About Our Conductor
The Amateur Musicians Orchestra's Music Director, Ron White, has been a musician and a teacher his entire life. He earned a BM in Music at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas where he studied bass with Clifford Sphor, Principal Emeritus of the Dallas Symphony. He was Principal Bassist of the SMU Chamber Orchestra and Associate Principal Bassist of the Dallas Civic Symphony.
After College Ron embarked on a teacher career. Ron would spend 26 of the next 31 years as an orchestra Director in the Richardson ISD, Dallas ISD, College Station ISD and the Klein ISD in north Houston.
Ron's orchestras consistently received the highest award at Texas UIL Competitions as well as national and international competitions. His orchestras have performed in Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York as well as Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest. In 1996 the A&M Consolidated Orchestra was invited by the Chinese Government to perform in Beijing. He also founded the Houston North Bass Camp, a week long camp for young bassist. Ron currently teaches bass at the Middlebury Community Music Center. He was the founding director of the Orchestra Project, an after-school collaboration with MCMC and the Mount Abraham Unified School District's Expanded Learning Project. Ron became the director of the Amateur Musicians Orchestra in 2018.
Ron has been active as a bassist his entire life. His first professional work was at the age of 15. He has played in a variety of musical settings in Dallas, Houston and College Station, Texas. Ron has performed with the Vermont Jazz Ensemble, Vermont's venerable big band. La Rebellion de Tango, a group dedicated to the music of Astor Piazzolla, the Handymen, a blues/rock group and the Jazz Collective. Ron is an active freelance bassist and credits include theater, concerts and night club appearances.
