Voting for the 2018 Colorado ASTA State Awards Is Now Open

Voting for the 2018 Lifetime Teacher and Outstanding Teacher of the Year is now open! Click here to learn more about the nominees, and click here to vote. 

Register Now for CMEA 2019 - Early Registration Ends January 2nd

Be sure to join us at CMEA in January 2019 for not only some great workshops and demonstrations by our own state’s professionals, but these phenomenal guest clinicians (pictured from left to right below)!

Mark Wood, Violinist, Educational Advocate, and Composer

Duane Padilla, Punahou School, Honolulu, HI

Jim Palmer, National ASTA Elizabeth A. H. Green Award Recipient, Composer and Conductor

Here is a tentative list of string sessions for the upcoming conference. Exact dates and times are subject to change.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

10:00 - "Make It Real, Part I" (Mark Wood, presenter)

11:00 - Performance, Cherry Creek High School Chamber Orchestra (Jennifer Poole, director)

12:00 - "Orchestral Bowings" (Jim Palmer, presenter)

12:00 - "Make It Real, Part II" (Mark Wood, presenter)

1:00 - "Thumbs Up, Cellists" (Kristen Yeon-Ji Yun & Ka-Wai Yu, presenters)

2:00 - "Creative Jam Skills for Instrumentalists" (Duane Padilla, presenter)

2:00 - "It's All About Tone" (Jim Palmer, presenter)

3:00 - "Healthy Wrists and Hands in String Players" (Dr. Katherine Jetter, presenter)

4:00 - "A Jazz/Rock Approach to Teaching Music Theory in Orchestra" (Rebecca Jonas & Karen Olsen, presenters)

Friday, January 25, 2019

8:00 - Colorado ASTA General Membership Meeting

9:00 - "Artistry, Engagement, and Reinforcement" (Jim Palmer, presenter)

9:00 - "DIY String Repair, Part II" (Eric Trujillo, presenter)

9:00 - "Maximizing Your Microphones" (Rob Stahly, presenter)

10:30 - Performance, Altona Middle School (Jill Fischaber, director)

11:00 - "More Bridges: Fewer Walls" (Dr. Lindsay Fulcher, presenter)

12:00 - "Sympathetic Vibrations" (Bob Kreutz, presenter)

1:00 - "Life After Method Books: Teaching Technique Through Literature" (Leanne Griffey and Michael Schaefer, presenters)

2:15 - Orchestra New Music Reading Session

3:15 - "Creativity and Musicality in the Very Beginning Strings Class" (Dr. Lindsay Fulcher, presenter)

4:15 - University of Denver Symphony Orchestra (Lawrence Golan, director)

Saturday, January 26, 2019

9:00 - Denver School of the Arts Orchestra (Dr. Enrique Lasansky, director)

10:00 - "Mental Health Means More Than a Day Off" (Rebecca Jonas, presenter)

11:00 - Rock Canyon High School Chamber Orchestra (Benjamin Dale, director)

CMEA recently launched an updated website! Visit the new-and-improved CMEA website for more information about the conference and to register early!

Register Now for the 2019 National ASTA Conference - Early Registration Ends December 3rd

National ASTA Conference

National Orchestra Festival

March 6-9, Albuquerque, New Mexico

The 2019 National ASTA Conference is really close by this year! Come hear phenomenal school orchestra performances (EIGHT from Colorado!) and check-out clinics and sessions from nationally renown pedagogues, Colorado's own Wes Kenney who will be presenting a session titled "Classic (Period) Style for Orchestra: What It Is And How To Get It." Mingle with vendors and advocates of music education, and connect face-to-face with other passionate string specialists from around the country. Not to mention some incredible concerts from world-class artists. It’s truly an incredible experience! Register now! www.astastrings.org/NationalConference

Save the Dates for CCAP 2019

The 2019 CASTA Certificate Advancement Program (CCAP) are as follows:

Saturday, April 13 Parker Performing Arts

Saturday, April 13 Durango (tentative)

Saturday, May 4 Front Range Community College, Ft. Collins

Registration information will be posted in January. Questions? Contact Margaret Miller, CCAP chair at: violaco@comcast.net.

Monthly Column From Private Teacher Liaison Philip Ficsor 

This month’s private teacher column is an overview of a practice method I call “practice parts”. Not terribly pithy, but accurate in its description. At its core, a practice part is a rearrangement of passages in a piece of music to reflect similarities and eliminate repetitions. This approach can be applied to pieces in Suzuki book 1 all the way to Bartok Violin Concerto no 2 and everything in between. From a teacher’s perspective, this approach can enable a student to learn a piece of music much more efficiently because who hasn’t had a student who has taken the “beginning-to-end” approach of learning? Two things end up happening: the beginning of a piece is learned best and repeated material is overemphasized by default. And this applies to anyone learning a new piece, be they beginner of professional: we see a forest of notes and rhythms and think “I just need to get through this” so we plow through the music, identifying hard spots either with stars or Xs to remind us where we need to focus on. Practice parts enable us to identify not only what we need to work on but also similarities throughout the music that we can “package” together related passages in our mind, making us more efficient. If this piques your interest, read on and learn how to make practice parts on your own! Direct questions to me at mountainviolinst@gmail.com.

Colorado ASTA is looking to expand our private instructor membership base. Please send the name of a private teacher in your area, along with their email address, to Phil (mountainviolinist@gmail.com). We will reach out to them.

Hosting A Workshop or Recital

Would you and your school or studio be able to host a combined studio recital in the spring? If so, please email Alison Mayes (alisonmayes523@gmail.com) with your location.

Upcoming Events and Important Dates

January 23-26, 2019: CMEA Clinic/Conference

February 7-9, 2019: Colorado All State Orchestra

March 2-5, 2019: Colorado ASTA Large Group Orchestra Festival (Regionals)

March 6-9, 2019: National ASTA Conference (Albuquerque, NM)

April 13, 2019: CCAP Festival (Denver Site)

April 23, 2019: Colorado ASTA Large Group Orchestra Festival (State Level)

May 4, 2019: CCAP Festival (Northern Site)

Thank you to the following businesses for supporting Colorado ASTA!

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 hsmith26@cherrycreekschools.org 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 (hsmith26@cherrycreekschools.org), Colorado ASTA webmaster and newsletter editor, with any questions.