CNYAMT Mission
"We desire to promote enrichment
and education in the musical arts
for teachers and their students."
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President's Message
From our President, Bernadette Kessler
CNYAMT has had quite a year to celebrate! It takes teamwork and our very special members to carry out our mission. We thank these dedicated Committee and Event Chairs who work tirelessly to ensure our success.
Committee Chairs
Banquet – Barb Irwin
Membership – Phil Eisenman
Newsletter - Dana DiGennaro
Piano Committee – Phil Eisenman
Publicity – Joanne Mroczek
Senior Scholarship – Dana DiGennaro
Student Tuition Assistance – Bernadette Kessler
Scores for Scholars – Bernadette Kessler
Sponsorship – Barb Irwin
Sunshine – Suzanne Sweeney
Teacher Forum – Mary Whittington
Video Production – Robbie Padilla
Website & Social Media – Joanne Mroczek
Event Chairs
Community Outreach –Kim Farrell
Halloween Recital – Barb Irwin
Holiday Recital – Robbie Padilla
Baroque, Classical, & Sonatina Piano Festival – James Lee Vatter, Lynn Moroz
Artist Piano Advanced Piano Competition - Ya-Wei Tseng, Bernadette Kessler
Instrumental Competition – James Krehbiel, Dana DiGennaro
Vocal Competition – Neva Pilgrim, Gayle Ross, Patti T. Buechner
A very special thank you to our Executive Board and Board of Directors
who make sure that we carry on the legacy of this wonderful organization.
Executive Board
Vice President – Barbara Irwin
Treasurer – Mary Ellen DePietra
Recording Secretary – Gayle Ross
Board of Directors
Philip Eisenman
Bernadette Kessler
Mary Ellen DiPietra
Gayle Ross
Michelle Wilcox
Kim Farrell
Robbie Padilla
Mary Whittington
Jane Wolfe
Have a great summer and be sure to check your emails and the website
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CNYAMT
Board Meeting
Join us for our next Zoom Board Meeting with Board Members and Event Chairs:
Wednesday, September 22nd at 9:30 am.
We welcome all members to join us!
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James Lee Vatter Memorial Fund
James Lee Vatter, a 40-year member
of CNYAMT, was a wonderful teacher, pianist, and flutist. In memory of our special colleague and his passion for his students, we have established The James Lee Vatter Memorial Fund to provide assistance to students in need for the purchase of their first piano or flute.
Special thanks to our members and friends who have honored
James Lee's memory with a donation to support our students:
Paul Burgay, Mary Camozzi, Nancy Clayton, Susan Crocker,
Patricia DeAngelis, Jane Fagerland, Kathleen Freer, Deborah Guarneiri, Barbara Haas, Eiko Hamada, Amy Heyman, Rhonda Hungerford,
Barb Irwin, Bernadette Kessler, Victoria King, Katherine Knoff,
Natsuko Kobayashi, Elizabeth Levy, Colleen Pellman, Neva Pilgrim, Malyne Sagerman, Shige Sakonju, Beth Scott, David Svendsen, Suzanne Sweeney, Ida Trebicka, Joyce Ucci, Rose Weaver, Susan Young
We hope to make this an on-going fund to support our music community. To make a donation, go to: www.cnyamt.org
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Thank you to our members, friends and families for the support of Amazon Smile. Central New York Association of Music Teachers has received a total of $115.33 this year, as a result of qualifying purchases made by customers who have designated CNYAMT as their selected charity.
Our total proceeds since we started the Amazon Smile program is $630.50 in support of our members and their students. Remember to invite your family members and friends to designate our organization as their charity of choice. You will be helping us continue to support our members and their students.
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CNYAMT Membership Renewal
2021-22 Membership Renewal
We’ve received the first 2021 renewal!
Renewals may be undertaken anytime between now and October 1st.
Join us for the Member Brunch in September and renew then,
or just go to www.cnyamt.org and take care of it NOW.
It is renewal time! These are the current Membership Categories:
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$50 Active Membership - for teachers currently teaching in Central New York. These member's students may participate in competitions and masterclasses.
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$25 Active Spouse Membership - for spouses in a family currently paying one full active membership. These members have active member privileges.
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$25 Collegiate Membership - for students currently attending college with a music major; can be extended for the first year of teaching, post college.
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$0 Retired Membership - for teachers no longer actively teaching in CNY. Retired members continue to receive the newsletters and have the privilege of attending the annual luncheon for $15, payable at the door.
We have updated these items available to you when you log into website:
Make sure your information is what you want the public and your peers to see. Edits or your updated photo (jpg please) are welcome.
To Renew your membership, go to the CNYAMT.org home page via the
Grey “CNYAMT Membership” payment options right below the
Green “Become a Member” invitation. Email Phil to confirm that you renewed. You may also send a check and edits of your personal information to Phil Eisenman, 8078 Crockett Dr., Cicero, NY 13039
Thank you all for helping CNY be so actively supportive
of our teachers and students of music!
