Director of Choral Activities...Mr. Sanford Sardo
Director of Choral Activities Mr. Sardo has been the Director of the Calhoun Choral Program since 1993. Mr. Sardo received his BA in Vocal Performance from the State University of New York @ Stony Brook, where he studied choral conducting with Dr. Timothy Mount. He received his MEd in Music Education from the Aaron Copland School of Music @ Queens College, where he studied with Dr. Lawrence Eisman and the late Dr. David Walker (Silver/Burdett/Ginn). He is certified in Orff Level I and Music Technology from Hofstra University.
Mr. Sardo was listed in Who's Who in America in 2002 and 2003, and he has been listed in Who's Who Among America's Teachers on six occasions. He was named Educator of the Week in April 2004 by The New York Lottery and WLNY/TV 55. He was named Music Educator of the Year by the Long Island Musicians Association in 1995. Mr. Sardo has been honored by the Nassau County Legislature, the Town of Hempstead, the Merrick Kiwanis, the Merrick Chamber of Commerce, the Bellmore-Merrick Council of PTAs, and the Bellmore-Merrick United Secondary Teachers Association for his passion of shaping young minds and his contributions to the Bellmore-Merrick Community. Mr. Sardo was a member of the 2004 Bellmore-Merrick District Committee on Promoting Character, Civility, and Social Responsibility, and he is proud to have been selected to have his name listed on the Civil Rights Memorial Center’s ‘Wall of Tolerance’ in Montgomery, Alabama. In 2010, Mr. Sardo was honored with a "Leading Educator Award" from the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, where he served as a member of the New York Advisory Board for the National Young Leadership Conference. A proponent of bringing techniques in Mindfulness to both students and staff, to balance out the increased stress of recent educational policy, Mr. Sardo has taught and coordinated a variety of mindful techniques to staff and students at Calhoun H.S. He a certified Meditation and Mindfulness Instructor through the Awareness is Freedom- School of Positive Transformation, in addition to being a Buddhist Practitioner and teacher at the Kadampa Meditation Center in Massapequa. His Meditation and Mindfulness website can be found at UnwindUrMind.com. Mr. Sardo is a member of NAfME, NYSSMA, and the Nassau Music Educators Association. Away from Calhoun H.S., Mr. Sardo is the owner of Charles Street Entertainment, a live-event sound engineering company. He also has a storied career as a marching band visual clinician, working most recently with the Garden City H.S. and Lindenhurst H.S. Marching Bands. As a theatrical lighting designer and sound designer, Mr. Sardo has over 100 Off-Broadway, Regional, and Educational Theatre credits to his name. In his spare time, he enjoys Latin Social Dancing (especially Salsa and Bachata). |