Web Posting Information

  Michael Dye has been Niceville High School's choral director for the past 17 years.
A native of Arkansas, Mr. Dye grew up in Pine Bluff where he attended the Dollarway Public schools and began his early
musical training with the late Mary Eden.
A six year member of the school band where he played Sousaphone and tuba, Mr. Dye was a student of Perry Hope and
Bill Tucker.
His early exposure to vocal music came at church where he sang in the choir.
Beginning in the ninth grade, Mr. Dye joined the junior high choir under the direction of the late Ronald E. Gray who was
also the high school choral director. Mr. Dye sang for a total of four years in the Dollarway choirs where he was an
all-state chorus member for two years and president of his choir during his senior year. It was during this time he
decided to pursue choral music education as a career.
Upon graduation from high school in 1972, Mr. Dye received a music scholarship to Henderson State University in
Arkadelphia, Arkansas where he studied voice with Eugene Kuyper. His choral director at Henderson was Dr. Charles
Rye.   Mr. Dye was a four-year member of the Henderson Opera Theater, under the direction of Dr. Ann Chotard, where,
during his sophomore and junior years he toured with the troupe every Friday to schools across the state. He sang
under Dr. Chotard's direction in the first production of the fledgling Arkansas Opera Theater in 1973. In the spring of
1976 Mr. Dye interned with choral director Laura Beth Goff at Hot Springs High School.
Completing his Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1976, Mr. Dye began his teaching career at Southwest Junior High
School in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas where he directed several choirs. He was also an adjunct voice
instructor with the Garland County Community College.
After a year in Hot Springs he was invited back to the Dollarway School District to teach the high school choirs, music
theory and the ninth grade junior high mixed choir. He spent the next twelve years as the school's choral director
including one year as the district's music supervisor.   Active in the Arkansas Choral Directors Association, he served
two year terms as the Region V chairman and as the state choral festival chairman. In 1986 Mr. Dye was elected
president of the ArkCDA. In 1988 he was elected president of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Choral Directors
Association and later that year was selected the Southeast Arkansas Choral Director of the Year. The following spring
Mr. Dye was voted by his peers as the Arkansas Senior High School Director of the Year.
In the fall of 1989 Mr. Dye enter the Master of Music Education program at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
There he served as a voice instructor and a graduate assistant to the Director of Choral Activities, Alfred Skoog, a
charter member of the American Choral Directors Association and mentor of many of the state's choral musicians.
While there he also studied music theory and history with Dr. Jared Spears, an nationally recognized composer.
After receiving his MME degree in August 1990, Mr. Dye was appointed the choral director at Niceville High School by
Principal Jeanette Rhoades Slown, upon the retirement of then-director Phyllis J. Merritt who had established one of the
most recognized choral programs in the Southeastern United States.   He served as the Florida Vocal Association's
District 1 Chairman from 1993-1995 and again from 2003-2005. In 2004 the teachers at Niceville High School select him
as their Teacher of the Year and he was later chosen as one of three finalists as the Okaloosa County Teacher of the
Year. He has twice been nominated for the Northwest Florida Cox Communications Hero of the Arts Award.
In 2005 he was voted the president-elect of the FVA where he served as chair of the All-State Chorus Procedures
Committee that initiated extensive changes to the all-state selection process and chorus configurations, including the
creation of the Florida All-State Men's Chorus in 2005. He also coordinated the 2006 9th-12th Florida All-State Chorus
conducted by Dr. Craig Jessop, director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the 2007 choir conducted by Dr. Charles
Bruffy of the Kansas City Chorale and the Santa Fe Bach Choir.
Mr. Dye will serve as the Florida Vocal Association's president from 2007-2009 where he will also represent the
organization on the Florida Music Educators Association board of directors.