PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear NYSMTA Colleagues,

Through viewing social media, I know that many of you have spent the past week not only converting your music teaching to an online format, but also supporting one another, sharing your experiences, knowledge and resources. Some of you have shared your music making, in the vein of Yo-Yo Ma’s “Song of Comfort” project, while others have posted instructional videos. I am awed by the generosity and unanimity of purpose you, our music professionals, have displayed during this time when slowing the spread of COVID-19 has necessitated abrupt and dramatic changes in our daily lives.
 

In this optimistic spirit of adaptability and belief in the value of music and music instruction, we are excited to share information about our 2020 NYSMTA Conference and Competitions scheduled for Friday (Competitions) and Saturday (Conference), October 16-17 at SUNY Schenectady County Community College. We hope you will mark your calendars and plan to attend, as this Conference is truly yours. Conference VPs Christine Johannsen and Bernadette Kessler have responded to your input, selecting as our conference artist someone enthusiastically proposed during our 2019 Competition Day/Mini Pedagogy Symposium, and ensuring that your most popular choices from our Conference Topic Survey are included within the Conference lineup: technique, repertoire, lightning talks and generational perspectives on music teaching.
 

In this Informational Topic Memo you will learn more about the ongoing 2020 Conference plans and how you can contribute by submitting a proposal for a lightning talk, a poster display, and topics for the generational perspectives pedagogy panel. NYSMTA is your organization, and I thank you for your participation and contributions that help NYSMTA serve you and your communities. The work we do together through music is always valuable, but perhaps it has never been more important than now.
 

Sincerely,
 

Beverly Smoker
NYSMTA President

NYSMTA 2020 CONFERENCE and COMPETITIONS

SCHENECTADY COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Competitions: Friday, October 16; Conference: Saturday, October 17

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Responding to member recommendations, Conference VPs Christine Johannsen and Bernadette Kessler are pleased to announce pianist-composer Jeremy Siskind as our 2020 conference clinician. Quoting from Mr. Siskind’s website, “Since making his professional debut juxtaposing Debussy’s Etudes with jazz standards at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Siskind has established himself as one of the nation’s most innovative and virtuosic modern pianists.” He is also a well-known versatile educator, with many publications currently available. His topics for our Conference will be wide ranging: incorporating creativity in every lesson, Abby Whiteside exercises and techniques, the compositional and improvisational techniques of translating a scale into a melody, improvisation workshop and masterclass for students, and a concert in which Mr. Siskind will perform his recently-published Perpetual Motion Etudes in addition to his own improvisations.  

Along with Mr. Siskind’s offerings will be a reprise of last year’s very successful and popular Lightning Talks, details just below. The Lecture Forum presentation will offer a clearly structured approach to incorporating intermediate piano literature into the lesson curriculum. The Pedagogy Panel will present three teachers, each of whom will offer a unique perspective from his or her individual vantage point within a lifetime of teaching (details below). 2020 NYSMTA/MTNA Commissioned Composer, Philip Wharton, will present the premiere performance of his new trio for piano, violin and clarinet. There will be a variety of Poster Displays, and the Conference Lunch and General Membership Meeting. Further details regarding the 2020 NYSMTA Conference will be forthcoming throughout the spring and summer, including a printed newsletter with all complete information, mailed mid-summer. Grateful thanks are offered to our members for their participation and contributions to the planning of this Conference. 

CALL FOR LIGHTNING TALK AND POSTER DISPLAY PROPOSALS

Following up the success of last year’s Mini-Pedagogy Symposium, a session of Lightning Talks will be featured at this year’s Conference. These brief oral presentations, exactly five minutes in length, offer an opportunity to all members to share their own observations about any number of relevant and engaging pedagogy topics. Possible topics could be as varied as a reminiscence of one’s thoughts after a particularly great lesson (given or taken) or after a particularly productive practice session, or the recollection of a meaningful conversation with someone, along with any number of specific topics of historical or practical pedagogical interest. Of timely interest and concern could be a sharing of one’s experiences and insights as they relate to the impact of the current health crisis on the music teaching profession. Visual elements, such as power point or slides or a short video, can certainly augment one’s talk. Every one of us in our profession carries a library of experience and insight, from which a short few “pages” could be a wonderful gift to share with colleagues.

Any questions concerning the Lightning Talks can be sent to either Dr. Jacob Ertl  or Dr. Leonidas Lagrimas.  

Poster Displays will be a feature of this year’s conference as well. These offer an opportunity for those who may not wish to speak before a group, and are interested in creating a purely visual presentation which can be read and absorbed at one’ own pace. Certainly there would be the chance to pursue a topic with some greater depth and details than would available in a Lightning Talk. This could be a particularly good opportunity for our collegiate members. Posters generally fall into two principal types: pedagogy/best practice types and research-based. The posters themselves should be large enough to be seen from a distance. The use of photos, charts and diagrams, or music scores surely enhance such a presentation.

Proposals for, and questions regarding, poster displays would be submitted to Drs. Ertl and Lagrimas at the link above. They should contain a 50-word abstract, a short biography of similar length, along with a computer generated sample in PDF of JPEG format. 

CALL FOR PEDAGOGY DISCUSSION TOPIC SUGGESTIONS

One of the Conference presentations will be a fascinating Pedagogy Panel discussion based upon three different generational perspectives. Various topics or scenarios will be put forward to three teachers who will offer unique responses or solutions determined by how long they have been encountering and resolving such issues. The goal here will be to offer a variety of teaching techniques and approaches used by different generations of music teachers, from dealing with them recently for the first time, to having a set routine and determination firmly in place, and finally to eventual insights which have come from having handled the same challenges over many decades. We would like to ask members to suggest the specific topics, questions, teaching situations, etc. which would be the foundation of these discussions.

Please send your suggestions, along with any questions, to Gary Fisher. They should be fairly succinct and direct, and focused on issues relevant to a broad range of teachers. Lively audience interaction is sure to ensue from this panel discussion! 

NYSMTA AND MTNA COMPETITIONS

NYSMTA is proud to offer two excellent State-wide Competitive Events. Whether your students are seeking to motivate and challenge themselves toward higher personal achievement, or are looking to gain public recognition and professional advancement, our organization can provide these valuable opportunities for them.

As an affiliate of the Music Teachers National Association, NYSMTA sponsors the state level of MTNA’s annual nation-wide series of competitions. Successful participants move on to Eastern Division (performances submitted electronically), and then to the National competitions which take place in different locations around the country. Performance and composition competitions are organized into age-related levels, and are open to voice and most instruments, along with chamber music. Students of non-MTNA members are able to compete in these events along with those of members. All relevant information regarding the MTNA competitions can be found at mtna.org.

NYSMTA is proud to sponsor the Heddy Kilian Empire State Competitions for students of its members as well as those of non-members. This is a comprehensive group of competitions on all instruments and voice, for the young student on through collegiate level, and is open to New York State residents or resident students attending a school in this state. A recent combination of what originally had been two separate events, the HKESC strives to encourage a broad participation of accomplished students from the entire state. The generous support of the Kilian family makes the high school piano element of this event possible, in addition to many other named prizes sponsored by our organization. Information about the HKESC is sent out to NYSMTA members in late winter. We will also invite non-member teachers across the state to consider this for their students. Online information is available  at nysmta.org.

Both the MTNA and the HKESC events will be taking place this year at SUNY Schenectady County Community College on Friday, October 16, 2020. Questions regarding either competition may be forwarded to NYSMTA Competition Vice-President, Dr. Tracy Lipke-Perry. We encourage our members to spread the word about these competitions to their non-member colleagues across the state.