Jorrie McGee is a bright young woman. 

 

Born in 1997 in Dayton, Ohio, she bounced around her entire life, the daughter of an Air Force father and a mother from a Navy sailor.  Never remaining in one city longer than three years, she took up violin at nine years old and played for two years before her father was re-stationed.  Her then-current teacher took her mother aside at the end of one of her last lessons and quietly asked, “Have you found her another teacher?” Jorrie’s mother said no and asked why.  Her teacher said, “She’s doing things on her instrument that are too advanced for her to know, things I haven’t taught her. She just does them naturally.” 

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Being an Air Force brat, as those in the branch affectionately call their children, Jorrie’s classical training on violin took on a flavor as varied as her home locations: seven different teachers’ worth of instruction, style, and interpretation spread across two states and three cities.  Her father retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2012 and settled his family in Colorado Springs, where Jorrie has remained since returned after graduation.

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She first began playing in an orchestral setting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program in one of their lower level orchestras called Albuquerque Junior Orchestra, where she played for two years.  It was there that she first fell in love with the orchestra: the sound of it, the movement of it, the professionalism and wide variety of repertoire, a deep hopeless love that she cherishes still in a desire to play with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic someday.

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Upon her return to Colorado Springs with her family in 2012, Jorrie auditioned for and was accepted into the preparatory level of the Colorado Springs Youth Symphony Association (CSYSA), a full-piece orchestra of middle- to high-schoolers then called the Encore Youth Orchestra (EYO), now called the Ovation Youth Orchestra (OYO).  She played with the CSYSA for five years: in EYO for one year under the direction of Richard Kusk, and the top level, the Youth Symphony, for the remaining four years under the direction of Gary Nicholson. In those four years, her love for orchestral playing and directing only grew, as the Youth Symphony introduced her to bigger and bigger names in orchestral literature, and to fantastic new places.

  

The Youth Symphony toured internationally every other year, and in Jorrie’s time there, she traveled to Japan, New York, the Czech Republic, and Germany, playing in concert venues such as Carnegie Hall.  And she made such a lasting impression upon the director that she was invited back for the tour in the summer of 2018, between her freshman and sophomore years at CCU. As a touring alumnus, she visited New Zealand and Australia, and played in the Sydney Opera House on the last day of the tour.

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College music presented a more unique set of challenges.  As an academic-life-long homeschooler, Jorrie went into college with all the courage of Beowulf facing Grendel: determined to see the matter through to completion, optimistic at the prospect of unparalleled success, and bitterly assuming this endeavor would hurt for its whole duration.  But college surprised her with professors both proficient and kind, new contacts in both the academic and musical fields who both challenged and delighted her, a fantastic music program full of loving supportive friends, and the added expansion of piano to her list of primary instruments.  She graduated from Colorado Christian University (CCU) in May of 2021 suma cum laude and as the Outstanding Senior of the CCU School of Music with a Bachelor's of Music in Music Education.  She is licensed by the CO Dept. of Education to teach music K-12 in Colorado.

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And there was the matter of faith.  Having been supervised her entire life by steadfastly Presbyterian parents, Jorrie found that the simple title of “Christian” can be subject to far more interpretations than she thought possible.  But as she progressed through school, she leaned on the Lord more and more heavily every day, discovering her prayer style, a church that welcomed her, and triumph over her own little worries, sins, and curve balls of life.

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While at CCU, although neither of them knew it yet, she also met her husband.  She and Tony McGee skirted opposite sides of the same friend group for 3 years before noticing each other, swapping numbers, and beginning a texting friendship.  After he returned from his 2020 Christmas break back home in Port Alsworth, Alaska, they began hanging out more in person, and their friendship quickly grew into a romance.  They married in December of 2021.

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Currently, she is working for Rocky Mountain Classical Academy starting her fourth year as their elementary general music teacher, middle school girls' choir director, and elementary children's choir director.  Although teaching one-on-one violin is her passion, she loves her school job, her coworkers, her amazing administration, and her elementary musicians: all 850 of them, from kindergarten up through 5th grade.

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She is optimistic for the future, hopelessly in love with music and teaching, encouraging and hilarious to her friend group, respectful and inquisitive to her professors, loving and nurturing to her husband and family, and learning the Lord’s heart as best she can.

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Jorrie McGee is a bright young woman.