Buies Creek, N.C.-Dr. Daniel Hester, adjunct professor of organ at Campbell University, has received the North Carolina Symphony’s 2009 Maxine Swalin Award for Outstanding Music Educator. The Swalin award is presented annually to a North Carolina teacher who is considered to have made a lasting difference in the lives of students of all abilities and backgrounds and is a role model in music education.
Hester, who is currently the music specialist at J.Glenn Edwards Elementary School in Sanford, N.C., has twice been honored as teacher of the year by the Lee County Public Schools. He has also served as the lead teacher for Kaleidoscope, a Lee County Schools summer program for academically and intellectually gifted rising 6th-grade students. In addition, Hester is noted for his research on the relationships between English language reading skills, ethnicity, rhythmic aptitude and grade level in first, second and third-grade students. He is a member of the National Association for Music Education, the North Carolina Association of Educators, the North Carolina Music Educators Association and Omicron Delta Kappa.
Hester earned a Bachelor of Music Education with a major in organ from Campbell University and a Master of Music with a major in Music Education and Doctor of Philosophy in Music Education from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Winners of the annual North Carolina Symphony Maxine Swalin Award also receive a $1,000 cash prize.
Photo Copy: Dr. Daniel Hester.