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CNYAMT
Community Outreach Virtual Spring Recital
I've always been the kind of person who sees the glass half full. During the course of this past pandemic year, crazy as it has been, some good things have come out of it and we learn from our experiences.
The CNYAMT Community Outreach group was able to create 2 fantastic virtual recitals to benefit our local senior communities.
We had a February valentine virtual recital entitled "The Love of Music" with 9 of our teachers and 21 students participating, connecting with the senior residents at Maple Downs in Fayetteville. That recital was so successful that we created another virtual recital in May for Mother's Day, with 9 teachers and 23 students participating. We were able to expand our audience to 3 senior living environments in the Syracuse area for this recital.
What a fantastic way of keeping music alive in our community! Thank you to all the teachers and students who participated in these recitals and special thanks to Robbie Padilla who created both videos and posted them up on our CNYAMT YouTube channel for all enjoy. I am looking forward to getting back to in-person recitals in the near future. We'll keep you informed and we'll keep that glass looking half full!
Kim Farrell, chairperson
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CNYAMT and Artist Pianos Advanced Piano Competitions
The Virtual Artist Pianos Advanced Piano Competition was held on April 17,2021
with judges Slvie Beaudette from The Eastman School of Music and
Tina Toglia of Hamilton College. A total of 8 Teachers and 26 Students participated in the Elementary, Junior, Intermediate, and Advanced divisions. The winners’ performances can be viewed on cnyamt.org under the Artists Pianos Advanced Piano Competition. The judges commented on the wonderful artistry and exceptional talent of our students.
2021 Artist Pianos Competition Winners
Elementary Advanced Piano Competition Winners
High Honor Daniel Yang Ida Tili-Trebicka
High Honor Wentian Yuan John Spradling
High Honor Zheng Wu Ya-Wei Tseng
Honor Kevin Zang Ya-Wei Tseng
Junior Advanced Piano Competition Winners
1st Prize Justin Liu Ya-Wei Tseng
2nd Prize (Tie) Irena Li Ya-Wei Tseng
2nd Prize (Tie) Jayden Ma Lin Ya-Wei Tseng
Intermediate Advanced Piano Competition Winners
1st Prize (Tie) Ethan Wong John Spradling
1st Prize (Tie) Jasmine Kobayashi Steve Rosenfeld
2nd Prize Gabriel Cecchi Patricia DeAngelis
Senior Advanced Piano Competition Winners
1st Prize Alex Wu John Spradling
2nd Prize Allison Wong John Spradling
3rd Prize (Tie) Soren Krantz John Spradling
3rd Prize (Tie) Xavier Plourde Steve Rosenfeld
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High School Vocal Competition Winners
Outstanding high school singers from throughout the region competed May 8 in the Central New York Association of Music Teachers annual High School Vocal Competition at Onondaga Community College. The young singers were presented with certificates and $820 in prizes at the Winners Recital, held on May 15th at the Fayetteville United Methodist Church.
The singers represented Mater Dei Academy in Warners, NY, Hamilton HS, Fayetteville-Manlius HS, home-schooled, Holy Cross Academy in Oneida, North Syracuse Junior High School, Paul V. Moore HS in Central Square, Oneida HS, LaFayette HS and Westhill HS. They performed songs and arias from the 1600s to the 21st Century.
The esteemed judges were OCC baritone, Dr. David Rudari of Camillus, and Donna Miller, a DeWitt resident, retired voice professor from Setnor School of Music, Syracuse University.
The 9th grade winners were Ava Tyler (1st); Madelynn Hilt (2nd).
The 11th grade winners were Andreia Krantz (1st), Bianca Lucas (2nd), Joseph Mariani (3rd).
The winners in 12th grade were Hannah Sywulski (1st), Dora Ammerman & Gerard McCrohan (2nd - Tie), and Lindsay Hebert (3rd).
Hannah Sywulski (Central Square) won the Amanda Newhouse Carnie prize of $200, honoring the late Mrs. Carnie who was a professional singer and teacher and long-time member of the Vocal Competition Committee.
Senior winners Hannah Sywulski and Lindsay Hebert will attend Crane School of Music this fall, while Gerard McCrohan will attend Oberlin and Dora Ammerman will attend Mt. Holyoke.
The teachers included Laura Enslin, Julianna Grabowski, Lauralyn Kolb, Sabine Krantz, Lisa Miller, Neva Pilgrim, and Gayle Ross.
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Hannah Sywulski,12th grade - 1st place |
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Andreia Krantz, 11th grade - 1st place |
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Ava Tyler, 9th grade -
1st place)
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CNYAMT Instrumental
Competition Results
We are incredibly proud to announce the winners of the 2021 Virtual CNYAMT Instrumental Competition, which took place in May. 37 entrants from 20 studios competed in two divisions. Excerpts from the winner's competition videos can be viewed at www.cnyamt.org. As you can see by the videos, the level was incredibly high!
