The Rock Bridge High School orchestra program has grown steadily over the years. The program consistently has students attending the Missouri All-State Orchestra in January each year at the Missouri Music Educators Conference. Some students of the program have also participated in the Carnegie Hall Honors Performance Series in New York City. 

The group has visited New York City, and has attended performances of the St. Louis Symphony and the Kansas City Symphony. 

The program has two orchestras, concert orchestra and chamber orchestra. Concert orchestra is open to anyone with previous orchestral or string instrument playing experience and no audition is required. The chamber orchestra is an advanced, high-level group that requires an audition to join. The Rock Bridge chamber orchestra was invited to perform at the Missouri Music Educators Conference in January 2019 after an audition process and being selected out of hundreds of auditions.

Graduates of the Rock Bridge High School orchestra program have gone on to attend schools like Mizzou, UMKC, MIT, USC, Brown, Stanford, and Cornell, among many others. Some of these students continue pursuing music as a hobby or even a career. 

The Rock Bridge orchestra program is working to become one of the best high school orchestra programs in the state of Missouri, creating a joyful musical experience for all students. 

Mrs. Alison Lankheit

Alison Lankheit, originally from Henderson, Kentucky, has been teaching with Columbia Public Schools since 2011. She was the orchestra director at Jefferson Middle School for nine years, and has been the orchestra director at Rock Bridge High School since 2015. She is currently the orchestra director at the brand new John Warner Middle School.

Mrs. Lankheit began playing violin at age four and joined her local youth orchestra, the Evansville Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, in 8th grade. In the fall of 2010, Mrs. Lankheit taught violin lessons and general music at Harrow International School in Beijing, China.

She graduated cum laude from Southeast Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Music Education in 2009. In December 2019, she completed a master's degree in music education at the University of Missouri. 

In her massive amount of free time, Mrs. Lankheit enjoys collecting and reading books, spending time with her husband, Dave, and hanging out with their dog, Nova. She also likes to attend comic cons, especially Planet Comicon in Kansas City. When she grows up, Mrs. Lankheit wants to be a teacher and a writer.

Contact: alankheit@cpsk12.org