Roxanna Lee Doneskey Heinrich

Roxy Heinrich, an accomplished flutist and pianist, has taught music and English in Seventh-day Adventist schools for over thirty years. Although most of her teaching career has been as an English teacher, she has performed many flute recitals and been a soloist with a number of ensembles.  She is a preferred accompanist.

Roxy was born in Montrose, Colorado, and spent her childhood in Cortez, Colorado, one of three children and the only daughter of Paul and Luella Nelson Doneskey. Music was an important part of life in their home. Her mother was a pianist and her father an accomplished amateur tenor who loved opera.

She started piano lessons at age six and flute lessons in the seventh grade. She recently wrote, “We had a wonderful music program in our small church school. Glen Salisbury, who taught music in the Cortez public schools, volunteered to provide music for us, as well.”

Roxy attended Thunderbird Academy, graduating in 1971. She enrolled at La Sierra College, now University, as a music major and studied with Anita Olson for two years before transferring to Union College, where she completed a B.Mus., summa cum laude, in 1976 with flute as her performance area, studying with Dan Shultz.

While at UC, she was principal flute in the band and in 1975 was awarded the John Philip Sousa Award. In her graduation year she was featured as flute soloist with the band on campus and as it toured in the Western U.S. Roxy also sang in the select choir, the Unionaires, and played as its accompanist. She completed an M.Mus., summa cum laude, in flute performance at the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 1980, studying with David Van de Bogart.

During this time she met Milo Jay Heinrich, a music major at UC who sang and played piano and tuba. They married in 1978 and have two daughters, Camille and Devon, who have had extensive musical training and are active musicians.

Following Milo’s graduation from UC in 1980, the Heinrichs taught for a year at Enterprise Academy before he accepted a position at an SDA K-10 school in Santa Cruz, California, where he taught music for the next fifteen years and she taught kindergarten, first, and sixth grades, and in the music program. In 1996, they accepted positions at Mesa Grande Academy, where she taught first grade for seven years after which she made a paradigm shift to teaching high school English. She also assists Milo, who has been director of the music program, for the past seventeen years.

Roxy is a frequent flute soloist and recitalist. She has also played an indispensable role as accompanist for Milo’s choral groups for 33 years, enabling him to perform unusually difficult works with his choirs. She has been listed in “Who’s Who in American Teachers.”

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Sources: Information provided by Roxanna Heinrich, October and November 2013; personal knowledge.