Meet the director

Bomin Collins, Director of Orchestras

Bomin Son Collins graduated Magna Cum Laude from Boston University with a Bachelor of Music Performance, received a Master of Music Education at George Mason University, and is currently pursuing a Master of Education in Education Leadership at George Mason University. She started her music training early on the piano but then switched to cello at an early age. Since then, she has held principal roles in the American Youth Philharmonic, Boston University Chamber Orchestra and was a fellow member of the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program on a full scholarship.

As a cellist, she has performed and was featured as a soloist at multiple venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall and the Kennedy Center. She has participated in master classes with Alban Gerhardt, Paul Katz, Norman Fisher and Joshua Gordon. Her principal teachers include late Dorothy Amarandos, Glenn Garlick of the National Symphony Orchestra and late Marc Johnson of the Vermeer Quartet.

As an educator, Collins currently serves as the Director of Orchestras at W.T. Woodson High School, working with 160 students in five various levels. Her previous assignments include Longfellow Middle School, Cooper Middle School, and Langley High School. She is the recipient of 2020 Fairfax Orchestra Directors Association Secondary Teacher of the Year and 2019 FCPS Pyramid & School Level Outstanding Teacher of the Year. Collins is an active adjudicator, a clinician, and a guest conductor around the region.

During her tenure, all her groups have consistently received superior ratings at participating competitions and state assessments. Most notably, Longfellow MS Chamber Orchestra, frequently performing VBODA Grade V and VI literature, was chosen to perform at Virginia Music Educator Association Conference in Fall 2016. In 2018, the same orchestra was invited to perform at the prestigious Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, IL, which is the highest recognition that band and orchestra can receive internationally.

She is an active member of NafME, VMEA, VBODA, and AFPE. In addition to teaching, Collins enjoys being a music coach in the community and freelances as a cellist. She continues to sustain her love for playing the cello in Tysons McLean Orchestra and American Festival Pops Orchestra. She also has served as a faculty member at Ovations Summer String Academy and Vienna Summer Strings. She also is the Artistic Director for Cellospeak, a non-profit organization which offers community outreach projects and education to adult amateur cellists. She and her husband reside in Springfield, VA, and love spending time with their English Bulldog, Pumpkin Dotty.