Dr. Argine Safari 

Dr. Argine Safari is an award-winning educator, conductor, and performer with over 20 years of directing choirs at Pascack Valley Regional HS district, where she also served as the Supervisor of Music, World Languages, Multilingual Learners, and FACS. 

Argine is passionate about transforming the lives of her students through the power of music. In 2005, she came to the Pascack Valley High School district and developed a nationally recognized vocal program. Under her direction, Pascack Valley choirs earned numerous awards and accolades, traveling nationally from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, CA and internationally to Dublin, Ireland, where their renditions of Irish songs were played on the national radio. Argine's students are consistently accepted to top universities, conservatories, and honor ensembles around the country. In 2013, Argine co-founded the non-profit NJ Youth Theater Arts Company, Stage Scene and Song Performing Arts, and was instrumental in the program's success. Argine is also the Music Director of Orpheus Men's Chorus and the Director of Music and Organist at Christ Lutheran Church in Woodcliff Lake.  She is an active clinician and chamber musician, having performed at Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden, and Zankel Hall, among other notable venues.

Argine’s students continuously inspire her to improve as a musician and a teacher, and she has been recognized for her reflective practices and her teaching. In 2010, she received the Distinguished Secondary School Teaching Award from Princeton University. Argine is the 2018 Lowell Milken Fellow, the 2018 NJEA Art Teacher of the Year, and the 2017 NJ State Teacher of the Year. From January-July 2017, she worked as an independent educational consultant at the NJ State Department of Education, sharing her vision of the NJ State Performing Arts Curricula and taking part in the groundbreaking one-million-dollar Arts Integration Project for Title I schools across the state. A Fulbright Distinguished Scholar, Dr. Safari conducted educational research and shared her expertise at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Finland, from late January to July 2019. A Ph.D. candidate, Argine is currently researching the best music teaching practices around the world. Her article on innovative teaching was published in Moscow in 2019. In May 2020, she was featured in Dr. Bilha Fish’s book Invincible Women: Conversations with 21 Inspiring and Successful American Immigrants.

Argine believes that the greatest gift one can share is helping others discover what makes them unique. She sings praises to her students for allowing her to give them the key, major and minor, to reach the pitch of their own potential.