DIRECTORS
Bands
Carrie Epperson:cepperso@nkcsd.k12.mo.us
Carrie Epperson is the Band and Jazz Band, and assistant Orchestra Director at North Kansas City High School. Along with the performance classes she also teaches Music Appreciation and AP Music Theory at Northtown. She assists with the band programs at both Nortgate middle school and Eastgate middle school. Carrie began her teaching career in the fall of 2004 at Smith-Cotton High School in Sedalia, Missouri. At Sedalia, she assisted with the Marching Band and Concert band, and she taught Jazz Band and sponsored the S-C Winter Drumline and the Brass Choir.
A native of the North Kansas City area she graduated from Winnetonka High School in 1999. There she was an active member in the music department, performing in many ensembles including Band and Jazz Band. She made history by being the first member from a Winnetonka band to make an All-State ensemble in 1999. After high school, she attended Central Missouri State University and majored in Instrumental Music Education. At CMSU she was a member of the University Concert Band (principal chair trumpet), the University and Collegiate Jazz Ensemble on both saxophone and trumpet, University Symphony Orchestra, Central Vibes Percussion Ensemble, and she was a Drum Major with the Marching Mules. She was also a founding member of the Service Brass Quintet. She finished her collegiate experience student teaching at Sweet Springs High School in 2004 and graduated with her BME in Instrumental Music Education in May of 2004.
Ms. Epperson is an active performer on many instruments. She was a trumpet player with the Sedalia Symphony and the Liberty Center Orchestra in Sedalia, she has also played percussion and clarinet with the Warrensburg Community Band and she has played saxophone and drum set with the Warrensburg Community Jazz Band. She has performed on cornet with the Fountain City Brass Band in Kansas City, and in 2008 she traveled to New York and made her Carnegie Hall debut on the French Horn. She currently performs with the Kansas City Wind Symphony on trumpet.
Ms. Epperson is a member of Missouri Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, Missouri Association of Jazz Educators, and she is an alumnae member of Sigma Alpha Iota the professional women's music fraternity.
Ashley Williams: awilliam@nkcsd.k12.mo.us
Ashley Williams is the Assistant Band Director at North Kansas City High School. In addition, Mrs. Williams teaches vocal music at Nashua Elementary. She began her teaching career in the North Kansas City School District in the Fall of 2006, student teaching at Northtown and Northgate Middle School under Jeremy Faust and Bob Drummond. The 2007-2008 school year took Mrs. Williams to Winnwood as well as Antioch Middle School, where she assisted with eighth grade choir.
Mrs. Williams is a member of Missouri Music Educators Association and Music Educators National Conference. She remains an active flutist in the Kansas City area, performing with the Kansas City Wind Symphony, which made its Carnegie Hall debut in April of 2008. She has previously performed with the Liberty Symphony Orchestra, Northland Symphony Orchestra, KU Medical Arts Orchestra, and the Greater Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.
Mrs. Williams received her Bachelor of Science in Music Education and Bachelor of Science in Flute Performance from William Jewell College in 2006. She grew up in Shawnee, Kansas and was a 2002 graduate of Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. Her husband Josh is the Band Director at Winnetonka High School.