The purposes of MMTA are: The elevation of the standards of teaching and performance of music; the advancement of American musical composition; the cultivation of fraternal feeling among its members; the development of public taste for good music; and cooperation with the purpose and projects of the Music Teachers National Association.

MTNA/MMTA MEMBERSHIP $71.00 STUDENT MEMBERSHIP $17.00Send to MTNA, The Carew Tower, 441 Vine St., Suite 505, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-2814

The Missouri Music Teachers Association is a non-profit organization. Subscriptions are included in membership fees and advertising rates. Third class postage paid at Concordia MO 64020. Editorial and circulation address is 29327 Hwy PP, Concordia MO 64020. Phone: 660-463-2359, FAX: 660-463-2359 (Call before transmission), E-mail: cborgstadt@centurytel.net

The MMTA Annual Conference will be held this fall, November 9-12, 2006, on the campus of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. Information for registration, conference motel and schedule of events will be found in this issue of NOTES. Gano Chapel will be the venue for many of the presentations and programs at the conference. For the latest information on the conference and the auditions held in conjunction with the conference always check the MMTA website: www.missourimta.org

MMTA President’s Message. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

President Elect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Vice President for Local Assoc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Minutes of the MMTA Executive Committee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

MMTA Treasurer’s Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Development Chair. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Nominating Committee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

19^th Century Hungary–Romani Music and Nationalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Assessing and Adjudicating Piano Performance: Using Rubrics as a Guide. . . . . . . 10

Missouri Music Teachers Association (MMTA) Invites You . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Missourians Share Spotlight at 2006 MTNA Conference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Conference Personalities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Tentative MMTA Conference Schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Map of William Jewell Campus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Registration Forms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Insert

MMTA Officers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Local Association Officers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Important Dates to Remember. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Index to Advertisers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

First of all, let me take this opportunity to say “bravo” to all of you whom I have watched take an active part in this organization over the last ten years that I have been in the Kansas City area! I truly respect the variety of gifts and talents that each of you contributes to the “ensemble” of our organization!

I am brand-new to this position as editor of NOTES, and have picked this up in “mid-stream,” so I ask for your patience as I learn what I need to do. I hope that all of you are excited about the new format of NOTES! Millie and many others have had a vision that our publication can become a very up-to-date looking journal with features that will better serve the teaching community. I will be in search of articles that can be featured in each issue. I encourage anyone interested to please e-mail me with your ideas for topics.

If we were all determined to play the first violin, we should never have an ensemble; therefore, respect every musician in his proper place.

How do you like the larger version of NOTES? We have worked hard on it, and we hope you like it. Let us know what you think.

At the invitation of Barbara Hamel, our Treasurer, the MMTA Executive Board met for our second annual all-day summer meeting on Friday, June 9, in Fayette, Missouri, on the campus of Central Methodist University, where she teaches. There were ten of us present and our meeting was very productive. Most of our time was spent discussing innovative ways to raise additional funds, and the possibility of streamlining some of our governance structure.

John Carey, an organizational consultant and fund-raiser, spoke to us (gratis) for part of our meeting. He was very informative, and suggested we do two things--develop a Core Base (basically this comprises all our members), and create a concise Mission Statement. We have already begun work on these two goals, and one result is that you will receive a postal mail and/or email notice from Brent Hugh, our Webmaster, for a possible donation to MMTA. Please know that we’re not meaning to insult, offend, or anger you. We’re only experimenting with new and different ways of obtaining financial support for our activities. Executive Committee members have accepted the task of connecting with any number of various possible benefactors—foundations, businesses. corporations, etc. We are aware our membership dues are a substantial sum, so we don’t necessarily expect you to write a big check as a donation—although we wouldn’t want to discourage that possibility. You might know someone or several people who are not members (relatives, friends, students, parents of students), who would be interested in making a tax-deductible contribution to our 501C-3 Association. When you think of someone, please tell Carol Borgstadt, Brent Hugh, me, or anyone else on the Executive Committee about him or her. We will follow up by contacting that person or persons.

There are two immediate needs for which there is no budget per se: our Web Master and Executive Secretary salaries. Although both their salaries for the past year have been covered without debt with funds on hand, we wish to plan more concretely for the future. As you see by the ad in this edition of NOTES, Carol Borgstadt wishes to retire from the post of Executive Secretary by the spring of next year. We anticipate the need for more funding for her position in the future. The Web Master position will continue to grow in importance in the future also. You may notice that our treasury has a cushion of funds in the bank built up over the past several years. There has been reluctance to use up these funds, because in the not-too-distant past, there was a shortage of money with which to operate. If we were to use these funds, they would disappear quickly, and there would be no cushion left. This was specifically discussed at our meeting. If we were to choose to use those funds for basic expenses (such as salaries for the two paid offices), we want to be ready with some alternate sources of revenue besides membership dues and competition fees. Some state associations have large financial provisions donated to them, either for specific events and activities, or for regular conferences, or both. It is an interesting phenomenon to observe, and interesting to compare situations.

