Cheryl Richardson came to Ocala from Rochester, NH. She is a retired music educator who taught voice lab, musical theater, handbells, piano class with 300 students at Spaulding High School. For 22 years, she co-directed with Joanne Houston the Spaulding HS annual Broadway musical, including Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast, The Music Man, Fiddler on the Roof and many others. Cheryl was awarded the outstanding educator award in her school district as well as being named a “Christa McAuliffe” Teacher given to those “who touch the future and teach” impacting thousands of students in her illustrious teaching career.
Cheryl has been a high school music educator, a clinician and conductor of concert choirs, district festival choral ensembles in West Virginia, Ohio and New Hampshire as well as earning top honors as State Show Choir Champions in West Virginia. She is the past director of the Tug Valley Community Choir in Williamson, West Virginia.
She has served as Minister of Music at the Stow Alliance Fellowship Church in Stow, Ohio, Beverly Hills Baptist Church in Huntington, West Virginia and Steele Memorial Methodist Church in Barboursville, West Virginia. She directed adult, youth and children’s choirs as well as handbells and an instrumental ensemble that played in worship. She has produced many seasonal cantatas and dramatic renderings at Christmas and Easter. She is currently recording music for the weekly worship service for North Barnstead United Church of Christ in North Barnstead, New Hampshire and is co-directing the On Top of the World Chorus as well as the director of music for FCUCC.
Cheryl has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education from Marshall University in Huntington West Virginia where she also completed her vocal and piano studies at the Masters level. She has performed in professional choirs and vocal ensembles such as the Renaissance Singers, a professional a cappella Ensemble in West Virginia and many civic and community choirs in her career. She is currently singing with the Central Florida Master Choir.
Cheryl is the mother of two adult sons and three granddaughters and has been fortunate to enjoy her love of music as a hobby and her vocation throughout the past sixty years since she began playing piano at the age of 8.
