Junius H. Rose High School - Performing Arts

Performing Arts

The performing arts – band, chorus, orchestra, and theatre – have been staples of the Rose experience for years.

Betty Topper, late wife of East Carolina University violin professor Paul Q. Topper, served as chorus director on the South Elm campus for several years. Other choral directors include Patricia Hiss.

Rose's first band director was James Rogers, who was an honorary member of the Zeta Psi chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity at East Carolina University. Other directors have included Charles Allen, Mike Fussell, Richard Purvis, and K. Dean Shatley. Shatley is now a successful education lawyer with the Roberts and Stevens firm in western North Carolina, and has held state and national leadership roles in Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity, most recently as Committeeman-at-Large.

In 1971 JH Rose was the first high school in North Carolina to establish jazz ensemble as a course credit offering. That initial group was directed by trombonist Tom Smith, later a musician for ABC Television's Captain and Tenille Show (1977–78).

For many years, Lynn Roberson conducted the orchestra. A highlight of the orchestra's history was the 1993 appearance on Good Morning America. The orchestra has won numerous awards, including one earned at a music festival in Toronto, Canada.. The orchestra program at Rose is now under the direction of East Carolina University and New York Law School graduate Christopher W. Nunnally.