Also, we need a solution to the large yearly increase in the Honors Competitions enrollments. The problem is, if we are not careful, we will run out of space and time (hours in the day on Sunday of conference weekend). The result is we would be hard-pressed to accommodate everyone. Short of holding our Conference and Honors Competitions separately, we will need to come up with a way to halt or limit the rising number of enrollees in the Honors Competitions. Your ideas are most welcome. Do not hesitate to tell us.

David Bennett, Pres-elect, is working hard and effectively in making arrangements for our November 2006 conference on the beautiful campus of William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri. You can count on a stimulating conference with novel and fresh approaches.

Liberalism and Nationalism were two words on the lips of every Hungarian middle and upper class society member in the mid to late 19^th Century. The Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849 abolished serfdom, and allowed Hungary to embrace the values of liberty and equality from the French Revolution. The Austro-Hungarian Compromise, signed in 1867, established Franz Josef I as monarch of both Hungary and Austria. Hungary was granted an independent government, ruling local and national affairs. This situation created a new constitutional order, which was controlled by the aristocracy and middle nobility. A new sense of nationalism flourished in Budapest, with rapid growth of varied cultures of Germans, Jews, Hungarians, and Gypsies living in close proximity. Hungarian became the official language spoken over German. Philosophical questions arose about what it truly meant to be Hungarian.

The music also was caught in this new flourish of nationalism. Foreigners entering Budapest were seen as Nationals if they spoke Hungarian fluently. Gypsy bands playing Romani folk music grew very popular. A particular style of “Romani folk song”, called Magyar nota, developed and was performed in the city. Though it claimed itself to be pure Hungarian folk music, this was truly a concoction of the nineteenth century city-dwellers. With so many foreigners living in Budapest, what was termed folk music in the city had truly become exploited – only a shell of its origins. In Budapest, the Gypsy bands often were comprised of Jews, and not Gypsies at all. Foreign composers and upper-class society from Western Europe fell in love with the “exoticism” of this Hungarian National music and returned home to copy it. Franz Liszt presents a good example in his set of Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano. They, as well as other examples of Western Art Music, are simply an imitation and an idealization of what composers thought Hungarian National music sounded like.

Magyar-nota found its way into the rural communities in Hungary. It was taught and sung in oral tradition, as the old style of music was learned. To rural communities, Magyar-nota was simply the “new style” of folk music. It was not until the Twentieth Century that the true nature of Romani, or Gypsy music was uncovered by composers and ethnomusicologists Bela Bartok (1881-1945) and Zoltan Kodaly (1882-1967). Bartok grew up in Hungary and as a youth was an avid Hungarian nationalist. Bartok described in letters and essays that, when the nationalist movement reached him, it drew his attention to studying Hungarian folk music. He later went on to study at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest.

However, it wasn’t long until Bartok saw that ethnic purity and Hungarian music were at seemingly opposite ends. Also, the Gypsies incorporated Magyar nota into their traditional style Verbunkos (traditionally a gypsy song, usually performed under

duress, that gypsies performed and danced to entice young men to join the military), thus confusing pure Hungarian music even further.

Early in the Twentieth Century, Bartok and Kodaly, the son of rural musicians, did the unthinkable. They, along with a large wax cylinder recorder, entered the Hungarian countryside to locate pure Hungarian folk song. Transylvania was one of the areas to which they travelled. The population was comprised of mostly Romanians and Gypsies, the minority being Hungarian. Interestingly, Nationalism in Transylvania – equality before the law, the abolition of servitude, and the equal treatment of all confessions and races – was looked on by the peasants with extreme skepticism, completely unlike their fellow countrymen in Budapest. The countryside was dominated by Hungarian nobles, who were not interested in granting personal liberty or political freedom to peasants. Nationalism was dangerous, as it made the Hungarian nobility aware that Hungarians formed a minority in the country. Their agriculture system still clung to the medieval three field rotation system. The mass of the peasants were still truly serfs by status. The nobles and estate owners tried to improve their position by demanding excessive corvee labor, but the Transylvanian economy had suffered almost beyond repair – the number of craftsmen in Transylvania had declined in the early nineteenth century, and roads and transportation were poor if not impassible in places.
The music that Bartok and Kodaly found surprised them. Instead of highly passionate music, they found practical folk songs sung without much emotion. Peasants learned, sang, and danced this music for various rituals regarding natural cycles, such as harvest or death. The lives of Hungarian peasants was difficult at best, and the ethnomusicologists found themselves collecting music of poverty, hardship, and short life span. Very interesting to note is that Hungarian peasants sang very few lullabies to babies. Because the soil was so hard to work, the babies often fended for themselves in the fields until it was time to nurse. Any songs that women sang to their children were often folk songs about nature, not specific to children. Recording this music was intimidating, and obtrusive, to the lives of the people whose music Bartok and Kodaly were interested in collecting. Imaginably, to have a man enter a rural village, wearing a suit and carrying a large recording device, wanting friends or family to sing a folksong into a microphone, feelings of the absurd and of skepticism must have been the norm. The two musicians, running into such problems, later assigned their students from the Academy, to collect folksongs from their own villages. As the students were known in the village, shyness and skepticism were not as much of a problem.

