Our Program Director

Dr. Curt Childress is a violinist who has taught strings for twelve years.  He trained as a Suzuki Method Violin Teacher at the Lincoln Suzuki Institute at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NE.  He founded a strings program at the Atchison County Community School, has taught both children and adults to play violin, and is the founder of The National Youth Orchestra Foundation, along with his wife Kim.  This foundation is a charitable organization that provides funding and instruments to beginning strings programs, mostly in rural communities where such programs have never existed before.  All tuition and fees from the Holy Trinity Strings Program are donated to the foundation to assist other similar programs.  See www.tnyof.org for more information.  He currently plays violin with the orchestra at the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS, plays with the "Antiques and Collectables", string band for weddings and barn dances, plays piano for the Von Maur store in Leawood, KS, and resides with his wife Kim on a farm near Nortonville, KS.  He is the father of six children, the grandfather of twelve, including Mallory, Maddie and Alec Desch, and nine other grandchildren, several of whom are also string players.