Janita Hauk retired in April 2009 after sixteen years as music director of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and was named Conductor Emeritus in October 2009. In September 2004 Maestra Hauk accepted an invitation to participate as a member of the international jury at the IX International Youth Music Festival Competition, "Hopes, Talents, Masters." The competition was held in Dobrich, Bulgaria. In addition to serving as a distinguished musician adjudicator during the festival, Hauk was invited to conduct the Bulgarian Chamber Orchestra of Dobrich City, a professional orchestra that tours Europe and Japan.

Maestra Hauk graduated with a bachelor of music
degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master of music degree from the University of Michigan School of Music. Mu Phi Epsilon presented her with the prestigious "National Sterling Award." She was elected into membership to Pi Kappa Lambda, an honor society recognizing outstanding achievement in the field of music.

The seed of interest in conducting was planted when she was a student at the Aspen School of Music. Her conducting career began with the Livonia Youth Symphony, Livonia, Michigan. Following a vocation of teaching strings at all levels, Hauk has most recently served as a professor of violin and viola at Edison College in Fort Myers. As a violinist, she has performed with the Detroit Women’s Symphony, the Plymouth Symphony, the Dearborn Symphony and the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra. She performs on a violin built in 1987 on a J. B. Guadagnini model by Greg Alf of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Maestra Hauk attended the 1992 ASTA International Orchestral Conducting Workshop in Graz, Austria and the 1998 ASTA International Choral Conducting Workshop in Stavanger, Norway.

In 1997 she was chosen as a Citizens Ambassador to China as part of the People to People International Program established by President Eisenhower. More recently, she represented the U.S. as a delegate to the International Congress of Arts and Communication in Cambridge, England. The recipient of the Arts and Humanities "Charlie Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement" in 1997, Hauk is listed in the International Who’s Who in Music, IBC.