Not surprisingly, Hungarian and Western European Society wasn’t at all interested in pure Romani music. They preferred listening to the contrived notions of gypsy music that they heard in the operas and other popular musical constructs of the time. Society found the unmetered, tonally challenging music that was ornamented in ways that they were not used to hearing as strident.

Bartok and Kodaly did much to bridge the gap between true Romani folk music and Western European art music in their compositions and contributions to education. Though the collection of this music was an interference to the lives of the peasants, and an annoyance to a society that enjoyed a caricature of its own musical style, collecting this folk music was an essential part of keeping the ethnic colors, so to say, from blending into grey. Without Bartok’s and Kodaly’s collection of folk music, Hungary’s national image would have blended into a Viennese pastry yellow. Thankfully, time and cataloguing of Hungarian folk traditions collected from the two musicologists and their students, have allowed Westerners to differentiate between the pure Romani folk music and that of the Austro-Hungarian construction.

Rebecca Ashe, flutist, earned her Bachelor degree in Applied Music (flute) at the Eastman School of Music, where her principal teacher was Bonita Boyd. She earned her Master of Musical Arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, studying under Mary Posses. In 1998, she was the only American and one of four flutists worldwide to be chosen for Trevor Wye’s prestigious one year course in Kent, England. Other major teachers have included William Bennett and Karl Kraber. She is currently a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She is adjunct professor of Music Theory at Park University, and published music specialist at the Toon Shop in Prairie Village, Kansas.

Assessment and evaluation of performances is part of what we do as piano teachers. Providing feedback and reinforcement of student performance involves weekly lesson evaluations of repertoire that is in various stages of readiness, and more formal preparation for auditions, competitions and recitals. In order to provide more objective criteria for piano teachers, a rubric (see Figure 1) was assembled using adjudication sheets from local piano auditions, in which the criteria for each area and level of evaluation was specifically defined in concrete terms.

The difficulty exists, of course, in the objectifying of criteria for the levels and points by which the overall rating of the performance is determined. Also, if the point system (more on that topic later) for each level is correctly assigned, the resulting rating should be extremely reflective of how the student performed at that given event. Teachers can also utilize rubrics in lesson settings, and adjudicators can prepare for the judging process and more objectively make decisions and comments about the quality of the performance. Figure 1 rubric was designed for use with college piano pedagogy students for the purpose of training them in the adjudication process as well as helping them to effectively evaluate and assess their students on a weekly basis. Adjudicators (and teachers on a weekly basis) should provide specific descriptives of whether and why a given performance was well accomplished and successful, and/or in what areas the performer needs to improve, or could try something new.

The use of an assessment rubric, such as the one provided herein as an example, aids in taking the mystery out of evaluating performances, assessing technical issues, and adjudicating a finished product. No rubric can be an exhaustive reflection of every detail we wish to hear in a performance, but the process of putting to pen and paper the specific goals of performance will better focus both the listener (teacher/judge) and the performer. This system also empowers students to be able to learn to define the elements of successful musical performances on the road to becoming independent pianists.

Missouri Music Teachers Association (MMTA) invites you . . .

to be a sponsor of the redesigned and expanded website www.MissouriMTA.org. We offer music news from Missouri and around the world, information about how to find a music teacher, easy access to our programs and high visibility for our sponsors. Since we began the redesign project of MissouriMTA.org in August of 2005, the number of “hits” on the site has doubled. This growth continues to expand. Special emphasis is being placed on our most popular programs along with developing other “blog” oriented exchanges that offer information for the general public. In addition, these programs help promote the internal development of Missouri Music Teachers Association. All this is being accomplished with a more efficient navigation system and consistently updated information, both against a background design that is colorful and attractive.

Most especially, if you are in the music business, you know the importance of keeping the public, and particularly children, interested in music and learning about music. The music teachers represented by the Missouri Music Teachers Association are of vital importance in making that happen. When we asked our members what was the most important thing MMTA could do to help them in their own studios, their top priority was creating an online presence that really allows our community of teachers and students to communicate and connect. MissouriMTA.org is designed to do just that.

Whatever your business, you know that music education can enhance learning for all students. One on one lessons as well as small group learning provide the most direct and concentrated education for each child or adult.

Please examine our new brochure for additional information about who we are, who we serve, and illustrations about the importance of music in all our lives. If you want to know more about who and what we are, please check our website, www.Missourimta.org.Information about how to sponsor us and/or join us is on MissouriMTA.org. Each sponsor will be displayed on the website with a direct link to their own web page.

