Beth Morgan is a professional percussionist and music educator in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. Currently, she is the Band Director at Carl Sandburg Middle School in Fairfax County. She is also the percussion director at Hayfield Secondary School and the Front Ensemble instructor at West Springfield High School.
Ms. Morgan earned her Bachelors of Music in Music Education from James Madison University. There she studied percussion with Bill Rice and Joshua Smith. She earned her Masters of Music in Percussion Performance from George Mason University. While at Mason, she studied with John Kilkenny, John Spirtas, and Joe McCarthy. Ms. Morgan has also studied with Al Merz, Bill Messerschmidt. and Dan Helm. She was a participant in the Leigh Howard Stevens Summer Seminar and the Alan Abel Percussion Seminar.
Ms. Morgan maintains an active performing career as an orchestral and rudimental percussionist. She performed with the City of Washington Pipe Band from 2010 to 2013. She is currently a tenor, snare, and bass drummer with MacMillan United Pipe Bands and the Northern Virginia Firefighters Emerald Society Pipe Band. She was a member of the 2015 MacMillan Grade 3 band that won the North American Pipe Band Championships in Maxville, Ontario. Ms. Morgan also performs with the Fairfax Wind Symphony and the Fairfax Chamber Players.Her professional affiliations include the Virginia Music Educators Association, National Association of Music Education, Percussive Arts Society, and the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association. Currently, Ms. Morgan resides in Washington, DC.
Amy Sesay Color Guard Instructor
Amy Sesay has served as the color guard instructor at Hayfield since 2020. Under her instruction, the Marching Hawks Color Guard has won numerous caption awards. Ms. Sesay also instructs the award-winning Hayfield Winterguard, who recently placed first in the Scholastic Regional A1 class at the Atlantic Indoor Association Championships in Spring 2023.
Stefan Griffin Drumline Instructor
Stefan “Griff” Griffin has been performing for audiences all over the world for 20 years as a percussionist, drummer and band leader. Trained in both the classical percussion and drum set idioms, he has had the honor of performing for millions of people, spanning the shores of Cape Verde to the streets of Italy, and from the illustrious Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland to being a featured performer as a jazz soloist on drums in Times Square for NY Fleet Week. Mr. Griffin was the winner of the 2006 Rowan University Orchestra Soloist competition, culminating in his performance of Keiko Abe’s “Prism Rhapsody for Marimba and Orchestra” with the Rowan University Orchestra and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Griffin is a veteran of the United States Navy music program, in which he was an active duty sailor from 2009-1015. He graduated from the Naval Music School with honors and the illustrious “Instructor Qualification”, and currently has the highest performance score for percussion in the school’s history. He was Navy Band Northeast’s “Blue-Jacket of the Year” and was the band leader for the jazz group “The Bluejackets” while stationed with Navy Band Great Lakes, which has the distinction of being the first Navy Band to make the “trending” page on Twitter for their performance at the “Jazz on the Green” festival in Omaha, NE for an audience of over 11,000.
Mr. Griffin obtained his Masters (M.M.) in Percussion Performance from the University of Rhode Island, where he studied with Dr. Kyle Forsthoff. He obtained his BA in Music from Rowan University, where he studied with Dean Witten and Jim Miller.
Stefan is the Percussion Caption Head and Arranger/Composer with the award winning Hayfield Secondary School Marching Band and Indoor Percussion Ensemble, and teaches K-6 General Music at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School, both in Alexandria, Virginia.
When not performing, he loves spending time with his beautiful daughter, running, and weight training.