Eben Mann, WRFA Director

Violin, Viola, Oboe, English Horn,
Clarinet, & Highland Bagpipe
Orchestra League Coach (TEAM Violin)
Youth Choral League (Theory Coach)

Eben Mann is originally from Lake Wales, FL, where he played clarinet, oboe, and bagpipe in the Lake Wales High School “Highlander” Band, and violin and viola in the school orchestra. Starting in third grade, he took violin lessons from Laura Lawson, Helen Edwards, and KC Davidson; and oboe lessons from Sheryl Gorman. While in high school, he was a member of the Imperial Symphony Orchestra (Lakeland, FL) playing violin, and was an ISO’s Young Artist’s Competition Winner on oboe in 1992. Mr. Mann earned an undergraduate Fine Arts Diploma in Oboe Performance in 1997 from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied oboe and English horn with John Ellis and violin with Elaine Richey and Denise Baker. While in college, he worked at The Farm House Inn dinner theater in Blowing Rock, NC for four summers (1993-96), as a performing waiter. 

Mr. Mann has played in dozens of musical theater productions through the years, and has toured nationally and internationally with several Broadway shows, including: Brigadoon, Phantom (Yeston), Big River, and The Music Man. Before he went on the road, while living in Los Angeles, CA, he was a member of the Palisades Symphony (Pacific Palisades, CA) and the American Youth Symphony (Los Angeles, CA) under the direction of Mehli Mehta (acclaimed conductor Zubin Mehta’s father).

Mr. Mann has been a member of the Asheville Symphony (oboe/English horn), Asheville Lyric Opera Orchestra (oboe), soloist with the Winston-Salem Symphony (Highland bagpipe), Piedmont Opera (Highland bagpipe), substitute musician with the Charleston Symphony (oboe) and the South Carolina Philharmonic (oboe/English horn), and was a co-founder of the Rutherford Chamber Consort. Eben is currently a member of the Gardner-Webb University Orchestra (violin) and the Symphony of Rutherford County (concertmaster), and performs for various freelance gigs throughout the region.

Mr. Mann has lived in Rutherford County, NC for over 20 years. He has taught oboe at Gardner-Webb University as an adjunct professor, and served as orchestra director (grades 6-12) at Thomas Jefferson Classical Academy (Mooresboro, NC) from 2005-2017. He also operated Pilgrim Farm in Ellenboro, NC, raising poultry, sheep, and goats. Eben is a music composer/arranger, and has had his work published by Shawnee Press. In January of 2019, Mr. Mann joined the faculty of the Music Academy of Western North Carolina, located in Hendersonville, teaching violin, viola, and oboe.

Mr. Mann is founder and director of the Wild Roots Fine Arts Academy, President of the Tree of Life Cultural Foundation, a 501(c)(3) educational and charitable nonprofit, and President of the Symphony of Rutherford County, all located in Forest City, NC.