Thanks for taking a look at us.

Millie Mehnert, Chair

MMTA Development Committee

Website Sponsorship Levels*

● $1000 gold level

sponsorship & link to sponsor’s site appears near top of every page as web site sponsor

● $500 silver level

two section sponsorship & link to sponsor’s site at top of all pages in 2 sections of web site

● $250 bronze level

section sponsorship & link to sponsor’s site at top of all pages in one section

● $50 rotating listing on every page;

changes every time web page

is loaded

● $25 member

(teacher) sponsor

Bronze, Silver and Gold
Sponsors are also listed on Sponsors Page with a link to sponsor’s site. Check website for choices and benefits at each level of sponsorship. And please keep in mind that when you elect to sponsor us at any level in this endeavor, you are supporting music teaching in Missouri through MMTA.

Website Sponsors to date;

Toon Shop (Bronze)

Luyben Music

Friends of Chamber Music, Kansas City

Jeffrey J. Seitz, violinmaker

MMTA President Elect

Mark your calendar for November 9-12 to be at William Jewell College in Liberty for our annual conference. Make your reservations soon to stay at the Hampton Inn, one of the nicest hotels we have had in several years. The rooms were recently remodeled and there is an indoor pool and Jacuzzi. Many restaurants are in this thriving area northeast of Kansas City . If you have not been to Liberty in several years you are in for many surprises. We are fortunate the faculty of William Jewell have most graciously agreed to host our conference.

The conference has many facets that should appeal to all tastes. On Friday we will have a Jazz Brunch featuring Sons of Brasil with some of the most amazing musicians from the Kansas City area. Log on to stantonkessle.com, click on the picture and find the CD of Sons of Brasil to click on several tracks by this incredible group. Instead of having a single conference artist this year, we are bringing in several excellent musicians who will share their talent with us. Each afternoon will feature a solo recital, one by pianist Gerald Lee and one by guitarist Alexander Tsiboulski. Friday will be the day for a vocal masterclass and Saturday for a piano masterclass.

The facilities of William Jewell College are very beautiful as are the people from the Department of Music. Local chairs Calvin Permenter and Mary Davis are doing a wonderful job of ensuring everything runs smoothly in November. Please not only enter your students in our growing auditions, but take the opportunity to feed your musical soul this fall.

MMTA V-P Local Associations and Student Chapters

Local Association and Student Chapter Luncheon As part of our 2006 MMTA State Conference (November 9 – 12, William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri), our annual Local Association & Student Chapter Luncheon will be held on Saturday, November 11. Please plan to attend. Association presidents and chapter advisors will introduce their local organizations and provide a brief review of their highlights for the year and challenges they may face. In this way we can determine how our state MMTA organization may assist them and remind ourselves why we remain so proud of the excellent MMTA activity ongoing in communities throughout Missouri.

Our MMTA Local Associations are:

· Kansas City Area MTA

· Mid-Missouri MTA

· Northeast Missouri MTA

· Rolla Area MTA

· Southeast Missouri MTA

· Springfield Area MTA

· St. Joseph Area MTA

· St. Louis Area MTA

· Warrensburg Area MTA

We have these Collegiate Chapters:

· Calvary Bible Collegiate Chapter

· Central Missouri State University Collegiate

Chapter

· Mid-Missouri Collegiate Chapter

Registration fees for the MMTA State Conference registration and cost for our Local Association and Student Chapter Luncheon will be waived for college students. However, students must still register via our MMTA website (http://missourimta.org/) or by mail (registration form).

2007-2008 Local Association Matching Grant application forms will be available in November on our MMTA website. Copies will also be distributed to Local Association presidents at the November 9^th MMTA Board Meeting in Liberty, Missouri. Collegiate Chapters may apply for grants to support student members’ attendance at the 2007 MTNA National Convention by writing to the MMTA Vice-President for Local Associations and Student Chapters. Begin planning now for local activity that will benefit your members and for which you can receive support through our MMTA Local Matching Grant program

We will have another strong year, and working together we can get even better. Let’s all help and be supportive of our music teachers’ professional organization and pass our spirit to younger musicians.

MMTA Executive Committee Minutes

The MMTA Executive Committee meeting was called to order by President Cameron Dibble at 10:00 A.M., on June 9, 2006, at the Student Center on the campus of Central Methodist University, Fayette, Missouri. Members present were Immediate Past President Millie Mehnert, President-Elect David Bennett, Vice President Local Associations Eunsil Stevenson, Co-VP Auditions Meredith Taylor, Co-VP Auditions Wei-Han Su, Secretary Ginger Schneider, Treasurer Barb Hamel, Web Master Brent Hugh, and Executive Secretary Carol Borgstadt.

The agenda was approved as printed. The March 12, 2006, minutes were approved as read. The treasurer’s report was accepted as printed.

Funding was denied to a college music student who requested financial assistance to study abroad.

