WMPI is thrilled to host a Careers in Music Q&A with leading musicians, educators, advocates, and entrepreneurs in the classical music field.
This event is hosted in-person and virtually. To join virtually, register in advance with this link.
Annie Ray, Orchestra Director and Performing Arts Department Chair at Annandale High School and winner of the 2024 GRAMMY Music Educator Award
Carlos Simon, Composer-in-Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, inaugural Boston Symphony Orchestra Composer Chair, and nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award for his album Requiem for the Enslaved
Danielle Cho, Co-Founder of Sound Impact and Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra
About the Panelists
Annie Ray currently serves as both the Orchestra Director and Performing Arts Department Chair at Annandale High School (AHS) in the Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) system. Annie is an advocate for providing universal access to quality music education and is known for founding and developing creative opportunities to make music accessible to students of all demographics.
Her establishment of the Fairfax Arts Coalition for Education Parent Orchestra annually teaches about 225 caregivers in FCPS to learn to play their child’s instrument and provides mentorship to upcoming music teachers. Annie also founded the Crescendo Orchestra program to make Orchestra curriculum accessible to students with significant developmental or intellectual disabilities. In April 2020, TEDx invited Annie to give the talk, The Sounds of Success, based on her approach in the classroom and what it means to meet all students where they are at.
Annie is a highly sought after keynote speaker at music and general education conferences, regular guest lecturer and artist-in-residence at the collegiate level, and an impactful performing arts advocate at the state and national level. Her accolades include being named the 2024 GRAMMY Music Educator Award winner, Yamaha “40 Under 40” class of 2025, recipient of the Dr. Alice M. Hammel Inclusion in Music Education Award, and a four time Teacher of the Year winner including the 2023 FCPS Outstanding Secondary Teacher of the Year for her work with historically resilient communities and equity in education. Annie is the co-founder of Motherhood and Music Education and is a member of the StringRise professional development team.
Her mentors include Dennis Langevin, Brian Coatney, Dr. Elizabeth Chappell, Dr. Jaymee Haefner, and Naoko Nakamura. She is an active professional harpist, proud University of North Texas alumna, and currently resides in Arlington, Virginia with her husband Dr. Irving Ray and their daughters Eloise and Millie. Annie is an adventurer at heart, and her biggest bucket list item is to one day win The Amazing Race
“My dad, he always gets on me. He wants me to be a preacher, but I always tell him, ‘Music is my pulpit. That’s where I preach,’” Carlos Simon reflected for The Washington Post. Having grown up in Atlanta, with a long lineage of preachers and connections to gospel music to inspire him, GRAMMY-nominated Simon proves that a well-composed song can indeed be a sermon. His music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism.
Simon is the current Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and frequently writes for the National Symphony Orchestra and Washington National Opera. Simon also holds the position of inaugural Composer Chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the first in the institution’s 143-year history.
In the 2024/25 season, Simon will have premiere performances with the National Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra for the Last Night of the Proms (in his BBC Proms commissioning debut), Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Carnegie Hall for the National Youth Orchestra of the USA. The season also features the premiere of Simon’s Gospel Mass with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, a work reimagining the traditional mass with gospel soloists and choir, with visual creations from Melina Matsoukas (Beyoncé Formation, Queen and Slim).
As well as his composition work, Simon frequently curates concert programmes, which often highlight his own music as well as that of close collaborators. Curation concerts have recently been programmed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Boston Chamber Players, Tanglewood Festival for Contemporary Music, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Simon also curated and arranged Coltrane: Legacy for Orchestra, a new project co-commissioned by TO Live (for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, in partnership with the Coltrane Estate.
August 2024 saw the release of Simon's first full-length orchestral album, Four Symphonic Works, comprised of live concert recordings by the National Symphony Orchestra from the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. Simon also composed the original soundtrack for the PBS documentary Shame of Chicago: Shame of the Nation, which was released as a digital album in April 2024.
Simon also released the live premiere recording of brea(d)th, a landmark work commissioned by Minnesota Orchestra and written in collaboration with Marc Bamuthi Joseph, conducted by Jonathan Taylor Rush. “Arguably the most important commission of Simon’s career so far” (New York Times), brea(d)th was written following George Floyd’s murder as a direct response to America’s unfulfilled promises and history of systemic oppression against Black Americans.
Simon was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for his previous album, Requiem for the Enslaved. The requiem is a multi-genre musical tribute to commemorate the stories of the 272 enslaved men, women, and children sold in 1838 by Georgetown University, released by Decca in June 2022. This work sees Simon infuse his original compositions with African American spirituals and familiar Catholic liturgical melodies, performed by Hub New Music Ensemble, Marco Pavé, and MK Zulu.
Acting as music director and keyboardist for GRAMMY Award winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with Boston Pops, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. He has also toured internationally with soul GRAMMY-nominated artist Angie Stone and performed throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. He is an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Sinfonia Fraternity and a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Society of Composers International, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. He has served as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and now serves as Associate Professor at Georgetown University. Simon was also a recipient of the 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization to recognize extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians, and was named a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow for his work for film and moving image.
Danielle Cho joined as Assistant Principal Cellist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra in 2021. As a co-founder of Sound Impact, she has dedicated much of her time to bringing music outside of the concert hall and into schools, juvenile detention centers and international communities. Danielle has led Sound Impact’s international programs in Costa Rica and Panama, including its cultural exchange program which gives international students the opportunity to study at US summer music festivals. This passion was instilled in her after studying in Barcelona as a Fulbright Scholar, after which she was invited to play with the Orquesta de la Comunitat Valencia where she toured internationally under Lorin Maazel and Zubin Mehta. She was also a featured soloist at the 2014 TedxFulbright Conference and the first Fulbright alumni to be selected to serve on two missions with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas (YOA) Global Leaders Program in Argentina and Haiti.
Highlights of Danielle’s career have been solo appearances with the Erie Chamber Orchestra and the Festival Filharmonica Juvenil (Argentina) and festival appearances in Europe and the US including IMS Prussia Cove, Spoleto, Music in May, the Holland Music Sessions, Taos, Sarasota, and Schleswig-Holstein. Additionally, Danielle performs regularly with the American Pops Orchestra, the Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Passionate about teaching, Danielle holds an active private studio in the Washington DC area. Her students have been principal cellists of the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and All-State Virginia Orchestra and have gone on to study at top conservatories like Oberlin, Peabody, and Shenandoah Conservatory.
She holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the New England Conservatory where her principal teachers have been Ronald Leonard, Natasha Brofsky, and Lluís Claret.
In her spare time, Danielle enjoys photography, hiking, and boxing.