Senior Division
1 - Rosee Head, violin - student of Noemi Miloradovic
2 - Clare Douglas, violin - student of James Krehbiel
3 - Kate O’Leary, flute - student of Erin Tapia
4 - Meg Lorraine, violin - student of Will Knuth
5 - Ziye Wang, flute - student of Dana DiGennaro
HM - Sean Alvaro, trombone - student of Dave DiGennaro
HM - Joshua Jang, cello - student of Zachary Sweet
HM - Ebun Oguntola, violin - student of Edgar Tumajyan
HM - Kira Pawletko, soprano sax - student of Kathy Freer
HM - Natalie Roswick, violin - student of Edgar Tumajyan
Intermediate Division
1 - Yugo Sato-Beaudoin, cello - student of Pam Devenport
2 - Catalina Wooldridge, cello - student of Pam Devenport
3 - Abigail Feng, cello - student of Walden Bass
4 - Nagi Aitbayeva, violin - student of Anita Gustafson
HM - Colin Chin, cello - student of Pam Devenport
HM - Eve Clark, violin - student of Noemi Miloradovic
HM - Max Clark, double bass - student of Donovan Stokes
HM - Mia Sakonju, violin - student of James Krehbiel
We are incredibly grateful to our wonderful judges Yeolim Nam from Boston and Jessica King from Syracuse, who listened to countless hours of competition videos. We so appreciate their patience, knowledge, and expertise.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, violinist Yeolim Nam received her primary training from the prestigious Sun-Hwa Arts school in Korea, where she received many awards, including the grand prize for the school's chamber music competition. In 1996, Ms. Nam was selected to perform for renowned violinist, Sarah Chang, and then was invited to accompany Chang on her concert tour throughout Germany. This experience was filmed as a documentary and aired by KBS TV Date, a Korean television show. Ms. Nam holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studied under Malcolm Lowe.
Jessica King, DMA, is the contrabassoonist and second bassoonist for Central New York’s professional symphony orchestra, Symphoria. She also enjoys performing new music and chamber music, improvising, and exploring music of other cultures. Among her teachers are John Hunt at Eastman, and Lynn Hileman and Terry Ewell at West Virginia University. Jessica has taught bassoon and ethnomusicology at five post-secondary institutions and currently teaches bassoon at Hamilton College.
James Krehbiel and Dana DiGennaro, competition chairpersons
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2021 Senior Scholarship
Competition Winners
I am very pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 CNYAMT Senior Scholarship Competition. This year’s judge was Katherine Kilburn, the Assistant Director of Orchestras at the Michigan State University College of Music. She was most recently Interim Director of Orchestras at Cornell University while also maintaining a regular schedule of guest conducting, adjudicating, and being a clinician at festivals around the US. She remarked about the excellent quality of our applicants and how much she enjoyed listening to every submission!
Congratulations to our winners!
First Prize of $1,000
Hannah Sywulski, voice, lives in Brewerton, NY, and is a Senior at Paul V. Moore High School. She has worked with her voice teacher, Laura Enslin, for her entire high school career, and has taken piano and french horn with Joyce Lindsley for the past 8 years. She has been accepted into Conference All-State in 2019 (Mixed Choir) and 2020 (Treble Choir), as well as NAfME All-Eastern in 2020 (Treble Choir). Hannah was also the second runner-up in Upper High School Classical Voice for NATS in the New York Eastern Region 2020. She was also nominated for the “Rising Star” award in the 2018 Syracuse High School Theatre Awards for her performance as Mae Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie. On the weekends, Hannah works at Syracuse Children’s Theatre, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educational theatre, as a music director. She has recently music directed Moana JR., The Wizard of Oz: Young Performers Edition, 101 Dalmations KIDS, and Alice @ Wonderland. To give back to her community, Hannah founded “The Brewerton Elementary Drama Program” her freshman year of high school, and has put on a musical each year with 3rd-5th graders at Brewerton Elementary, including Doo-Wop Wed Widing Hood, Seussical JR., and Quarantine Cabaret.
Second Prize of $500
Gerard McCrohan, voice, is a senior at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. He is studying voice with Laura Enslin, piano with Ida Tili-Trebicka, and has studied trombone with Dave DiGennaro. He is a member of his school's chorale, wind ensemble, jazz ensemble, and jazz choir. He has also participated in FM musicals for the past four years. This past year, Gerard was selected for the NAFME All-National Choir, placed 1st in the NATS fingerlakes TBB Vocal Competition, second in the NATS Eastern Region TBB Vocal Competition, and second in the CNYAMT Vocal Competition. Gerard will go on to study vocal performance at Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Excerpts from their winning competition videos can be viewed at www.cnyamt.org
Dana DiGennaro, CNYAMT Senior Scholarship Competition
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Let's Do Brunch!
