Colorado ASTA Newsletter February 2016 |
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Letter from the President It was so great to see so many CASTA members at this year's CMEA Conference! I hope you enjoyed our Wednesday evening adjudication clinic, the excellent performances by our talented middle school, high school, and university orchestras, and the great sessions presented by our state and national ASTA members. If you missed the conference, check out the website for minutes from our CASTA meeting, handouts from sessions, and the list from our New Music Reading Session. The best part of CMEA is getting together with colleagues, and I'm so grateful to everyone I was able to spend time with. I love getting new ideas, hearing about what is going on in your programs, what your ideas are to improve CASTA, or simply just getting a chance to catch up and connect. This shouldn't be a rare event, and I'm excited that your CASTA Board will be creating more opportunities to get together. The next chance for many of us will be at All State Orchestra in a couple weeks. I'll be there to watch rehearsals and the Saturday afternoon concert, and look forward to seeing you! As we move forward as an organization, we will be reaching out for your feedback. Please let us know how we can serve you. My specific goals as I begin my presidency include increased teacher support through:
*Increased educational opportunities through more clinics and workshops. *Creating a catalog of video resources on our website to include sessions presented at our workshops, and member-submitted videos of teaching tricks and techniques. *Creating a teacher scholarship fund to assist with professional development opportunities. *Creating more opportunities for social networking, and building professional, collegial relationships throughout our organization. *Creating advocacy materials, and collaborating throughout our membership to promote the art of string teaching, and strengthen orchestra programs, private studios, and music programs around the state. Please feel free to contact me with ideas, questions, or concerns. I look forward to serving you.
~ Rebecca Jonas |
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New Colorado ASTA Board Members There are three new Colorado ASTA board members as of January 2016: Alison Mayes, president-elect; Annie Savage, Denver Area Representative; and Rob Stahly, Northern Area Representative. Please help us welcome them! Alison Mayes, President Elect Alison Mayes is very active in the Colorado string education scene. She is currently Director of Orchestras at Grandview High School and Strings Ensemble Music Director for the Longmont Youth Symphony Orchestra. Alison is also High School Camp Director for Camp Con Brio, String Camp of the Rockies (formerly C*ASTA String Camp), and she has previously served as Chair Person for the Colorado High School All State Orchestra. Under her direction, orchestras from Grandview High School have been selected to perform at the National ASTA Conference and at the Colorado Association of School Boards Conference. Annie Savage, Denver Area Representative Annie Savage currently teaches at the FARM School (Folk Art Revival Music School), which she founded, in Lafayette, CO. She is a bluegrass specialist and is highly regarded in the Colorado folk music scene. Annie has also taught orchestra in the public schools. Rob Stahly, Northern Area Representative Rob Stahly is currently Director of Orchestras at Longmont High School, where he teaches three orchestras, music technology, and AP Music Theory. His Chamber Orchestra was recently featured at the 2016 CMEA Conference. |
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From Your New President-Elect Hello Colorado ASTA Members! First, I want to THANK YOU for being given the honor of Outstanding String Teacher for 2015. But even further, I am SO excited to be working with you all and with the Board to better our string teaching, our collegial connections, and the opportunities available for our students over the next several years! As President-Elect, I have some specific goals that I’ll work toward completing during my tenure. I’m sharing these with you, so that you may open your hearts and minds to assist me in these accomplishments. - I will connect with and visit each student chapter of Colorado ASTA at the various colleges and universities in Colorado.
- I will actively recruit members for Colorado ASTA who are string teachers, but who have never used our organization as a valuable resource.
- I will plan AWESOME summer conferences, offering variety, and some very useful and hands-on sessions for our members at the lowest cost possible.
- I will continue to strengthen our connections with National ASTA by communicating frequently with the leadership and participating in the National Conferences.
- I will continue to advocate for our place in the world of music education and as a valuable contingent of the music educators of Colorado. I’d like you to think BIG about some answers to these questions. Please tell me what you think.
What are the challenges facing the modern-day string teacher?
What are some ways that string teachers can utilize their resources in new and interesting ways?
