DuWayne Dale, Director of Bands and Orchestra
Grant County Schools
Phone:  (859) 824-9739 (GCHS)   (859) 824-7161 (GCMS)
(859) 824-9756 (Fax)
Email:  duwayne.dale@grant.kyschools.us

BIO:  DuWayne C. Dale joined the faculty of Grant County High School in 2003.   Mr. Dale is a 1994 graduate of Montgomery County High School in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky.  He attended Morehead State University where he received his Bachelor of Music Education degree and his Master of Music degree.  In 1998, he completed his student teaching at George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester, Kentucky.  In 1999, Mr. Dale took the position the Assistant Director of Bands for the Mad River Local School district near Dayton, Ohio.  While in Dayton, Mr. Dale was an active performer with the Kim Kelly Big Band and the Dayton Jazz Orchestra.  Since being at Grant County High School, the band program has nearly doubled in size and earned consistent Distinguished ratings at concert festival.  In 2007, the band was one of only four schools in Northern Kentucky to receive straight distinguished ratings.  Under his baton, the high school orchestra received its first straight Distinguished festival rating this year at concert festival.  The high school marching band has grown from 35 participants in 2003 to a projected 70+ members for 2008 and has gone from being 15^th in the region to as high as 5^th in the state in 2006.  In 2007, the marching band earned its first Grand Championship in 10 years at the South Laurel High School Marching Contest and was crowned Regional Champions prior to placing 6^th overall in the state.  Mr. Dale is currently in his 5^th year as Director of Bands and Orchestra for Grant County and is pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting at the University of Kentucky.  Mr. Dale lives in Grant County with his wife, Rebecca, and their two sons, Trevor (9) and Graham (2).

JoAnn Owens, Assistant Director of Bands
Grant County Schools
Phone:  (859) 824-7161 (GCMS)
Email:  joann.owens@grant.kyschools.us

BIO:  Mrs. Owens is a 1999 graduate of Grant County High School in Dry Ridge, Kentucky.  She graduated from the University of the Cumberlands, in Williamsburg, Kentucky with a Bachelors Degree in Music Education in 2004.  Mrs. Owens completed her student teaching in the fall of 2003 with Paul Laurence Dunbar, in Lexington, Kentucky.  Since being at Grant County, the middle school bands have received numerous awards.  In 2006 and 2007 the middle school concert bands received consecutive Distinguished Ratings at KMEA Large Group Middle School Assessment.  Since Mrs. Owens had taken over the position as director of bands at Grant County Middle School, annual participation in the KMEA District 6 Solo and Ensemble Festival has risen from an average of ten performances to over eighty events, making Grant County the district with the largest solo and ensemble events for the past two years and the most Distinguished Ratings of any middle school program in District 6.  Mrs. Owens is currently earning her Masters Degree in Administration at Xavier University, in Cincinnati, Ohio.  She is a proud mother of a 14 week old little boy, Grant Kenneth Steven.