Outstanding Alumni Award

The Outstanding Alumni Award recognizes alumni who have made exceptional contributions to their field through a distinguished musical career.

Martha Shaw (’99, DMA)

For this inaugural year, Martha Shaw, '99, DMA, choral conducting, was selected as the recipient of the Outstanding Alumni Award. Dr. Shaw, who recently retired in 2024, is a music educator and conductor who taught every level from kindergarten through college in a career of 43 years. She was the founding artistic director of the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir Program in Morrow, Georgia where she conducted for 30 years. Under her direction, the Spivey Hall Children’s Choir and Spivey Hall Tour Choir were featured in performances for state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, for the national conference of the Orff-Schulwerk Association, and for the 2010 national conference of Chorus America. Dr. Shaw currently conducts the Young Singers of Flint Hall in Waleska, Georgia.  She has served on the faculty of Reinhardt University, Shorter University, and at the University of South Carolina. She has been awarded the United Methodist Exemplary Teacher of the Year, the Vulcan Teaching Excellence Award, and the Shorter College President’s Award for Teaching and Scholarship. Prior to her collegiate teaching, she was a music specialist for Atlanta’s Fulton County for 15 years. She earned a DMA in conducting from the University of South Carolina, Master of Science in Music Education from the University of Tennessee, and a Bachelor of Music Education from Shorter College.

Community Impact Alumni Award

The Community Impact Alumni Award recognizes School of Music alumni who are making exceptional contributions to their communities.

Jerry Gatch (’85, BMA; ’87, MM; ’05, DMA)

For this inaugural year, Jerry Gatch, '85, Bachelor of Music Education, '87, Master of Music, and '05, DMA, conducting, was selected as the recipient of the Community Impact Alumni Award.

Dr. Gatch has made a tremendous impact on the communities of the state of South Carolina, and the Southeast, through his long-time service as an educator, conductor, adjudicator, clinician, arranger and performer. Dr. Gatch is currently the Director of Bands at Newberry College where he conducts the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Brass Ensemble. The band program has grown greatly in the 11 years Dr. Gatch has worked there. Previously, he was Director of Bands at Lexington High School for twenty years and conducted the South Carolina Philharmonic Youth Orchestra from 2002 to 2013. He has been a guest conductor for numerous honor band and orchestra clinics throughout the Southeast and at the Furman, USC, and Northern Arizona University summer music camps. Dr. Gatch’s professional performance experiences include playing horn in the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, the Augusta Symphony, the Florence Symphony, the Palmetto Concert Band, and with national acts including Rich Little, Johnny Mathis, and Dizzy Gillespie. He has played bass with the Palmetto Concert Band, the Jimmy Farr Orchestra, the Charlie Gatch Big Band, and the Swing Set Dance Band. He has judged concert and marching band events nationwide. Dr. Gatch has been awarded the National Band Association’s Citation of Excellence seven times, was elected to the John Philip Sousa Foundation’s BandWorld Legion of Honor, and in 2013 was inducted into the South Carolina Band Directors Hall of Fame.