Elizabeth Fortune

Elizabeth Fortune is the Director of Orchestras at Seattle’s Ballard High School.   From 2002-2018, she was the Director of Orchestras and Eclectic Strings at Seattle’s Washington Middle School. In addition to teaching in Seattle Public Schools, she is director of the award nominated educational programming at the Wintergrass Music Festival. Over her tenure, Fortune has been striving to bridge the gap between classical and roots music in the educational setting. At Washington Middle School, she built the strings program into a comprehensive four-tiered curriculum for string players of all levels, including two roots music ensembles. Her string ensembles regularly perform with noted guest artists and compete annually in regional and national classical and jazz festivals.

In 2019, Fortune was elected to the American String Teachers Association Board of Directors.  In 2018, she was a recipient of the Country Music Association’s Music Teachers of Excellence distinction. In 2015, Fortune was one of 25 semi-finalists out of 7,000 nominations for the Grammy Music Educator Award. Fortune received her Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees with an emphasis on Music Education and violin performance from the University of Montana. She is also an active contributor to the Washington Music Educators’ Association, the National Association for Music Education, and the International Bluegrass Music Association.