MSP (A motion was made, seconded and passed ) to contribute $100 to "Missouri Citizens for the Arts."

PRESIDENT’S REPORT: Dolores Zupan sent a thank you note for the Foundation Fellowship honor at the 2006 national conference.

Three chairs need to be filled: MMTA Organ, MTNA College Competitions, and the newly combined Composition-commissioned Composer Chair.

Sharon Parker has been appointed VP Publications/Publicity and editor of NOTES. The advertising position, held by Kathy Miller, will once again be separated from the duties of the VP Publications and Publicity.

PRESIDENT-ELECT REPORT: David Bennett presented plans for the 2006 MMTA Conference to be held November 9 -12, at William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri.

VP AUDITIONS REPORT: The board’s policy of allowing no exceptions for state audition scheduling was re-stated. MSP to ensure clear, concise communication, audition chairs will inform the VP Auditions/Judges who will then contact the judges.

VP LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS REPORT: The event for which the St. Louis Area MTA was awarded a grant of $500 has been cancelled and the grant money returned to MMTA.

Calvary Bible College collegiate chapter members did not attend the 2006 national conference and so did not receive the $112.50 that was to be awarded.

The matching grant application for 2007-2008 will be available in November, 2006, on the MMTA website. LA presidents will also receive copies of the form at the November board meeting. Local association presidents will be invited to discuss successes and problems at the local association and student chapter luncheon to be held at the November 2006 Conference. MSP MMTA will waive both the 2006 conference registration fee and the Student Chapter Luncheon fee for collegiate chapter attendees who register by the deadline on the registration form..

WEBMASTER REPORT: MMTA will be placed on the Missouri State Employees Charitable Foundation list.

MSP to authorize printing and postage expenditures incurred by Brent Hugh for a mass mailing to MMTA members, music businesses, and Clavier subscribers. All members are encouraged to visit the chat rooms on the MMTA web site.

NEW BUSINESS:

The position of Executive Secretary will be advertised in NOTES.

Immediate Past President Millie Mehnert introduced grant writer John Carey, Kansas City, who led a discussion concerning organizational development and fund-raising. MSP each executive board member shall send "mission statement" ideas or concepts to Carol Borgstadt no later than June 19, 2006. These ideas will be given to the mission statement committee appointed by President Cameron Dibble: Meredith Taylor, Wei-Han Su, Brent Hugh, and Barb Hamel. The mission statement committee will review all ideas and present a draft of our mission statement at the November 9, 2006, Executive Board meeting for consideration and vote. If the draft is not accepted, the mission statement committee will re-work the statement and present it again in March, 2006.

The next meeting will be held in conjunction with the November 2006 MMTA Conference in Liberty, Missouri.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 P.M.

Additional Hotels for 2006 Conference

Fairfield Inn -800-228-2800

Holiday Inn Express - 816-781-5555

No MMTA Rates Apply

MMTA Treasurer

Greetings from the MMTA Treasury. With another fiscal year ended, all current bills paid, and a small amount of dues already collected, here are our balances as of June 15, 2006:

Checking : $ 5,952.96

Money Market: $ 8,657.51

Cash at Edward Jones $ 1,620.21

Total $16,230.68

We also continue to have $30,000 invested in Certificates of Deposit with Edward Jones. I’ve been busy this summer completing our annual tax return for the IRS, and getting things organized so that I can pass the job of treasurer on in November. It has been a pleasure serving in this office for 3 terms, but I also am looking forward to new challenges as I continue with MMTA in a new office this fall (contingent on your vote, of course!).

The Executive Board members had a great summer meeting at Central Methodist University in June, and accomplished quite a bit of business. A lot of our focus lately seems to be on raising funds, but our guest speaker that day posed the excellent point that we need to know why! I continue to support the belief that we should keep a certain amount of money saved up for a rainy day, and therefore, we have a sizeable amount invested with Edward Jones. We have had good discussions on whether some of that money should be released for expenditures, and I’m sure the debate will continue. One thing we, as your Board, have agreed on is the need to re-examine our mission statement, which affects all activities of the organization, including spending money. I believe I am serving on that committee as well, so let me know your thoughts on our mission statement and which directions you believe MMTA should move in the future.

MMTA Development Chair

Is it time for us to take a new direction? Are we ready to do it?

Our new brochure is out. We now have a new logo. An expanded MMTA website is progressing very well with many, many more hits due in great part to Webmaster Brent Hugh’s inclusion of music articles of interest to people from all across the country. Google picked us up and made us popular.

Another point of interest: our business pages have been receiving many hits recently, between 15 and 20 a day. For those businesses who have joined us as a sponsor, or who might be considering being a sponsor, that’s extremely good news. We now have something of real worth to offer you. And, as our sponsorship solicitation goes, when you support our website on any level of sponsorship, you support music teaching across the state of Missouri.

