Crescendo Program Coaches

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Head Coaches
Jordan Hendy is a violinist in the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own”, which performs throughout the National Capital region, including the White House, Vice President’s Residence, Capitol Building, and other locations. He also teaches piano, violin, viola, ear training, and theory. Previously, Mr. Hendy was an Ear Training Teaching Fellow at The Juilliard School in New York City, where he taught classes for freshmen and sophomores from 2015-2019. He performed with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra from 2017-18 and served as concertmaster during the Festival of Contemporary Music under Thomas Adès in 2018.  During his studies at Juilliard, Mr. Hendy performed with the New York String Orchestra Seminar at venues such as Carnegie Hall and participated in two Juilliard Orchestra tours, one conducted by the world-famous Itzhak Perlman. Mr. Hendy has also performed chamber music at venues such as Lincoln Center. Mr. Hendy he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in violin performance in 2018 and a Master of Music degree in violin performance in 2020, both from The Juilliard School. 
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​Sanae Kodaira Hendy earned a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from The Julliard School and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Arts Management at American University.  Her performance experience includes touring with the Julliard Orchestra in the United Kingdom, participating in the Super Cello International Festival in China, performing in the inaugural season of the Josef Gingold Chamber Music Festival, and performing at the Lancaster Music Festival. Mrs. Hendy has also performed cello solos with the Youth Symphony Orchestra de Chacao, Orquesta Virtuosi de Caracas, The National Philarmonic of Venezuela, Filarmonía Orquesta de Venezuela, Symphony Orchestra Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, New World School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra.

In addition to performing, Mrs. Hendy has exceptional experience in education and outreach. She was a Music Advancement Program Teaching Fellow at the Julliard School as well as a Gluck Community Service Fellow through which she curated and performed in 12 customized, interactive musical presentations for community-based organizations, hospitals, and nursing homes.

COACHES
Kristin Gomez is Director of Orchestras at Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Hoffman Boston Elementary School in Arlington Public Schools.  She is also Director of the APS all-county Junior Honors Orchestra.  She has played viola since 2006 with the Pan American Symphony and since 2016 with the Arlington Philharmonic.  She has given workshops at national conferences on Arts Integration in the Curriculum, MultiCultural Approaches to String Instruction in Schools, Teacher Communication Style and Classroom Management and The Intersection of Linguistic Theory and Music Literacy. An active freelancer, she also dabbles in jazz and blues music and toured France in a Country Western Band in 2019. Playing and teaching have taken her to China, Spain, France, Peru and Columbia.  A registered Suzuki Teacher, she holds degrees in Music, French and Linguistics from the University of Paris and Georgetown University.
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Gene Pohl, now retired, was the orchestra director at Gunston Middle School and Wakefield High School for 18 years. She is a graduate of the Ithaca College School of Music, with a degree in Music Education.
Ms. Pohl also holds a Masters of Music degree from Boston University, where she majored in viola performance. Upon graduation, she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, and played under several famous conductors. Ms. Pohl taught in other schools in Arlington, as well as in Fairfax County, and was lead secondary teacher for instrumental music in Arlington and conductor of the Arlington County Honors Orchestra.  For several years she also taught a large private studio. A professional violist, Ms. Pohl is currently the Associate Principal Violist of the Fairfax Symphony.  She also plays with the Alexandria Symphony. She has played in performances with the Baltimore Opera, the National Gallery Orchestra and the Filene Center Orchestra at Wolftrap. 
Ms. Pohl has been the lead secondary teacher for instrumental music in Arlington.  This year she will be conducting the Arlington County Honors Orchestra.

Croatian cellist Dorotea Rácz is Professor of Cello and Chamber music at the George Mason University School of Music and Catholic University of America. She also is the principal cellist of the Pan American Symphony Orchestra and a cellist of D.C.-based piano trio Tango Camerata. She has collaborated with Piazzolla protégé Martin Leon, and the tango quintets Forever Tango and F-21, and has presented various concerts of Central and South American music in association with the Latin American Music Center. She was a soloist with the Pan American Orchestra at the Kennedy Center presents the North American premiere of Arturo Marquez Cello Concerto Espejos en la Arena. as performed throughout Europe, United States, Central, and South America as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in prestigious venues such as the Mozarteum in Salzburg (Austria), the Teatro Naval in Buenos Aires (Argentina), the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Carnegie Hall in New York. Recent festival appearances include International Festival “Umbria Classica”, International Tango Festival Medellin (Colombia), Festival Musica de Camera San Miguel de Allende (Mexico), and Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival (USA). Dr. Racz is the founder and co-director of Audeamus International Music Festival, a performance and teaching festival in Zagreb, Croatia.  In addition she has directed auxiliary concerts under the auspices of Audeamus in the United States, including “100 Years of Croatian Classical Music” at the Kennedy Center. In 2017, she recorded chamber music of Robert Muczynski for a Dutch label Brilliant Classics.

Dr. Racz completed Bachelor and Master of Music degrees under a full merit scholarship to study with Amit Peled at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and completed her Doctorate in Music at Catholic University.