Charles Bateman is a native of Mechanicsburg, PA; a suburb of the capital city, Harrisburg.  He moved to Charleston in the fall of 2018 to become the director of choral activities at James Island Charter High School along with teaching Piano, Guitar and AP Music Theory.  Before moving to Charleston, he taught for 16 years in a high school just outside of Harrisburg from 2002-2018.  In this school of about 500 students he built a choir program consisting of just under 100 singers with the select choir consistently earning Superior Ratings at festivals and frequently earning the best overall choir award against schools three and four times larger.  This choir was selected to perform at the PA Music Educators Convention in 2016.   He began his career teaching elementary vocal music from 1993-2002. In 1999, Charles became a member of the Chamber Singers of Harrisburg and in 2000 was named as the Artistic Director of the Children’s Singers of Harrisburg and served in this capacity until 2002.

 

Charles received his undergraduate degree in Music Education with a major in voice and a minor in piano and euphonium from Messiah College in 1992, a Masters degree in Music Education with an concentration in the Kodaly Methodology from West Chester University of PA in 2004 and a second Masters Degree in Choral Conducting from Messiah University in 2014. 

 

He is also currently serving as the South Carolina Music Educators Association’s low country region choir chair and secretary for the piano division.