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Dr. Kathy Brown is thrilled to be working with the Northgate High School Band program. She has been teaching as a music educator for the past 23-years, during which she has taught all grade levels, Pre-K through college. Currently, she teaches music at Arnco-Sargent Elementary and works with the Northgate Percussion students after school. She is also teaching classes at Point University in West Point, Georgia.
Dr. Brown grew up in Newnan, graduating from Newnan High School, and then attending Jacksonville State University in Alabama. She completed her masters and specialist at the University of West Georgia. In 2014, she completed her doctorate at Argosy University in Atlanta. She was a member of Spirit of Atlanta for the 1988 and 1989 seasons and was on the teaching staff at Northgate’s first band camp. In her free time, she likes spending time with her family and travelling to car shows with her husband, Kelvin. |
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Ginger Armstrong is a native of Houston, TX, and a graduate of Auburn University with a BS in Math Education. She has 32 years of experience in dance and color guard, and won two Drum Corps International World Championships as a performing member of the Spirit of Atlanta color guard. She was one of three "Charter Staff Members" for the Northgate High School Program and served as the founding director of the color guard program. She has also served as an instructor and consultant for bands and drum corps in Japan as well as serving as a consultant and adjudicator nationwide.
As an instructor, her guards have a string of 26 straight years of superior ratings and have received numerous championship honors on both regional and national levels. Her guard at East Coweta High School performed as part of the Opening Ceremonies for the 1996 Olympic Games. The Northgate Winterguard program has been recognized as Southeastern Color Guard Circuit (SCGC) and Southern Association of Perfoming Arts (SAPA) Gold Medalist, Silver Medalist or Bronze Medalist on 10 different occasions, have been recognized as WGI Regional Championship Gold Medalist on four different occasions and achieved finalist status at WGI World Championships on two different occasions. She was one of the founders of SAPA and served as the Vice President for Color Guard for two years, Secretary for one year and President of the entire Association for one year. She was recognized by this organization with their "Hall of Fame Award" in the 2009 season. She has served as the Guard Coordinator and Camp Coordinator for "Spirit Camps Inc."; one of the largest marching band leadership camps in the Southeast. She served for 14 years as a math teacher in Coweta County schools before accepting a teaching position with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA) in their school program in 2009. In 2013, she was appointed as the School Program Coordinator for CHOA. 2020 has brought her home to Coweta County Schools where she will return to the math classroom. She is married to Alan Armstrong, the Director of Bands at Northgate. They reside in Newnan, Georgia and are the proud parents of Caitlin, Kelsey, Ryan and Emily, all four honor graduates and alumni of Northgate High School and the Band Program. |
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Kelsey Armstrong is a native of Newnan, GA, and a graduate of Northgate High School. She was a 5 year member of the Northgate Winter Guard, and a 4 year member of the Northgate Marching Band, competing as part of the 2009 silver medalist and 2011 gold medalist winter guards, as well as the 2010 2-time grand champion marching band. Immediately following her graduation from Northgate, Kelsey performed with Atlanta CV Drum and Bugle Corps, and was a 3 year member of the color guard, including the 2017 DCA World Champion color guard. Kelsey was the Color Guard Director at Northside High School in Columbus, GA in 2013, and worked as a choreographer and camp clinician for bands across the state of Georgia before returning as a full time member of the Northgate color guard staff in 2016.
Kelsey received her Bachelor's Degree in Choral Music Education from Columbus State University, and is currently pursuing a masters degree in Choral Music Education through the University of North Texas. She is currently the choir director at Evans Middle School, in Newnan, GA. |
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Mr. Williams is the Band Director at Madras Middle School and assists with the Northgate High School Marching Band. He has taught band, jazz, piano, and guitar classes in both Georgia and Tennessee at both the high school and middle school level. As a saxophonist, he has kept an active presence as a private lesson instructor, including two years with the W.O. Smith Music School in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Education from Vanderbilt University where he also served as Director’s Assistant to the 2015 Spirit of Gold Marching Band. He belongs to GMEA and NAfME, and organized and hosted the GMEA District 10 Middle School Large Group Performance Evaluation in 2018 and 2019.
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Ryan Armstrong - Percussion Staff
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Ryan is a Northgate High School class of 2016 graduate who was a 4 year member of the Northgate Marching Band, 2 year member of the Northgate Indoor Percussion Ensemble, 2 year member of the Concert Percussion Ensemble, 4 year member of the Northgate Jazz Band, and 3 year member of Advanced Symphonic Band.
Immediately following high school he then marched Atlanta CV for four consecutive seasons, three of those placing in the top three overall and 2nd in Percussion. He also marched one year with CV Indoor and 2 years at Q2, both being GIPA Open Class Champions and WGI World Championship Semi-Finalists each time, as well as Audio Theater in WGI World Class for the portion of the 2020 season that was able to be held. He has also been teaching since the year immediately following high school graduation. He has taught at Alexander High School, Mount Zion High School, Sonoraville High School, Chestatee High School, and at Northgate full time since 2019 and intermittently prior to that. |
Jared Triggs - Marching Band Staff
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Jared Triggs is extremely excited to be on staff with the Viking Band this fall.
An alumnus of Northgate, “Triggs” earned his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Jacksonville State University. While at JSU, he served as the Principal Trumpet for the JSU Chamber Winds and Symphonic Band, as well as a lead trumpet and soloist in the jazz bands, the Latin Ensemble, the Trumpet Ensemble, The Marching Southerners, and the Hardcorps Pep Band. Triggs also stayed heavily involved in the Drum Corps world, performing with Atlanta CV from 2012-2015. He was a soloist at Spirit of Atlanta in 2016 and also served as section leader in 2017, joining the visual staff for the 2018 season after aging out. Triggs is currently an elementary music teacher in the Coweta County School System. He also teaches trumpet lessons at Music & Arts, and does freelance gigs when time allows. He is an active member of Georgia Music Educators’ Association, and is a brother of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity. Triggs lives in Sharpsburg, where he enjoys hanging in his Eno with his dachshunds, Twinkie and Sophie. |