MONTHLY STUDENT RECITALS
You may register students for recitals by email or mail. If you register by email, please include student's name, age, the level of the piece, the complete names of the piece, the last name of the composer and the length of each piece. For those who are entering more than one student, you must also give the recital chair the total time your students will be playing.
If you register by postal mail, please use the MTAC-Marin Branch Student Recital Registration Form available under BRANCH ACTIVITIES on the branch website.
Teachers may not exceed a total of 10 minutes and 7 students, except for the Teen Recital and students who will be competing in the Margaret Bean Davis Music Competition.
Each program chair has complete discretion regarding programming, acceptance of late entrants, timing, etc.
Date: DECEMBER 16th
Time: 3:00 PM
Place: JB Piano, 540 Irwin Street, San Rafael
Deadline to submit students: December 10th
Fee; $5.00 per student payable in advance. Make checks out to MTAC.
Chair: Cheryl Ziedrich – 459-7953 – cziedrich@aol.com
Date: JANUARY 13th
Time: 3:00 PM
Place: JB Piano, 540 Irwin Street, San Rafael
Deadline to submit students: January 7th
Fee; $5.00 per student payable in advance. Make checks out to MTAC.
Chair: Kuei-Ling Pomerleau - 455-0814 – klpomerleau@comcast.net
PIANO MASTER CLASS WITH DEBORAH CLASQUIN
Temporarily on hold – watch your January newsletter
and/or email for updates.
Date: JANUARY 27th
Time: 2:00 PM
Place: JB Piano, 540 Irwin Street, San Rafael
Deadline to submit students: January 17th
Fee; $15.00 per student payable in advance. Make checks out to MTAC.
Chair: Christina Bradley – 302-0396 – musicamarin@pacbell.net
CERTIFICATE OF MERIT
ATTENTION: All teachers who have students in CM.
If you have ANY questions or need help with passwords, repertoire selection, the new syllabus, etc., contact our own CM chair, Helen Konowitz by email at helenkonow@aol.com
The Certificate of Merit 2007 Technical Requirements for Piano supplementary sheets are currently available for purchase from the State Office. Use the order form in the back of your most recent edition of Music Teacher magazine or call the State Office at 800-834-3340 to place an order. This is a valuable, time saving tool that shows, level-by-level, all the technical requirements for the CM evaluations.
REMINDER: On January 2nd you will be able to start entering student repertoire and branch honor information online at http://www.mtac.org
More on this later.
COMPOSERS TODAY & IMPROVISATION WORKSHOP
We all have students who just can’t seem to play the scales or a piece without somehow changing them. Some of us even are fortunate enough to teach students who make up their own music. Next April, the Marin Branch will sponsor a Composers Today & Improvisation Recital (date & location TBA). This is strictly limited to those students who have written their own pieces or who improvise. The pieces can be works in progress, finished compositions, nifty take-offs on a pop tune, etc. Original compositions do not need to be written down for this recital. We encourage ensembles as well, although groups with large electronic set-ups might have some issues. So here’s a chance for that bright, gifted student composer or improviser – of any age or level - to shine.
In addition to our own local efforts, the state MTAC offers the Composers Today program and the Improvisation program.
If you are interested in either of these state programs, contact their respective chairs for more information about applications, deadlines, etc.
COMPOSERS TODAY – Christina Bradley – musicamarin@pacbell.net
IMPROVISATION – Joey Edelman – joey@edelmansound.com
MARGARET BEAN DAVIS MEMORIAL
MUSIC COMPETITION
FROM CAROL LARUSSO, Chairman, Margaret B. Davis Memorial Music Competition,steinwaylit@aol.com or 892-8815.
This is a reminder about our annual Competition to be held next year on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley.
The updated Forms and Rule shave been posted on our branch website and are available for downloading and printing.
For new members, and those of you who have never entered a student in this Competition, it is a great opportunity for your best students to take part in a valuable musical experience. We hope you will read about the Competition, see what it's all about and feel free call me for further information or if you have any questions..
Bear in mind we do require pianists who plan to enter the Competition to play in a Monthly Student Recital prior to the competition. Dates of the various monthly recitals are listed in our annual Calendar and in the monthly Newsletter. Non-keyboard entrants are not required to play in a monthly recital.
VOLUNTEEERS NEEDED TO CHAIR
BRANCH RECITALS
Vice President Paul Agricola, who is in charge of finding teachers willing to chair our recital events, has indicated that he still needs volunteers for the 2008 monthly recitals. Paul can be reached at 383-2027 or at pagricola@hotmail.com
PROGRAMS! PROGRAMS!
ASCAP WANTS YOUR PROGRAMS!
Per their agreement with MTAC, ASCAP requires us to send them copies of all our programs so that royalty payments may be extended to the composers and publishers. All you have to do is save a program from your fabulous student recitals, awesome teacher recitals, inspired master classes, brilliant workshops, etc. and mail it to:
Marie Carbone
150 Buchanan Court
Sausalito, CA 94965
THE TEACHER’S CORNER
Helpful hints, tips and teaching tricks from your Marin County colleagues.
