About the Director
David Doke has been teaching music in the Cobb County School System since 1994. He currently serves as Fine Arts Department Chair, Director of Orchestras and AP Theory teacher at Hillgrove High School. Before joining the faculty at Hillgrove, Mr. Doke was Director of Orchestras at North Cobb High School where he started the orchestra program in 1994.
Prior to his career in music education, Mr. Doke played violin professionally in several orchestras around the world, including the Chicago Chamber Orchestra (‘91-‘93), The American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria (1988), La Orquesta Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico in Toluca, Mexico, and the Mexico Philharmonic in Mexico City, Mexico (‘87-‘89). He has played at venues such as Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, el Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, the Leipzig Gewandhaus in Germany, Smetana Hall in Prague, and at the International Mahler Festival in Dobbiaco, Italy. More recently, in September of 2007, Mr. Doke was the feature soloist with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra where he performed the Vivaldi Mandolin Concerto.
As an orchestra director, Mr. Doke has led his students to festivals in Florida (1995, 2006), Virginia/Washington DC (1998, 2008), Chicago (2000), Savannah (2001), St. Louis (2003), and at Boston’s Symphony Hall (2006). At the 1998 Music Showcase Festival in Virginia, North Cobb won the National Grand Sweepstakes Award, and at the 2006 Heritage National Festival of Gold in Boston, North Cobb placed fifth. In January of 2001 the North Cobb Symphony was selected to perform at the Georgia Music Educator’s Association State Conference. Mr. Doke and his students have performed at the Georgia Governor’s Mansion on several occasions for former Governor Roy Barnes and Governor Sonny Perdue.
In April 2002, Mr. Doke was interviewed on CNN Headline News, discussing technology in the music classroom and performing the Bach E Major Partita on a Yamaha electric violin. In April 2003, he received the prestigious Atlanta Journal-Constitution Honor Teacher Award. Mr. Doke has been published in The Georgia Music News and has assisted in writing the Orchestra and AP Music Theory curriculum for Cobb County (GA) Schools. Mr. Doke served as Musical Director for North Cobb’s productions of Oklahoma! (1997), The Wizard of Oz (1999), and Beauty and the Beast (2005).
Mr. Doke holds a Master of Music in Violin Performance from DePaul University in Chicago, and a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from the Conservatory of Music at The University of Missouri – Kansas City, and plans to graduate from Boston University with a Doctorate in Music Education in 2011. He remains active as a freelance violinist in the Atlanta metropolitan area and is in high demand as an adjudicator and clinician.
Mr. Doke and his wife Allison have been married since 1989 and have two children.
