Mrs. Kuhns currently teaches kindergarten through fourth grade general music classes, directs fourth chorus, teaches fourth grade beginning band lessons, is a brass instructor for the Horseheads Blue Raiders Marching Band, and co-directs the annual Big Flats Elementary Talent Show. She is a native of Hammondsport, NY and came to the Horsehead Central School District in 2014 after teaching for two years in the Rochester area. Miss Walruth also did a two-year internship with the Chautauqua Children’s Chorale where she directed the third through fifth grade ensemble.
Mrs. Kuhns holds both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music Education with Performance Honors from SUNY Fredonia. She has also completed Level I of the Orff-Schulwerk Teacher Education course at the Eastman School of Music, and looks forward to completing Level II in the summer of 2018. Orff-Schulwerk is a developmental approach to music education that combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons in a fashion similar to a child's world of play. For more information on Orff-Schulwerk, click here.
Mrs. Kuhns has performed with the SUNY Fredonia Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, and Women’s Choir, the Hillman Opera Company, Western New York Chamber Orchestra, the SUNY Fredonia Student Theater Opera Association, SUNY Fredonia All Concert Band, and worked with composer Robert Deemer on “America Windows.” Miss Walruth is an avid operatic performer and has been cast in Cossi Fan Tutti, Little Women (Meg), La Bohème, Les Contes De Hoffman, Scenes from Die Zauberflöte (the 2nd Lady), Scenes from Le Nozze di Figaro (Cherubino), Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, The Rakes Progress (Mother Goose), and Dido and Aeneas. She also sings periodical at the Bath Presbyterian Church.
Mrs. Kuhns is a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), the New York State School Music Association (NYSSMA) , and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA). She serves as the vice-president of the Twin Tiers Orff-Schulwerk Association, a local chapter of AOSA, which supports music educators in New York and Pennsylvania through professional development opportunities.She also recently co-present at the Horseheads Central School District's Connect Curriculum confrence day, “Cross – Curricular Quadrant D Lessons: Collaborate and Create!”. Miss Walruth is also a member of the Big Flats Site Based Team and is the coach of the Junior Varisity Blue Raiders Cheerleading team.
Please click here for a list of my professional development experiences.
Mrs. Kuhns Performing in Little Women the Opera
Mrs. Kuhns with the cast of Cosi Fan Tutti