How can ASTA support you in your string teaching? I’d like to echo the statement Rebecca made on Friday at our CMEA meeting…everyone has some very specific strengths as an educator. We want to hear from you! Please consider giving a session at the Summer Conference, and also at CMEA 2017. More information about pre-registration and session proposals coming soon! As for me, I come from a long line of highly effective string teachers - Orchestra Directors, Private Instructors, University String Specialists, and much more. If you’d like to learn more about me and my experience as a musician and teacher, you can check out my website, alisonmayes.com. Also, PLEASE contact me! I’d love to have coffee with any and all of you, to find out more about you and your program and how ASTA and I can help! Have a great day! Musically, Alison Mayes, President-Elect
Colorado ASTA
720-886-6629
AlisonMayes523@gmail.com |
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Recap of CMEA 2016 Thank you for a great CMEA conference! Copies of many conference handouts can be found on the Colorado ASTA website. We'd like to extend a special thank you to our 2016 string headliners Gail Barnes and Jeremy Woolstenhulme and to the award winners and performing groups who were recognized at CMEA. Congratulations to the following teacher award winners: Emily Bowman, Exemplary Teacher Award; Michelle Ewer, Exemplary Teacher Award; Alison Mayes, 2015 Teacher of the Year; and Judy Elgethun, 2015 Lifetime Teacher Award. |
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And congratulations to the following schools, whose orchestras performed at this year's CMEA conference: Cherry Creek High School (Jennifer Poole, director), Fort Collins High School (John Hermanson, director), Longmont High School (Rob Stahly, director), Falcon Creek Middle School (Royce Ehrle, director), Kinard Middle School (Leanne Griffey, director), Colorado State University (Wes Kenney, director), and Fort Lewis College (Katherine Jetter and Brent Williams, directors). There is a lot of great string teaching happening in Colorado, and the 2016 CMEA Conference was an excellent showcase of this. We hope you left CMEA feeling rejuvenated and full of new ideas to try with your students! |
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2016 CCAP Registration Now Open The dates for the 2016 CCAP exams are Saturday, April 23, 2016 at D’Evelyn High School in Lakewood, and Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Front Range Community College in Ft. Collins. There have been some changes in the ASTA handbook, so please be familiar with the requirements. The registration form is posted on the Colorado ASTA website, and the registration deadline is March 25, 2016. CCAP is a great opportunity for private teachers and students in Colorado. Please contact Margaret Miller (violaco@comcast.net) with any questions. |
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2016 Summer Camp Scholarship Application Now Available The 2016 Summer Camp Student Scholarship Application is now available on the Colorado ASTA website. Applications will be due April 1, 2016, and scholarship recipients will be notified by May 1, 2016. Unfortunately, there will be significantly fewer scholarhips this year. Since there was no summer conference in 2015, there was no silent auction. However, the Colorado ASTA board felt it was important to keep the scholarship program going, so we voted to take money out of the general fund to protect this philanthropy. |
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Metropolitan Denver Honors Orchestra MSU Denver will be hosting the inaugural Metropolitan Denver Honors Orchestra (MDHO) on March 4-5, 2016. This is designed to be an event that brings together gifted music students (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) from the greater Denver area. Please visit denverhonorsorchestra.com for more information, including application instructions (the audition deadline is Feburary 22, 2016). IMPORTANT NOTE: Teachers may also send recommendations for students, waiving the audition requirement. These should be students capable of playing upper grade level 4 string repertoire and full orchestral literature comparable to the Dvorak New World Symphony. There is no fee to apply for the MDHO. Once accepted the cost to participate is $50, which covers lunch for both days, music, and a video recording of the performance. MSU Denver has limited funds for need-based scholarships—teachers should reach out to Brandon Matthews (bmatthe8@msudenver.edu) to identify deserving students and help them apply for funding. |
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CASTA Large Group Festival Full Thank you to everyone who registered for the 2016 CASTA Large Group Festival! Registration for this event is now closed, since the festival is completely full. We are hoping to add a second day to the festival in 2017, due to the large number of orchestras currently on the waiting list. However, in the meantime, we hope you will consider taking your orchestra to one of the other great large group festivals Colorado has to offer. |
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January Board Meeting Recap The January Colorado ASTA board meeting was focused on finalizing details for the 2016 CMEA conference. We also discussed registration for CCAP and the Large Group Festival and brainstormed ways to get the newsletter to a larger percentage of the membership. We voted to allocate some money from the general fund for summer scholarships and to welcome Annie Savage to the board as the new Denver Area Representative. |
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2016 National ASTA Conference Approaching The 2016 National ASTA Conference will be held in Tampa Bay, Florida on March 2-5, 2016. Additional information and registration instructions can be found on the national ASTA website. Orchestras from Denver School of the Arts (Enrique Lasansky, director) and Legacy High School (Aaron Carpenter, director) will be performing at the National Orchestra Festival associated with this conference. We hope to see many Colorado folks in attendance! |
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Do you have an article, announcement, or other information you'd like to share with the Colorado ASTA membership? If so, we'd love to include it in our monthly newsletter! Please send your newsletter submissions to coloradoastawebmaster@gmail.com by the 20th of each month, and we will be sure to add them the next newsletter, which is published at the beginning of each month. Contact Hannah Smith (coloradoastawebmaster@gmail.com), Colorado ASTA webmaster and newsletter editor, with any questions. |
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