However, organizational issues are still the main hurdle for the continuing advancement of MMTA into the 21^st Century. As you will have read in the minutes from our all-day MMTA Board meeting on June 9^th, we are working on a Mission Statement. Fund Raiser John Carey advised us this is still step number one for getting any fund raising efforts off the ground for new projects that will enhance our growth. Writing the Statement will be a summer project, with input from all of the board. The final draft will be brought to a vote at our next November meeting.

Step number two is establishing support from within our own ranks of members and businesses. Without that, no outside funding source can take us very seriously. One way that you as members can be influential in helping us grow is to consider becoming a sponsor for the website. We each run a business. We would each like to attract good students. Even though all of our studios are already listed individually, being a sponsor would bring your name to the top on the website, make you more visible and much more likely to attract new students. In addition, if you have your own website, prospective students/parents could click on your name and find the necessary information about your studio. And you will be listed as a contributor to MMTA.

Don’t forget that your $25.00 to become a sponsor is tax deductible because it is a contribution to a non-profit 501©(3) organization. We feel that offering this is a far better plan than raising dues at this point. So, three for one; you get more visibility to attract students, you get a tax deduction, and you get to show support for the organization that supports you. You can find out so much about that support if you check out the website.

There is still much for us to do. As our visiting Fund Raiser also pointed out, our greatest success is also our greatest problem – auditions. Auditions have become so large and so overwhelming to organize that their rank takes precedence over all other business at our meetings. And they continue to grow! The effort to keep them successful consumes most of the energy in MMTA, which leaves almost no room, or time, for us to develop other projects of worth for our members. Great effort has been made during these past three to four years to reconcile all of this. We have established two Vice Presidents and a committee to handle auditions. And we are involving all of you who enter students as monitors. You have helped tremendously!

With this in place, we are beginning to make progress. Our improved communications were listed at the beginning of this article, and do note the changes in NOTES-- pun absolutely intended. It’s bigger, the layout has changed and we really want to print more articles that you will enjoy and learn from. Since we do not have the funding to have it done professionally at this point, it will continue to change as we stretch our part time and volunteer jobs. Right now, this mostly involves our Executive Secretary Carol Borgstadt along with our new editor Sharon Parker. Perhaps in the near future, we will reach a point when, like our website, the newsletter can be done professionally.

Without question, we are growing. It’s the direction of growth we are still trying to determine and contain in ways that will enhance the goals of MMTA. We will do much over the summer to clarify those goals with our Mission Statement. In the meantime, don’t forget to access the website. You’ll like it. There is so much there of interest and help for all members. It’s our biggest new program designed for your benefit.

CONVENTION PERSONALITIES

Pianist Daniel Kirk is pursing a Bachelor of Science degree in Instrumental Music Education at Missouri Western State University. He has conducted the Wind Ensemble and a Monster Piano Ensemble while at MWSU. Currently he teaches sixteen pre-college piano students. Two of his students were chosen to perform on the St. Joseph Area Music Teachers Association Honors Recital in April, 2006. The piano faculty awarded Daniel Kirk the prize for the best performance at the spring piano juries. During the summers of 2004 and 2005 Kirk toured with the Madison Scouts Drum Corps. He is one of the drum majors for the Golden Griffon Marching Band this fall. Daniel Kirk studies piano with David Bennett.

Gerald Lee is Assistant Professor of Piano and Concert Artist Series Chairman at West Liberty State College, West Liberty, West Virginia. He has piano performance degrees, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts from Illinois Wesleyan University, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, respectively. He studied with Lawrence Campbell, Andrew Cooperstock, Reiko Neriki, Logan Skelton, Arthur Greene, and the late Distinguished Professor György Sebök. Gerald was a prizewinner in several competitions including 1^st place in the 2002 National Society of Arts and Letters Piano Competition (Lansing, Michigan), 2^nd place in the 2002 National Finals of the Music Teachers’ National Association Collegiate Artists’ Piano Competition, and 3^rd place in the 2003 International Beethoven Piano Sonata Competition held in Memphis, Tennessee. Lee performs actively as a soloist and chamber musician, recently forming a duo with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra violinist, Jeremy Black. He frequently serves as adjudicator for piano festivals and competitions and is currently 2^nd Vice President for the West Virginia Music Teachers Association. In March of 2005, he was invited by the College Music Society to present a lecture-recital on Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5, Opus 53 at its Mid-Atlantic conference in Morgantown, West Virginia.

