Martha Grener
Born in Bangor, Maine, Martha Grener moved with her family to Syracuse, New York at the age of three. She came from amusical family where her grandfather played violin, her grandmother sang, her father played trumpet and her mother was a church organist and local piano accompanist for a singing group. Ms. Grener studied flute as a young child with Deborah Coble and then John Oberbrunner. She then went to Ithaca College, transferred to Syracuse University and earned her degree in performance. During that time, John Oberbrunner introduced her to his teacher, Julius Baker, who accepted her as a student. Ms. Grener traveled once a month to study with Mr. Baker for two years. Ms. Grener went on to earn her Master of Music Degree in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music, with further study on a summer music education fellowship at Northwestern University where she had lessons with Walfrid Kujala, conducting with John Paynter and completed advanced coursework in the field of music education.
Ms. Grener enjoys her career as a full time music educator at the West Genesee Central School District in Camillus, New York. There, she directs three middle school bands, 6th grade jazz band, and teaches woodwind lessons to students in grades 6-12. Ms. Grener served as the woodwind coordinator of West Genesee’s Wildcat Marching band from 1996 until 2009. Throughout her tenure at West Genesee, Ms. Grener has commissioned composers to write original and arranged works for her bands by which the students gave world premieres at school concerts, developed multi-media concerts, engaged her students in a variety of interdisciplinary programs, and more.
Ms. Grener is an active New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) Major Organization adjudicator, as well as a NYSSMA woodwind adjudicator. She has served as guest conductor and clinician for schools in the upstate New York. She was a recipient of a Syracuse Symphony Music Educator of the Year award in 2004. In the summer of 2011 she participated in a summer conducting workshop at the University of California at Sacramento studying with Dr. Robert Halseth and Dr. Mallory Thompson. She was also a participant in the July 2011 Conducting Workshop for Music Educators” Inspiring Artistry in Music Education”, at the Juilliard School.
Prior to teaching at West Genesee, Ms. Grener served as instrumental music educator in the Wayne Central School District in Ontario Center New York. There, she taught middle school band and woodwind lessons to students in grades 6-12. Among her responsibilities she chaired solo festivals and all county events, organized trips for performance workshops, commissioned a composer to write an arrangement for her 8th grade band.
She strives to be a good role model for her students through her life of both teaching and performing. She has performed as a part of the Syracuse, Albany, Utica, and Catskill Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Society for New Music and other musical ensembles in New York. In 2009, she became a member of Dolce Flutes, a professional flute quartet in upstate, New York. Also in 2009 Ms. Grener co-founded M&M& Friends ™. In its young existence, M&M & Friends has successfully held chamber music concerts that have benefited the South Sudan Health Project, National Kidney Foundation of Central New York, Children of North Syracuse, Haiti Relief Fund, American Cancer Society, Charities for Children, Hospice of Central New York and more. M&M & Friends has collaborated with members of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, other musicians in the Syracuse community, as well as local dance centers. M&M & Friends ™ , changing the world through music, one concert at a time.
