Chatham County String Program

Triangle Youth Music - Chatham County

Triangle Youth Music is proud to offer free after-school violin classes to two elementary schools in Siler City.

Both Virginia Cross Elementary School and Siler City Elementary Schools are Title I schools, with over 89% of the students receiving free and reduced lunch 90% identifying as Black and/or Latino.

This program is in partnership with Chatham County Schools in keeping with our goal of increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in our programs. We are grateful to the music teachers at each school, Courtney Benton and Tracey Harvel, as well as the school and Chatham County administrative staff for their support. The Triangle Youth Music violin teachers Deborah Wood and Miriam Bryant, are local Chatham residents who each offer over 20 years of string education experience.

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Miriam Bryant has been teaching and leading others in musical activities for over 30 years. She earned a Master’s of Arts in teaching from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005 and held K-12 Music Educator certification 2005-2018. Mrs. Bryant taught in the public-school sector for 8 years as a music educator at the high school level in strings, chorus, music theory, and music appreciation classes. Additionally, she taught elementary music in typical and atypical blended pre-K classes and in special needs class settings of varying abilities. Mrs. Bryant also taught fiddle with the Chatham County Junior Appalachian Music organization for several years and lead various children and adult choirs at her church Currently, Mrs. Bryant teaches private lessons in violin, piano and voice in Lee and Chatham County. In addition, Miriam is a violin instructor at the elementary school level for the Chatham County Schools strings program. She is a continuing in her seventeenth year as a member and violin section leader of the Lee County Community Orchestra and performs regularly at churches and community events. Professional organizations include membership in the Music Educators National Conference and the American String Teacher’s Association.

“Ms. Miriam” bases her teaching methods on the pedagogy of Suzuki, Bornoff, Kodaly, and student led processes to develop technique, intonation, and tone. In addition to teaching and playing music, Ms. Miriam enjoys cooking, knitting, birding, hiking and being a Mimi to her grandsons.

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Sierra grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and was a member of the Cincinnati Youth Symphony. She received her BM in Violin Performance from Belmont University and her MM in Violin Performance from UNC Greensboro. She teaches violin and group classes at the Music Academy of NC, Triangle Youth Music, and is an Adjunct Professor of Violin at Elon University. Highlighted performances of Sierra’s include Trans Siberian Orchestra and Candlelight Concerts by Fever. Sierra has performed on PBS with Sheryl Crow, Cece Winans and Michael W. Smith. She also has performed with artists Natalie Merchant, Tim Halperin, and SEAY.

Sierra has performed with Wilmington Symphony, Western-Piedmont Symphony, Durham Symphony, Fayetteville Symphony, Trans Siberian Orchestra, Greensboro Opera, and The People’s Orchestra of Nashville. She has performed musicals with Belmont University, UNC Greensboro, High Point University, Elon University and the Uwharrie Players. She frequently plays weddings and events in North and South Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee.

Sierra’s recognitions include the Maestro Award at WorldStride’s Festival of Gold in NYC, and soloist in Belmont University’s Instrumental Honors Recital.