VMTA Fall Newsletter 2022

Fall

Newsletter

October 3, 2022

President’s Message

The Value of Performance

For many years, I’ve been in awe at how much a person can learn through performance – both her own and that of another.

As teachers, we spend most of our time instructing students in lessons and masterclasses. During the week, the students diligently work on their assignments and come back to the next lesson having made (we hope) some progress on the goal of improving their craft, and we build from there. This, of course, is the foundation of music instruction. Over time, this process has adapted and evolved. For example, the famous Paris Conservatory Flute Pedagogy program of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries utilized no private lessons. Instead, the students attended daily classes in which they performed for each other, a variation of the very successful masterclass format that we all know today. Most of the influential flutists of that time came through that system.

Performance is a test, a point in time when the musician must commit to demonstrating what he or she can do in real time. The students must integrate all of their habits, knowledge, remembered instruction, and confidence – and then perform. In those situations, I have occasionally seen a momentary sign of joy, a spark of internal exhilaration as the student realizes that they really played well. This special type of learning is invaluable, and one that they will long remember.

I hope that all VMTA teachers will take advantage of the upcoming masterclass and performing opportunities and see for yourselves the value of performance. And don’t forget the MTNA e-festival. You’ll find more information on the programs elsewhere in this newsletter.

Do you have a friend or colleague who would be interested in attending the VMTA state conference on October 22? If you bring that person along, both of you can attend for half price!

I hope to see you all there!

-Laurel Ann Maurer

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2022

VMTA Calendar

October 22

VMTA Fall Conference

Richmond Library

November 13

Fall Ensemble Festival

Richmond Library

March 25, 2023

Spring Festival

Trinity Baptist, Williston

Fall Ensemble Festival

November 13, 2022

Do you remember the first Fall Ensemble Festival in 2019 and the second just last fall? VMTA is again

offering this performance opportunity for students. Pianists are often asked to accompany singers or

instrumentalists. Collaboration between musicians is both fun and educational opening up a new

dimension in music making. The next Fall Ensemble Festival is scheduled for November 13. 2022 (late afternoon) at the Richmond Library. The Ensemble Festival is a great way to build skills for

accompanying. Friends and family members of a student who studies with a VMTA member are invited to join in.

Chamber music, solo instrumentalists accompanied by students, piano duets, and piano trios are examples of music to be performed at the Festival. Memorization for this concert is not required.

Teachers may enter 15 minutes of music for the performance and may add more if time allows. A fee of $5 per student or $10 per family will be charged. The VMTA Board is excited to continue this new venture. Students who participated previously enjoyed the challenge of a different experience. No memorizing and group participation make this more enjoyable for students.. If you have students interested in performing, please contact Marie Johnson at 879-8863 or mdjkiln@gmail.com.

VMTA Board Members

President:

Laurel Maurer

802-881-9153

laurelflutemaurer@yahoo.com

Immediate Past President:

Marie Johnson

802-879-8863

President-Elect:

TBD

Secretary:

TBD

Treasurer:

Sarah Williams

802-223-5307

sarah5432@gmail.com

Conference Chair:

Patty Bergeron (interim)

802-878-9873

pcberg86@gmail.com

Non-Competitive Auditions:

Lilly C. Ramsey

802-879-7425

cldkramsey@comcast.net

Competitive Auditions:

Linda Buermeyer

802-439-6469

lindux@tops-tele.com

Certification:

TBD

Newsletter:

Jina Smith

802-318-1776

jws682@gmail.com

Membership:

Patricia Cleary Bergeron

802-878-9873

pcberg86@gmail.com

Web Publicist:

Sarah Williams &

Patty Bergeron

Composer Commissioning:

Michael Sitton

802-839-8336

michael.sitton1@gmail.com

A Message to all members from the Membership Chair...

Please visit the VMTA website to recheck your listing, and let Patty Bergeron (pcberg86@gmail.com) know if you have any changes. Also, the "Find A Teacher" portion of the website will soon be updated. If you’d like to remain on the list, or join the list, please let Sarah Williams (sarah5432@gmail.com) know by November 1.

VMTA Fall Conference:

October 22, Richmond Library

The VMTA Fall Conference returns as an in-person event on

Saturday, October 22, at the Richmond Free Library.

The conference will showcase two wonderful guest presenters and a master class.

Please note: The VMTA board decided at the last meeting to encourage attendance at the upcoming conference on October 22. If a member brings a non-member to the conference, BOTH will be given a discount and attend the conference for ½ price.

During the General Membership Meeting portion of our day, a few printed copies of the latest financial reports as well as the proposed budget will be available for discussion of those agenda items. These pages are also available on request, by contacting Sarah Williams at sarah5432@gmail.com.