Genaro Mendez joined the University of Kansas as assistant professor of voice in 2001. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Nevada, master of music in vocal performance from the University of Illinois, and doctor of musical arts with areas of concentration in both vocal performance and choral conducting for the University of Oregon. As a lyric tenor, Mendez has over 16 years experience performing opera and musical theatre. In addition, he has nine years experience providing instruction in vocal production, acting and musicianship as well as substantial experience as a choral director with professional opera associations, universities, and community groups.Janice Ragland is retired from 29 years of experience in public schools in Missouri She is currently an adjunct voice instructor at Maple Woods Community College and Missouri Western State University. Previously she taught at State Fair Community College and directed the Chamber Singers of Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg. She serves as director of the Northland Community Choir and as Minister of Music at Englewood Baptist Church. Currently she has a private voice studio with numerous students recently named to the Missouri All State Choir, Missouri 7-8 and 9-10 Honors Choirs, SWACDA Honors Choir and the National ACDA Junior High Honors Choir. She directed the MAI Children's Choir and the Kansas City, Kansas All-City Children's Choir. Ragland is active in the MENC and ACDA. She organized the first MCDA Central District Choir and then the first KC MCDA District Choir. She served as President of MMEA Kansas City Dist. #3 and received the National Freedom Foundation Award for her original production "Call Me An American." She is currently the District Director of the KC Metro district for MCDA. In1997-98 she taught at the American International School of Cairo, Egypt. She is a graduate of Central Missouri Sate University with a BME in Vocal Music and a MA in Music History and Literature. She has performed in the Classical Music Seminar in Eisenstadt , Austria and traveled in Europe five times with student choirs. Her choirs were twice selected to perform for MMEA.

Gregory Sioles has been the recipient of numerous honors and awards including an Atwater Kent Grand Prize and a Fulbright Scholarship for study in London. He has performed on three continents at such venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Purcell Room on London's South Bank, Berlin's Amerika Haus, and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China and been a featured artist on National Public Radio. Sioles is active as a soloist with orchestras, most recently the Georgetown and Ohio Valley Symphonies, and as a recitalist. He is also an avid chamber musician who has collaborated with many artists, including Edgar Meyer, Barry Tuckwell, the Guarneri String Quartet, and members of the Baltimore and National Symphonies. Part of the Washington music scene for over a decade, Sioles has performed in many of the city's most important halls from the Kennedy Center and National Gallery of Art, to the Cosmos Club and the Phillips Collection. He has appeared on the Phillips Collection Sunday Concert Series as both recitalist and chamber artist. He also participated in the Smithsonian's celebration of the piano's 300th year, and has given chamber performances at Strathmore Hall, the French Embassy, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Sioles' principal teachers were Gyorgy Sebok, Maria Curcio Diamand, for whom he served as a teaching assistant, Victor Aller, and Aube Tzerko. He holds the Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA and the Master of Music degree from Indiana University. More recently, Sioles has taught on the faculties of the University of Maryland, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Levine School of Music in Washington, D.C.

Since winning the top prize in the 1995 France Piano International Competition in Paris, Richard Steinbach has established himself as an extraordinarily versatile artist whose insightful interpretations of both French and American music have been widely acclaimed. As the festival's grand prizewinner, he performed his solo debut recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris in January, 1996. Since then, Steinbach has performed extensively as both soloist and collaborative artist in concerts throughout the United States, Canada, South America, France, Italy, Great Britain, Japan and the People's Republic of China. In addition to numerous appearances with orchestra, he has collaborated with such prestigious international artists as violinist Charles Castleman, cellist Nathaniel Rosen and flutist Renato Ligutti. Steinbach frequently presents concerts of American music with soprano, Diana Guhin Wooley (see American Celebration Duo) and duo piano programs with pianist/composer, Howard Helvey. Currently a Professor of Music at Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Steinbach holds degrees in piano performance from the University of Colorado-Boulder, the Eastman School of Music-New York, and the Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa. Post-doctoral work includes study with Dominique Merlet, Noel Lee, Roy Howat, Pascal Devoyon, Dorothy Taubman and John Bloomfield. Steinbach has released a compact disc recording of live solo performances, a Piano Duo recording with Howard Helvey and, along with soprano Diana Guhin Wooley, has produced a CD of new American works for voice and piano, "Though Love Be A Day", which was released internationally on the Innova label. ("I cannot heap enough praise on though love be a day." -American Record Guide) CDs available upon request.

The Ukrainian born guitarist Aleksandr Tsiboulski had his first guitar lessons at the age of twelve, shortly after moving to Adelaide, Australia. After studying with Andras Tuske in Adelaide, he completed his undergraduate studies with the renowned Australian player and pedagogue, Timothy Kain and the Argentinean Ernesto Bitetti. He graduated in 2001 from Australian Nnational Uuniversitywith first class honors. Prior to this, he won all the major guitar competitions in Australia. He continued private study with Carlos Bonnell (UK), David Leisner (USA) and Angelo Gilardino (Italy). Tsiboulski is three-time recipient of the Andres Segovia Memorial Scholarship. Performances have taken him all around Australia, as well as to Great Britain, United States, the former Soviet Union, Mexico, Ireland and Canada. He was winner of the 2003 Gisborne International Instrumental Competition in New Zealand and most recently, he was winner of three special prizes at the 2004 Havana International Guitar Competition, and was awarded the prize of 2004 South Australian Young Achiever of the Year in the Arts. He is currently enrolled in a Ph.D., researching the works of the great Mexican composer Manuel Maria Ponce, whose sonatas he will record for the Italian label "Frame" later in the year. Aleksandr is also the 2005 Fulbright Scholar in the Visual and Performing Arts.

