Olivia Warley Gutoff received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University in 1960. She combined a distinguished career in music education with professional playing and private french horn teaching. Her FSU faculty mentors were Dr. Joseph A. White, Dr. Manley R. Whitcomb and Dr. Ernst Von Dohnanyi.
Olivia taught in South Carolina, Virginia, and in the Montgomery County, Maryland public schools. Her thirty year career in Maryland helped influence the growth of string education in the state and specifically in Montgomery County. She is regarded as one of Maryland’s premiere educators and conductors of young instrumentalists, and she has served as a mentor to many new music teachers. Olivia’s vision and innovative programming led the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra program to great musical heights and led to national recognition for her work. Olivia conducted All State and County Bands and Orchestras, presented numerous clinics and workshops, and served as an adjudicator of band and orchestra festivals. She performed with the National Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera and Ballet Orchestra, the National Gallery of Art Orchestra and many others. Her private students have won numerous scholarships and have been accepted at Curtis, the Eastman School of Music, the Cincinnati Conservatory, Yale School of Music and Peabody. Every year since 1964, at least one of her students has been selected for Maryland All State Ensembles. Several former students play in professional orchestras and teach on the college level. Olivia is a member of the Music Educators National Conference. She served as President of the Maryland Orchestra Directors Association and held numerous leadership positions in the Maryland Music Educators Association and the Maryland Band Directors Association.
Awards presented to Olivia include Montgomery County Distinguished Teacher Recognition; the Maryland Music Educators “Award for Excellence” for the South Central Region; the American String Teacher Association Md. State Unit Award for “Outstanding Service to Strings”; the Chester J. Petranek Award for “Outstanding Leadership, Dedication, Guidance, and Inspiration to Young Musicians in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area”; the FSU Ella Scoble Opperman Faculty Citation for School of Music Alumni: “For Distinguished Achievement in the Teaching of Music and Outstanding Leadership”, and, in 2007, she was elected to the Maryland Music Educators Hall of Fame.