Click here to register

Dr. Kathryn Sherman NCTM, whom some of you have seen in virtual MTNA presentations already, has agreed to present a workshop and offer a masterclass. Dr. Sherman directs the piano pedagogy programs at The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam and has presented workshops, performances, and masterclasses nationwide. Her workshop, “Building a Bridge: Curriculum Development Through the Elementary Levels,” will open the conference at 10 AM, and will be followed by a masterclass. Details about how to submit student participants for the masterclass will be announced later.

Abby Halpin, physical therapist and performance coach for musicians of all kinds, will present a workshop that will be helpful to all teachers and performers. She has recently relocated to Vermont and we are thrilled to be able to include her valuable presentation in our conference. She has shared her work with musicians and teachers in many presentations/demonstrations, and will be presenting a workshop this summer for the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Abby is a former student of our own Patty Bergeron. Her physical therapy practice, Forte Performance & Physical Therapy, serves musicians in Vermont and nationwide via virtual and at-home sessions. You can find more information about Abby at www.forteperformancept.com and on Instagram at @forteperformancept.

Abby is still finalizing specific topics to cover in her workshop, and is considering various topics based on feedback from teachers she has worked with: Shoulder Tension: reducing tension for unencumbered playing; Posture Myths: avoiding posture pitfalls; and Warm-Ups: using movement to maximize performance and reducing discomfort. She invites VMTA teachers to help her finalize the workshop; if you find any of these topics especially appealing, or if you have another movement-related topic to suggest, please send your comments to Patty Bergeron (pcberg86@gmail.com) and she will share them with Abby.

A note from your friendly physical therapist…

As a musician, how have you been taught to sit? Many musicians learn to sit on the edge of their chairs, lift their chests and pull their shoulders back. This position is great for communicating that they are ready to start or are alert and engaged. It’s not wrong to sit like that. But the problem is that many students sit that way all the time. Static postures cause the same joints and body parts to bear the same load for long periods, resulting in fatigue and potential injuries, such as back pain or hands that tingle or fall asleep while they practice. It also keeps musicians from moving as they play, which can hinder their connection with the music or audience.

Here are some posture cues to try with your students that allow for dynamic body positions:

Feel your sit bones on your chair.
Feel your feet on the floor.
Lightly float the crown of your head.

They don’t have to use all three cues; there may be one that your student likes the best. If they feel those things, they are likely alert and ready. And they aren’t locked up in the “right” posture all the time, keeping them healthy and connected to their music.

I’m looking forward to further discussion about this at the VTMA conference.

If you have any questions or topics you’d like to hear more about, please contact me at abby@forteperformancept.com.

Be well,

Abby Halpin, DPT

Noteflight Learn

Online Tools for Teaching and Learning

VMTA subscribes to online music notation software that can inspire and liberate you and your students.

Noteflight Learn is an online system for teachers to develop lesson content for composition, theory, and

performance, for example, and for students to explore composing, sharing, and collaborating as part of

their music study.

The Noteflight Learn program includes these standard features:

 Accessible on any device

 A private community for secure communication and collaboration

 Unlimited groups for organizing classes and ensembles

 Activity templates for assignments

 Perform mode for listening to and performing along with selected parts of a score

 Discussion and assignment forums for communication and assessment

 Record live audio into scores

 Fully compliant with COPPA

The current VMTA NoteflightLearn site includes Content libraries for various Ensembles, Teaching

Collections for Composition, Solos, Sight-Reading, Pop, Chorales, Piano, and Guitar, as well as the “Essential Elements” collections for Band and Orchestra. There is access to thousands of digital scores of the most popular repertoire from today’s publishers of teaching material. Students can choose to participate in Online Mentoring, working with professional composers to

improve their compositions. This fee-based feature can include performance opportunities.

As part of your VMTA membership, you and your enrolled students have access to the program from home, school, your studio, the public library – anywhere and anytime. As a registered user, the version of Noteflight you receive is their “premium” editor, a $49 yearly subscription value if purchased

individually. You and your students can complete lesson templates or create unlimited, brand-new compositions. You can edit, playback, print, share, record, and export as audio or other file formats.

Look for details and resources at the following links:

Noteflight Learn

Links for Noteflight Learn Tutuorials

Noteflight Learn Webinars

Contact Sarah Williams or complete and send the Enrollment Form on the VMTA website page for

Join us on Facebook! Please check out the latest VMTA programs and news on the Vermont Music Teachers Association Facebook page!”

click here

Is your newsletter getting "lost" in your spam folder? You can fix that by following these helpful hints:

If yours is a GMAIL email address and this newsletter doesn’t arrive in your primary INBOX, you can adjust your Gmail settings by following the steps shown here under “Create a filter” - or contact Sarah Williams for assistance.