Diane Helfers Petrella is currently Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. From 2001-2006 she held a similar position at Oakland University in Rochester, MI. She also served on the faculty of Texas Wesleyan University and taught applied piano and class piano at the University of North Texas and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Petrella received a DMA in Piano Performance from the University of North Texas, an Artist Diploma from Texas Christian University, a MM from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BM, magna cum laude, from Eastern Illinois University. She taught piano to pre-college students and adults in the Texas Christian University Preparatory Program, the Madison School of Music, Wayland Academy and the Eastern Illinois University Preparatory Program. She was on the piano faculty of Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for ten years, serving as chairperson of Blue Lake's piano department from 2000-2002. She has appeared as a soloist with several regional orchestras and is active as a soloist, collaborative pianist, speaker and adjudicator throughout the United States. In 2002, she and Nick Petrella formed the Petrella Ensemble, which is dedicated to commissioning and performing new works for piano and percussion.

Tentative Schedule of Events for

2006 MISSOURI MUSIC TEACHERS ANNUAL CONFERENCE

William Jewell College - Liberty

Thursday, November 9

MTNA Collegiate Piano, Brass and Chamber Music Auditions

1:00-4:00pm Registration

6:00pm Executive Committee Dinner

Yates College Union

7:00pm MMTA Board of Directors Meeting

Yates College Union

Friday, November 10

8:30am-2:30pm Registration

9:00am-4:30pm Exhibits open - Gano Assembly Room

MTNA Collegiate Woodwinds, Voice

MMTA Collegiate Brass, Woodwinds, Voice, Piano, Percussion Auditions

9:00am “Bridging the Gap Between Method Books and Master Repertoire”

Diane Petrella,Clinician

Recital Hall

10:00am “Using Smart Music in the Applied Studio”

Janice Ragland, Clinician

Recital Hall

11:00am Jazz Brunch featuring Sons of Brasil

Yates College Union

Gourmet Quiche Brunch: Jambalaya, Fresh baked Qjiche Lorraine with four types of cheese. Served with assorted muffins and seasonal fresh fruit. Orange juice, coffee, hot tea and water. OR

Health Nut (Vegetarian): Low-fat yogurt mixed with fresh fruit and granola accompanied with assorted petite muffins and bagels with cream cheese. Orange juice, coffee, hot tea and water.

12:30pm General Business Meeting

Commissioned Composition

Quartet for Flute, Cello, Violin and Piano

Hu-Xia-ou, Commissioned Composer from

University of Missouri-Kansas City

Recital Hall

2:00pm “Eking Out a Living as a Free-Lance

Musician”

Stan Kessler and Doug Auwater

from Sons of Brasil, Clinicians

Recital Hall

3:00pm Voice Masterclass

Genaro Mendez, Teacher

Recital Hall

4:30pm

Repertoire Piece-Rating Rubric	Accuracy	Rhythm	Technique	Style/ Interpretation/ Expressive Elements	Articulation Pedal	Memorization	Poise/ Posture
Superior 9-10 points	Notes are precise and incredibly accurate - no mistakes occur	Rhythms are precise – no mistakes occur	Technique reflects a relaxed tone production	Style/Interpretation is very appropriate for the time period of the piece	Phrasings, slurs, staccato, etc. passages are precise. Pedal, if applicable, is well-controlled	Memorization is completely precise. No noticeable mistakes.	Approached the bench with total confidence; stage presence and posture were exemplary
Excellent 7-8 points	Notes are played correctly – any mistakes are not noticeable	Rhythms are correct – any small problems are not noticeable	Technique allows for correct performance, but needs attention	Style/Interpretation used in the performance is without mistakes, but not consistent with time period	Phrasings, slurs, staccato, etc. passages are correct, but a few weak areas exist	Memorization is excellent, but with 1-2 mistakes	Poise was excellent, but 1-2 elements of posture or stage presence (e.g. bow) were slightly problematic
Good 4, 5 or 6 points	Most notes are played correctly	Most rhythms are played correctly	Most technique is functional, but some aspects are incorrect	Most aspects of Style/Interpretation are not correct	Most phrasings, etc. are not executed correctly	Most memory work was accurate, but a few slips occurred	Poise and/or posture needs attention for overall effectiveness to improve
Fair 1, 2 or 3 points	Frequent note inaccuracies occur	Frequent rhythmic inaccuracies occur	Technique displayed is inaccurate	Style/Interpretation is totally inaccurate	Phrasings, etc. and/or pedaling has frequent problems that affect the overall performance	Memorization was poor, or student was not able to finish the performance without the music score	Poise, posture was poor, and student was not at all performance ready