We’d love to have your ideas for our next Newsletter.
Simply send them to me at musicamarin@pacbell.net
From Karen Rogers:
1. Did you know that there is such a thing as removable HIGHLIGHTER TAPE? This allows you to highlight and then – when you no longer need it – pull it off without damaging the book or music. It is available online at The Avid Aviator at http://www.avidaviator.com/tape.html
2. Check out this resource for music teachers courtesy of Colorado State University. It is called Pno-Ped-L and is a public, unmoderated mailing list devoted to discussion of issues in the field of Piano Pedagogy. Any topic of concern in the field of piano teaching from A to Z would be appropriate and welcomed on this list. Topics such as teaching methods and materials, repertoire and technical exercises, both in general or at specific levels (beginning through advanced), learning styles, educational philosophies, even studio policies and procedures would be welcomed on Pno-Ped-L. Discussion of the history of piano pedagogy, various schools of piano playing, famous pedagogues of the past and present would be highly appropriate. Ideas, announcements and information of a non-commercial nature which would be of concern to those interested in the field of piano pedagogy would be most welcomed
From Chris Bradley:
You Tube is a gold mine of videotapes of musical performances. People have uploaded thousands of musical items from amateur piano playing to wonderful archival footage of performances by the musical greats of yesteryear. Many teachers and/or parents have uuploaded videos of young students playing familiar pieces. There is a lot of bad playing (which can also be instructive for a student) but , among those, there is a wealth of terrific musical artistry and even some prodigies that will take your breath away!
Go to http://www.youtube.com and enter in the title of a piece, a composer’s name or a performer and in a few seconds their search engine will return the results. Have fun!
2. Did you know that the damper pedal stops the sound of the piano before actually coming to a full state of rest (inertia)? Here’s a neat trick I use to help my students to pedal more sensitively and to train them not to release the pedal so fast it “thunks” like a drum.
Step 1: Play a chord, moderately loud to loud.
Step 2: Depress the damper pedal.
Step 3: Release the chord
Step 4: Very, very slowly release the pedal until the sound just stops. The pedal should not be fully off.
Step 5: Release the pedal the rest of way to full inert position.
I then tell my students to go home and reduplicate the exercise on their own piano. This is because no two pianos are exactly the same and no two pedals clear the sound at exactly the same point. This exercise is also a fast way for students to assess the pedal on a piano they might not have played before.
UPCOMING EVENTS
December 16th
Singers Marin, founded by Jan Pedersen Schiff, presents its Winter Celebration at 4:00 PM at the Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium. For more information go to their website at http://www.singersmarin.org or order your tickets from the Marin Center Box Office 415-499-6800 or Ticketmaster 415-421-8497
January 27th
Concerts Grand presents William Wellborn in Concert
3:00 PM at the Newman Auditorium at Santa Rosa Junior College
Tickets are $17 general, $15 senior/student. Order by phone 707-526-2447 or on the web at www.concertsgrand.com
He will play Mozart’s B-Flat Sonata, K. 333, and Beethoven’s titanic final Sonata in C Minor, Op. 111. Professor Wellborn has also programmed Chopin’s epic F-Minor Ballade, three Albeniz pieces, and two Liszt works – the dramatic Sonetto Del Petrarca No. 123 and a tuneful concert paraphrase on Verdi’s Opera "Rigoletto".
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Special Plea for Help from the Organizers of the Carmel Bach Festival
Each year the Carmel Bach Festival engages over ninety professional musicians from around the world to live and work in Carmel as a resident ensemble. These exceptional artists present over 120 events in a five-week period, performing on both historic and modern instruments. In 2008 the Festival will feature major works by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart and Haydn.
As you can imagine, travel and housing costs are a major expense of the Festival, accounting for over $262,000 or 13% of our total budget.
There are several ways you can assist the Festival in a big way with little effort:
1. Airline miles - Extra airline miles in your account can be used to book musicians' roundtrip flights into and out of Monterey. Delta, United and American Airlines all have routes that fly into Monterey. For example, 25,000 miles on United Airlines will enable a musician to fly from JFK to MRY at a cost of $10 for fees and taxes.
2. Housing - Each year the Festival secures over 50 houses for the musicians. In 2008, the musicians arrive on July 7 and leave on August 10. If you are willing to consider any of the following scenarios, the Festival would be interested in exploring the possibilities and parameters with you:
a. You have a separate cottage/studio with kitchen and bath (commonly referred to as an "in-law unit") and are willing to donate its use to a musician (or accept reduced rent) for the above period of time
b. You are planning to be out of the area and would be willing to have a musician "house-sit" during the Festival or would consider renting your house to the Festival.
c. You know of someone else who fits into the above categories.
If you are in a position to assist the Festival in 2008, please contact Elizabeth Pasquinelli at 831-624-1521, ext. 14 or via e-mail, Elizabeth@bachfestival.org.
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT ITEMS FOR
THE NEXT NEWSLETTER
December 26th
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