VMTA is always looking for new Sponsors or Donors. Anyone who cares about music education can be a Sponsor or Donor. VMTA has publicity brochures and postcards and business cards that provide contact information for prospective supporters. They are designed for distribution to students and their families, and to the public, and are suitable for display in your studio, at your recitals, or at your favorite willing public location. If you or your student families would like to help find new Sponsors or Donors by distributing these items, please ask Sarah Williams to send you a supply of the latest designs. Image files are also available on request. Suggestions for new designs are welcome. Meanwhile, these are the links for becoming a Sponsor or making a Donation.

BBVMTA NEWS

(Burlington Branch of the Vermont Music Teacher's Association)

Annual Potluck Luncheon Meeting

It was a joy to host the annual BBVMTA potluck meeting and luncheon on Friday, September 9, 2022. Puffy white clouds, sunshine and a gentle breeze provided a perfect setting in my backyard. After becoming acquainted with three new members, Patty Bergeron, acting president, led a lively general meeting concerning the upcoming BBVMTA recitals and the January Monster Concert. Copies of the Monster Concert songs were available for review. Your students will want to take advantage of these programs. This next year promises to be an active year filled with in-person opportunities for students. Perhaps you know a music teacher who is not a member whose students would benefit from these programs. Please send Patty their names and contact information so Patty can reach out to them.

-Marie Johnson

CONSIDER BECOMING

A PART OF THE VMTA BOARD!

Volunteers are needed to serve on the VMTA board! We currently need to fill the following positions:

President-Elect, Secretary, Conference Chair, and Certification chair.

Come and join our wonderful group of board members and see how your organization works!

SPRING FESTIVAL 2023

The tentative date for the VMTA to hold its annual Spring Festival is Saturday, March 25th, 2023 at Trinity Baptist Church and School in Williston. The deadline for registration is Friday evening, February 24th at 6 p.m.

If you would like to register students, please email Lilly Ramsey, Festival Chair, at cldkramsey@comcast.net.

-Lilly Ramsey

Just a reminder to check out MTNA eFestival opportunities!

For more information,

Click Here

Member News

"Where words fail, music speaks."

-Hans Christian Andersen

Ed Darling, who lives and teaches in So Burlington, has written a short tribute for his late piano teacher, Elvina Pearce. It will be included in the autumn issue of "Piano Magazine." Ed studied with Elvina at Westminster Choir College, 1958-60, and at The New School for Music Study, 1960-62. His interview of Elvina was printed in the May 2017 issue of "Piano Magazine."

Wendy Bell is a pianist, vocalist, choral conductor and actor. She has recently retired from a thirty-one

year career as a public school music educator—teaching hundreds of students in grades K-12. She has

degrees in Music Education, Jazz and Contemporary Music Performance, and Arts Education. She enjoys

travel and has studied arts and culture as a Fulbright Scholar in Brazil and Fulbright Memorial Fund

Recipient in Japan. She performs as a Jazz vocalist and has participated in master classes and Jazz

intensives with a variety of accomplished Jazz artists including Sheila Jordan. She recently studied

contemporary vocal composition with Myra Flynn. Always an actor, she has performed in musicals,

modern drama, commedia dell’ arte, and Shakespeare. For fun, she has been experimenting with group

improvisation at our local comedy club. Wendy is now accepting students in piano and voice at her

home studio, Bell Piano and Music Lessons, in Colchester, Vermont.

Polly Van der Linde -We are thrilled to announce that in the Summer of 2022, Sonatina Piano Camps has hired Tony Lu as a core faculty member. He had been with Sonatina on a more part-time basis since 2017. Tony is from China and has been blind since he was a couple of days old. He came to the US as a teenager because China did not offer special programs that included accommodations for disabled persons. Tony is a great pianist with broad interests. He typically finds interesting repertoire that is unknown to many and often plays his own transcriptions of orchestral or chamber music. He is a gifted teacher who has taught courses in piano performance, music history, chamber music, piano duet, piano literature and classical piano improvisation. Summer Sonatina students consider him the classical equivalent of a rockstar! The adults find his teaching to be consistently supportive and completely on target. At Sonatina, he will teach individual piano lessons, masterclasses, and group theory classes. Tony will also assist with duets and perform in faculty concerts. He holds a B.A. from Bennington College with concentrations in Mathematics, History, and Piano Performance and an M.M. from Austin Peay State University.

In addition to his work at Sonatina, Tony is available as a piano teacher and music lecturer between camps and throughout the winter months. He is comfortable teaching in person or online. Contact information:

tonylu.piano@gmail.com

VMTA Website: vermontmta.net