Dr. Margie Woods

Margie Marbella Woods is delighted to be joining CCW as the Beginning Bel Canto director for the 2025-2026 season. She has spent the last twenty-one years with Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, with choral positions at both the middle and high school level and six years as the Choral Music Resource Teacher for the school division. Margie has recently accepted a position at Maret School in DC, where she will be serving as the middle school chorus director. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree with dual concentrations in Music and Psychology at William and Mary, a Masters of Music Education at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and a PhD in music education from George Mason University. Her dissertation was on alleviating the difficulties in teaching multicultural choral music.

As a regular D.C.-area chorister, Margie has sung with several large choral associations, including the Washington Master Chorale and Voce Chamber Singers. Currently, she sings with The Washington Chorus, regularly performing at the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, and Strathmore Music Center. She has also worked previously with local Virginia organizations to nurture young choral singers, serving as youth choir director for the Choralis Foundation and as conductor and musicianship teacher for the youth choruses of Fairfax Choral Society. She completed her Kodaly levels in 2018 at George Mason University, the same year she earned her PhD.

Dr. Woods is a longtime member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) and the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). She previously served as District Chair for the Virginia Music Educators Association's District 10, a division of NAfME. For the Virginia chapter of ACDA, she served four years as the Repertoire and Resources (R&R) Chair for World Music, and seven years as the State Treasurer. She is in demand as a clinician and adjudicator for state performance assessments and district and all state choirs.