Mark Your Calendars!
To kick off the new CNYAMT fall music events calendar, join us for a fall brunch at Drumlins Country Club, Wednesday, September 15th, 10:30-1:30. Catch up with old friends, meet new members, renew your membership, sign-up for events, approve our 2021-2022 board members, take a chance on a basket of goodies, and enjoy a delicious brunch.
This event is free to all members, so we’re hoping to see you there to exchange our covid tales of success and adventures. Thanks to our outstanding leadership and our many creative, committed, and hardworking members, we were able to keep CNYAMT relevant and successful during this pandemic rollercoaster ride.
Please email Barb Irwin if you have any questions, contact [email protected]. More information to follow.
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Summer Music Camp Tuition Awards |
CNYAMT is pleased to announce the
2021 Music Camp Tuition Assistance awards to:
Ava Tyler, vocalist, student of Gayle Ross
Kara Sova, violinist, student of Jennifer Sova
Ava will attend Wesley Balk Opera/Music Theatre Institute and is looking for to improving her presentation skills and vocal technique. She will attend classes in performance, movement, and personal coaching under the tutelage of
Jill Anna Ponasik and Gary Briglle.
Kara will be attending Pennsylvania Suzuki Institute and is excited to participate in-person. She will take a fiddle class with Chris Brennan Hagy, perform in a string quartet, and perform in the orchestra
under the direction of Thomas James McAvaney.
The Summer Music Camp Tuition Assistance Program is funded through the generous support of a grant from the Syracuse Sounds of Music Association
and the invaluable support of our community, members, students, families
and friends. To make a donation, go to cnyamt.org and become a sponsor of this invaluable assistance program to our students and their families. Thank you on behalf of our future musicians as they prepare for their next adventures!
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Summer Semester Student Lesson Tuition Assistance
CNYAMT has established a Student Lesson Tuition Assistance Fund to provide monetary assistance for students in need. These funds can be applied towards payment of private music lessons and will be evenly dispersed among applicants. The amount of the award is based on our availability of funds as well as the applicant’s referral from their CNYAMT teacher. Awards will be distributed across applications on a rotating basis, one student at a time per teacher.
Eligibility:
· Teacher must be a current CNYAMT 2020-21 member.
· Teacher and student were active participants in our yearly events.
· Teacher must be the instructor of the major instrument the applicant will study.
Application are due, one for each student, by July 8th.
For questions or more information contact:
Bernadette Kessler
(315) 569-8241
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Avery Auge, a fourth grader at Tecumseh Elementary and piano student in Mary Whittington’s studio, performed for her biggest audience yet on June 9th. She used her recent experience with
CNYAMT virtual recitals to record “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at home, and then watched herself play and sing on the Jumbotron during the Syracuse Mets game’s 7th inning stretch. The June 9th game was the team’s annual Education Day, when students traditionally attend a baseball game as a field trip. This year, children all over CNY got to watch the game and Avery on livestreams in classrooms and at home. This was the first ever virtual Education Day for pro baseball. Great job!
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A note from the Syracuse Opera
It's been a tough year for the performing arts, particularly for opera and other forms of classical music. At Syracuse Opera, it has forced us to reconsider the model we've been using for many years of presenting operas with occasional opportunities for students to get a better understanding of what opera is and how to appreciate it. There are many ways of doing this, running from bringing performers into the schools, to including students in aspects of performances, to offering student matinees. We are serious about wanting Syracuse Opera to be part of music education to the extent that this works for your programs.
To do this, we understand the need for you -- the educators -- to clarify what might work best for your schools and your work. We need your input. Saying this, we are planning on running a series of remote focus groups to allow music educators to share their views of how they would like Syracuse Opera to become part of their programs -- what might be most welcome, what would garner attention, and what works best for you and the students.
If you would like to participate in the focus groups, please send a note to Doug Goldschmidt at [email protected]. He will contact you about possible dates and times.
We look forward to working with you. Thanks for your help.
Doug Goldschmidt
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It has been my pleasure to be the originator and editor of the CNYAMT newsletter since 2013. The July newsletter will be my final one, but you will continue to receive the CNYAMT newsletter with our new editor Joanne Mroczek.
Thank you all for your support and your newsletter content, I have really enjoyed sharing all of your news.
Sincerely, Dana DiGennaro
On behalf of all of our members, we thank you, Dana, for being instrumental in creating and editing the newsletter. This invaluable communication has kept our members informed and entertained.
Your artistry and creativity has been greatly appreciated and, as always, it's been an honor to work with you. Thanks for all you continue to do for our members and their students. Gratefully, Bernadette and CNYAMT
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Need more information? Check out our website!
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