December 2022 MTAC-SACB Newsletter

Newsletter

Volume 24, Issue 5 | December 2022

Jesse Micek, President

Gloria Ho, Vice President

Philip Halseth, Second Vice President

Millie Chiem, Treasurer

Toni Chimienti, Corresponding Secretary

Katherine Valdez, Membership Secretary & Referrals Chair

Grace Cheng, Director

Maria Ehlert, Director

Lu Huang, Director & Website Administrator

David Ross, Director and Student Recitals

Maria Ehlert, Hospitality

Carmencita Aspiras, Sunshine

Olya Katsman, MSSL Coordinator

Note from the President

Greetings,

A special thank-you to the officers of our branch’s Music Student Service League (MSSL) for organizing an excellent holiday fundraiser concert at Christ’s Community Church on December 10th. Thank you as well to Kathleen Valdez, Millie Chiem, and Gloria Ho - three teachers from our branch board who helped boost the concert program with their student groups. Through our fundraising efforts at this concert we were able to raise a significant amount of money for our 2023 branch events. The music presented was a varied program mixing Christmas favorites and classical repertoire. There were student pianists, vocalists, and string players performing in solo and mixed ensembles. It was a special event.

Here’s a pitch to the few of you who read this far: we still need new board members to volunteer their time to serve the Southern Alameda County branch. The current board is under-staffed and members are beginning to experience fatigue. If you have a willingness to serve, contact any member of the current branch board.

I hope you all have plenty of time for rest and reflection at the end of 2022. We have many great events planned for this spring. Stay tuned.

All the best,

Jesse

Berkeley Piano Club Competition

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November 19th, Branch Recital at Christ's Community Church

December 10th, Joint SACB Branch and MSSL Christmas Recital at Christ’s Community Church in Hayward 4-5pm

More photos to follow.

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT: A Year in Review

Looking forward to introducing new faces in 2023!

Masterclass with Jacque Wilson Scarlach January 28th at 4pm

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Do you have a student who would be a good candidate for this master class, either as a lead instrumentalist or piano accompanist? Need more info? Contact Phil Halseth at phalseth@gmail.com

Teacher Talk Friday January 6, 2023 at 10AM

Zoom Teacher Talk

Friday, 1/6/23 @ 10am

"Lightning Rounds" - a brief discussion on each of the following topics:

1. New student interviews: are interviews best when meeting with prospective students? Or is a trial lesson the better way?

2. Saying No: what are teacher’s favorite wordings or go-to sentences so as not to offend but make your point clear regarding students/parents who perhaps you want to fire or think need a probationary period?

3. Resources/Apps useful for teaching: share what digital resources are working for you in your teaching. Or - if we have tech savvy teachers - share ideas for what kind of apps we would like to see available.

4. Summer Camp: has anyone hosted or have ideas for creating a summer camp?

5. Teaching young children/teacher training: what are teacher’s recommended resources, training programs (that don’t require going back to college for another degree), or personal experiences? What type of training would our branch members like to attend a session for?

See you on Zoom!