Christina Latham

Director

Ms. Latham started playing clarinet in elementary school in Walnut Creek. She continued throughout Intermediate School with Mr. Scott the teacher for both elementary and middle school. She joined the high school band when her family moved to Manteca. In her four years of high school the band was very active, traveling to San Diego for the Holiday Bowl and to Hawaii for the Aloha Bowl. At graduation she received the Louie Armstrong Jazz Award and a scholarship from the Manteca teachers association. She served on the band council and was a teacher's assistant for the band director, Mr. Prat.

After high school she attended San Joaquin Delta College. At Delta she was the assistant to the band director, Charles Jennings and learned many skills essential to running a band. She was a member of the all the instrumental performing ensembles, as well as the University of the Pacific Wind Ensemble and Music Educators National Conference Student Chapter. She studied clarinet under Dr. Dominic and Marie Meilbrecht.

She transferred to San Francisco State University to complete her Bachelors of Music Degree. While at SFSU she participated in the Wind Ensemble and chamber groups. Her clarinet professors were Don Carole and Greg Dufford. She became the MENC Student chapter president and fundraised enough to send the group to the state conference for two consecutive years. In addition the group hosted the area solo and ensemble festival. She was the assistant to the band director, LeRoy Roach and helped run the band during the school year and the Band Directors reading clinic for many summers.

After her degree she started the credential program working at Lowell HS in San Francisco under the direction of Michelle Winter and Ko Takemoto. After one semester she was hired to teach elementary music in San Francisco for one semester while the permanent teacher was on sabbatical. Her master teacher was Sally Ann Ryan, providing guidance and inspiration.

Next she taught at Parkway Heights Middle School in South San Francisco for three years bringing the program from 40 students to 120, and creating their first Jazz Band. During this period she served on the Bay Section California Music Educators Association board as the representative for San Francisco and San Mateo counties, ran the Bay Section Middle School Honor Band and area festivals.

When her son Zachary was born she moved to Stockton with her husband Elk and taught elementary for Stockton Unified Schools. She played clarinet professionally with the Valley Concert Band and recreationally with the Stockton Concert Band.

From 1999 to the present she has been the band director at Santa Cruz High School. For the first two years she taught concurrently at Mission Hill Middle School. She has been a member of the Watsonville Community Band and served as the Secretary on the Board of the Northern California Band Association.