Dorothy Kunkel is a retired music educator who enjoyed a thirty-six year career conducting public school orchestras in Illinois and Michigan. Her orchestras gained national reputation with performances at the Kennedy Center and the International Band and Orchestra Conference. Kunkel also guest conducted many All-State and regional orchestras as well as the Chicago Symphony’s Petite Promenade Concerts and the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra. Individual honors include election as Michigan Orchestra Teacher of the Year and the Medal of Honor for outstanding service to music education from the International Band and Orchestra Conference. Dorothy spent many summers conducting at the Interlochen Music Camp and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan as well as overseas at the Czech Music Camp for Youth in the Czech Republic. She earned her Bachelor’s in Music and Master’s in Music from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. Currently, Dorothy lives in a local retirement community where she conducts the concert band she started five years ago with four members which has now grown to almost forty participants. She also enjoys playing in the Gulf Coast Symphony in the winter, and as soloist at churches in Michigan during the summer months.