Nikki Wilson

Mrs. Nikki Wilson has had a long and varied career in string education for over 25 years. She is the Orchestra Director and AP Music Theory teacher at Montgomery Bell Academy, a private boys’ school for 7^th – 12^th grade in Nashville, TN.  She also serves as the Tri-M faculty advisor at MBA, which had the honor of being named the 2024 Chapter of the Year. Prior to teaching at MBA, she was the Strings Instructor at St. Paul Christian Academy, as well as a violin and viola instructor at Belmont Academy and Lipscomb Academy, offering private and group instruction, chamber ensemble coaching, and music theory lessons. She also conducted the beginning and intermediate level string orchestras of the Ethos Youth Ensembles in Murfreesboro, TN.

Mrs. Wilson is active in her state music education organizations, included the Middle Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association (MTSBOA) and the Tennessee Chapter of the American String Teachers Association (TnASTA). She has served as an adjudicator for student placement in their regional honor orchestras and state honor orchestras, Mid-State and All-State respectively, and also in the West Tennessee School Band and Orchestra association. She has had numerous students win placement into both honor orchestras, and her ensembles consistently win Superior ratings during the Concert Performance Assessment hosted by MTSBOA. Her junior school orchestra at MBA has also been named an Orchestra of Excellence by TnASTA. Several of her students have gone on to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Mrs. Wilson also maintains an active performance schedule. She has performed nationally at the Hot Springs Music Festival in Hot Springs, Arkansas, the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, the Jackson Symphony Orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic, and the New Atlanta Philharmonic. She has also performed abroad at the Bayerische Musikacademie in Marktoberdorf, Germany. Mrs. Wilson has been blessed to share the stage with some truly outstanding musicians, such as Amy Grant, Arturo Sandoval, Ricky Skaggs, Wynonna Judd, Ilya Kyler, Pip Clarke, The Temptations, the Pointer Sisters, and The O’Jays. She currently performs with the Parthenon Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble that won third prize in the American Prize Competition for Orchestral Performance in the Community Orchestra Division. She is also privileged to participate in her church worship band.

Mrs. Wilson holds a Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance from the Rudi E. Schiedt School of Music at the University of Memphis and a Master’s degree in Violin Performance from the Georgia State University School of Music. Her former teachers include Dr. Nancy Schechter of the Alea String Quartet, Susan Waterbury of the Cavani String Quartet, and Gerald Greer, Assistant Concertmaster of the Nashville Symphony. While in college, she was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, an honor society for college musicians.

Mrs. Wilson enjoys combining all of the different styles of music she has had the privilege to study and perform. In between spending time with her husband and her family, or curling up on the couch with a good book and a hot cup of tea, she is always thinking of ways to use her knowledge and skills to create a wonderful classroom experience for her students.