be invited to participate via a formal letter from the Director of Orchestral Studies at Kennesaw State University. The number of total students that can be accepted is capped at 75. If the cap is reached, additional students will be placed on a waitlist and offered acceptance, should spots become available.

Director Nomination Form

Director Nomination Deadline: Thursday, September 4, 2025 (11:59 p.m.)

Student Nominees

Our form is now closed. If you were accepted, please fill out the Participation Confirmation Form below, and pay the Participation fee and fill out the Protecting Minors Paperwork. 

Participation Fee

A participation fee of $65 per student is due no later than please change date to Wednesday, September 17, 2025 (11:59 p.m.). Detailed information about submitting your participation fee will be provided in a follow-up email sent after you complete the participation confirmation form. 

Participation Confirmation Form

Participation Requirements

Parents/Guardians are required to complete the following forms by Wednesday, September 17, 2025 (11:59 p.m.), as required by university policy:

KSU Minors Protection Paperwork

Note: if your child is 18 years old, please email musicksu@kennesaw.edu and we will send you the correct form.

PARTICIPANTS MUST BE 18 YEARS OLD OR YOUNGER TO PARTICIPATE. 

TBA

Friday, October 10, 2025-9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Saturday, October 11, 20205-9:00 a.m.-9:15 p.m. (performance begins at 8:00 pm; concert is free and open to the public)

A detailed schedule will be forwarded in advance of the event.

Dr. Nathaniel Parker, conductor
Director of Orchestral Studies and Associate Professor of Music

A talented and versatile musician, Nathaniel F. Parker has conducted orchestras in the United States, Peru, Russia, Poland, England, and the Czech Republic. Equally at home working with professionals and training future generations of musicians, Dr. Parker is Director of Orchestral Studies at the Kennesaw State University School of Music—serving as Music Director and Conductor of the Kennesaw State University Symphony Orchestra and Conductor of the Kennesaw State University Opera Program—Associate Conductor of the Georgia Symphony Orchestra, and Music Director and Conductor of the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO). His recent guest conducting engagements include appearances with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), the Connecticut Music Educators Association (CMEA) All-State Orchestra, the Fulton County High School Honor Orchestra (Georgia), and the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) District 9 High School Honor Orchestra. Dr. Parker is the recipient of numerous honors, awards, and scholarships. He was named a finalist for a Conducting Fellowship with the New World Symphony, a semi-finalist for a Conducting Fellowship at Tanglewood, and a Candidate for the Respighi Prize in Conducting; he also received a Citation of Excellence in Teaching from the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association. An active scholar, Dr. Parker’s writings have been published by the Conductors Guild and the College Orchestra Directors Association (CODA). He has presented research at the College Orchestra Directors Association’s national and international conferences and is Editor of the Journal of the Conductors Guild.

Dr. Parker has served as Music Director and Conductor of the Concert Orchestra and faculty at New England Music Camp (Maine), and Interim Music Director and Conductor of the Georgia Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Camerata. Before relocating to Georgia, he was Director of Orchestral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Marywood University (Pennsylvania) where he was Music Director and Conductor of the Marywood University Orchestra and taught courses in conducting, instrumental methods, musicology, and analytical techniques. Other previous positions include Associate Conductor and Production Manager of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan), Music Director and Conductor of the Jackson Youth Symphony Orchestra, Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra Community Music School, Graduate Conducting Intern at Michigan State University, Music Director and Conductor of the Mason Orchestral Society’s Community Orchestra and Youth Symphony (Michigan), Assistant Director of Music at Xaverian High School (New York), Conductor of the New Music Festival of Sandusky Orchestra (Ohio), and Graduate Assistant Conductor and Teaching Assistant at Bowling Green State University (Ohio).

Parker earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University, where his primary instructors were Leon Gregorian and Raphael Jiménez. During his time at MSU he regularly appeared with all the university orchestras and focused his doctoral research on Leonard Bernstein, specifically the composer’s Symphony No. 2, “The Age of Anxiety.” He earned a Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Bowling Green State University, where he studied with Emily Freeman Brown. His other conducting mentors include Stephen Osmond, Gary W. Hill, and Timothy Russell. In addition to his training in academia, Dr. Parker participated in numerous conducting master classes and workshops, conducting orchestras under the tutelage of nationally and internationally renowned conductors and conducting pedagogues including Christoph Eschenbach, George Hurst, Arthur Fagen, Markand Thakar, Mark Gibson, David Itkin, and Paul Vermel. Parker began his collegiate education at Arizona State University, where he studied bassoon with Jeffrey G. Lyman and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music in Bassoon Performance.

Nat resides in Kennesaw with his wife, Melody, and their son, Jacob.

Prof. Helen Kim
Professor of Violin

Helen Kim joined the music faculty in 2006 at Kennesaw State University with a stellar performance background. She made her orchestral debut with the Calgary Philharmonic at the age of six, and has gone on to become a respected and sought-after artist. Read more

She has appeared as a soloist with the Boston Pops at Boston's Symphony Hall, as well as with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

Ms. Kim earned her Master's Degree from the Juilliard School, where her teachers included Cho-Liang Lin and Dorothy DeLay. She is the recipient of more than one hundred national and international awards. In 1992, she won the prestigious Artists International Competition in New York and, as a result, gave debut recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall and the Aspen Summer Music Festival.

A native of Canada, Ms. Kim has been engaged by many of Canada's leading orchestras, including the National Arts Center Orchestra, Montreal Metropolitan Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, McGill Chamber Orchestra, and the Windsor, Regina, Victoria and Prince George Symphonies. She has also appeared with the Cobb, Georgia Symphony Orchestra, DeKalb, New Orleans, Aspen and Banff Festival Orchestras, and with orchestras in the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland.

Ms. Kim has toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Sante Fe and La Jolla International Music Festivals, where she performed with Cho-Liang Lin, Gary Hoffman, Andre Previn, and the Orion String Quartet. She performed Bach's Double violin concerto with Hilary Hahn at the 2002 Amelia Island Chamber music festival.

Ms. Kim has been profiled on national and international television and has appeared on CBC, PBS and CBS networks. Her performances have been aired on NPR and CBC radio networks. Ms. Kim served as assistant and associate concertmaster for the Atlanta Symphony for three seasons. She is currently the assistant concertmaster of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra. Ms. Kim performs with local new music ensembles, Bent Frequency, Sonic Generator, Thamyris and recently joined the Atlanta Chamber Players.

Mr. Kenn Wagner
Artist-in-Residence in Violin

Kenn Wagner has been a first violinist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1994, and has also served as acting assistant concertmaster of the ASO for one season.

Outside of the ASO, he has also appeared abroad as guest soloist with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in China, and Christ Church Symphony string section in New Zealand. Nationally he has soloed with the New Orleans Symphony, Arlington Symphony and the Wintergreen Music Festival Orchestra. Locally, Kenn has also appeared as soloist with the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra, the Dekalb Symphony, Clark/Spellman Symphony, Atlanta Philharmonic, and the Atlanta Musicians' Orchestra.

In addition to his solo work and position with the ASO, Mr. Wagner enjoys playing chamber music and performs with groups such as the Riverside Chamber Players, Leaptrott Trio (Trio in residence at Brenau University), Atlanta Chamber Players, Awadagin Pratt's Next Generation Festival, and National Chamber Players with special guest Kenneth Slowik of the Smithsonian Chamber Players. This season he also made his debut at Piccolo Spoleto with the Orlando Chamber Soloists and also performed with members of the Grammy Award winning Cuerteto Latino Americano. Mr Wagner also performed chamber music this summer with former IU faculty member Csaba Erdelyi.

Kenn is a graduate of Indiana University where he trained with Joseph Gingold, former Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. Before completing his undergraduate degree at Indiana University, Mr. Wagner won a position with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, with coaching from Vernon Summers of the National Symphony and former Concertmaster of both Atlanta and National Symphonies, William Steck. Kenn is very pleased and honored to be on faculty at both Kennesaw State University and Morehouse College.

Ms. Charae Krueger
Artist-in-Residence in Cello

Charae Krueger received her training in cello studies at the New England Conservatory of Music where she studied with Laurence Lesser and Colin Carr and received a Bachelor of Music degree in cello performance.

She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. Ms. Krueger received her chamber music training with Eugene Lehner of the Kolisch Quartet, as well as with Robert Mann and Samuel Rhodes of the Juilliard String Quartet. She has also coached with such artists as Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Arts Trio, Louis Krasner, Felix Galimir and Leon Kirchner. She has played in masterclasses with Aldo Parisot, Janos Starker and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi at the Banff School for the Arts.

Since moving to Atlanta five years ago, Ms. Krueger has been appointed principal cellist of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra. She also performs frequently with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Tennessee, where she will be featured as soloist this season. She enjoys playing chamber music with various ensembles throughout the city, performing with the Amadeus String Ensemble, the Musica Da Camera, the Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and the Lyra String Quartet. Ms. Krueger was recently appointed cello professor at Kennesaw State University and is a member of the faculty string quartet in residence there as well.

While living in Boston, Ms. Krueger was principal cellist for ten years with the Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra and also performed with the Vermont Symphony, Nashua NH Symphony and the New England Chamber Orchestra. She was a founding member of the Arden String Quartet, a nationally managed group who, in 1996, succeeded the Borromeo and Ying Quartets by receiving the Arthur W. Foote Emerging Artist award. The Quartet was formed under the sponsorship of the Longy School of Music, where they were in residence from 1993-1996. As a member of the Arden Quartet, Ms. Krueger performed up and down the eastern U.S., playing in such venues as Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Rockefeller University, Brown University, the Seaside Institute, MIT, Harvard Musical Association, Tufts University and NEC's Jordan Hall. She has given U.S. premieres of works by Elliot Carter, Gunther Schuller, Herschel Garfein, Victor Ullman and Alexander Mnatsekanyan. She has also enjoyed playing chamber music in such groups as the Boccherini Ensemble, Trillium (a flute-oboe-cello trio) and the Speakeasy String Quartet (a jazz string quartet).

Ms. Krueger plays on a cello made by Abraham Prescott in Concord, N.H. in 1830. 

For more information, contact:
Dr. Nathaniel Parker

E-mail