Day: October 5, 2016
AMEA: An update on what has been happening since the last issue and all that we can expect for the coming months for AMEA
Oct 5 2016
president@myamea.org
It has been inspiring to watch the work and dedication of your AMEA Executive Board in the last 2 months. When the schedule came out for a round of meetings across the state for the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Community Engagement Tour highlighting the benefits to Alabama public school students and professionals as well as detail how ESSA will complement Alabama’s Plan 2020, your division Presidents, Vice Presidents and other leadership jumped in to represent you at each of the meetings. Their attendance and the questions they asked have moved the committee to action regarding music and the arts having a place at the table in the discussion on the structure of how to incorporate the support of the arts in our state. I appreciate their commitment to AMEA and the cause for music education.
Meetings and attendees:
August 9 Montgomery Meeting – Susan Smith and Andy Meadows
August 16 Auburn Meeting – Carla Gallahan and Phil Wilson
August 18 Shelby County Schools – Becky Halliday, Ted Hoffman
August 23 Birmingham City Schools – Greg Gumina, Sam Nordlund
August 25 Mobile County Schools – Linda Byrd
September 6 Huntsville City Schools – Pat Stegall
September 13, Tuscaloosa – Carl Hancock, Josh Mayer, Ginny Coleman
I encourage every AMEA member to start a conversation with your principals and school board members about ESSA and what it means at the local level. Resources are available at Governor Bentleys website (http://governor.alabama.gov/essa/ )and also the NAFME website (http://www.nafme.org/take-action/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-esea- updates/)
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From the Southern Division
– President Elect Greg Gumina, Executive Director Garry Taylor and I attended the Southern Division meeting in Atlanta and heard from each state on the activities of their MEAs. As well, we had training on the implementation of the new National Standards and the efforts of NAFME to encourage diversity in leadership and serving the needs of the membership. I have asked each division to encourage all members to become involved in our organizations to better reflect the makeup of our organization and students we serve.
Conference Update
The AMEA Professional Development Conference is an event we all look forward to as a time to reconnect with colleagues and to hear wonderful clinics and concerts. We are excited about our Keynote speaker Scott Lang who is not only a motivational speaker, but is the force behind the Be Part of the Music movement. Lynn Tuttle will join us as well for our Leadership Breakfast and FAME sessions. Lynn is the Senior Regulatory Policy Advisor for the National Association for Music Education and will give us all insight into the progress of ESSA and how we can make an impact at the local level.
Our Intercollegiate Band will be conducted by Dr. John Locke, conductor of the University of North Carolina Greensboro Wind Ensemble. Working to support and strengthen our ties to the music industry community, AMEA has scheduled a reception on Thursday evening in the Exhibits from 9-10:30 with entertainment from 151st National Guard Jazz Combo. We hope this will give our members and vendors additional time to visit and make connections. Remember to register early and reach out to other members to do the same.
Due to responsibilities associated with running for local office, our newly appointed Assistant Executive Director, Mildred Lanier has had to step down. The AMEA board approved her replacement, Dr. Rusty Logan. We look forward to working with Dr. Logan in this role and know he will hit the ground running in supporting our Executive Director Garry Taylor and our Professional Development Conference!
Remember over the next few weeks to be a little selfish as teachers tend to think of everyone around them and not take care of themselves. We exist as an organization to encourage educators, so please let us know what we can do to support you in your mission to enrich the lives of your students each day.
HED: October 2016 issue From the Higher Education Division President
Oct 5 2016
Greetings! I hope your semester has gotten off to a smooth start. January may seem far off, but be assured that the AMEA has been hard at work preparing an exciting professional development conference for its membership. The Higher Education Division looks forward to welcoming presenters from across the region who will be speaking on an eclectic mix of topics, including advocacy (Dr. Rob Lyda, Auburn), conducting practices (Dr. Blake Richardson, University of Alabama), copyright (Barry Morgan, Cobb County, GA), web content (Dr. Jane Keuhne, Auburn University), collaboration (Dr. Becky Halliday, University of Montevallo), EdTPA (Dr. Nancy Berry, Auburn University), and video game music (Dr. Mark Laughlin, Georgia Southwestern State University). Mildred Lanier (President-Elect), Katrina Phillips (Secretary-Treasurer), and I were fortunate to review the applicants for these sessions, and we feel that these presenters demonstrate a great deal of experience and expertise that will enlighten and engage our membership.
The HED luncheon will take place on Thursday. This is a good opportunity not only to address divisional business, but also for intercollegiate fellowship. If the need arises, I am happy to add items to our meeting agenda. That evening, the Collegiate Division will join us for a combined mixer, giving faculty and students a venue for conversation in a relaxed atmosphere.
In addition, the HED will host a panel discussion featuring studio teachers, students, and accompanists who will share the process of performance preparation. The session title is I’ll follow you: The role of the accompanist in collaborative playing, and it is scheduled for Thursday, January 19 at 2:15. This session will focus on the interaction between applied faculty, student, and accompanist in performance preparation. Topics may include selection of music, rehearsal techniques, communication, and other aspects of accompanying that may maximize successful performances. These panelists will then perform on the Higher Education Division Recital at 4:30 that afternoon.
As always, I look forward to the excitement and rejuvenation brought by the AMEA Professional Development Conference. Please don’t hesitate to contact me to reserve your spot at the luncheon, or if you have questions, comments, or suggestions: hed_president@myamea.org
ELEM/GEN: October 2016 Elementary Division President Article
Oct 5 2016
As I type this message, we are just weeks away from our tenth annual Elementary Music Festival and our annual fall workshop on October 21st & 22nd in Birmingham. I am excited that so many of you are bringing your students to participate in this wonderful festival. We welcome back our festival directors, Ben & Kristina Sisco. They have done a fabulous job organizing and promoting our festival. We have several new schools participating, and it is going to be a great weekend for our students and teachers. Our festival will include two great clinicians, Mr. Roger Sams and Mrs. Vicki Portis. I am excited to hear the two fabulous children’s choirs perform on Friday evening at the beautiful Wright Center on the campus of Samford University. We thank Samford University for their support and generosity in making this festival possible. We also thank Dr. Suzanne Burgess for her partnership with us. Mr. Roger Sams will also present the following day at our Saturday Fall workshop at Vestavia Hills Elementary East from 9 AM to 3 PM. It will be a fabulous weekend to celebrate elementary music education!
If I don’t get to see you at the fall workshop, I hope I will see you at our January Conference. The 2017 AMEA Conference will be held in Montgomery for the last time before making the move to Birmingham at the BJCC, and this is a conference you will not want to miss. Pre-registration is now open at http://www.myamea.org/amea-conference/2017-conference-registration/ and you can reserve your hotel room at the Renaissance or Embassy Suites from there as well. Our conference this year is going to have a wide range of sessions that will include something for everyone.
We welcome Andrea Coleman as one of our main clinicians. She will present several sessions on Thursday & Friday along with a special fun evening session on Friday night. She was one of our festival clinicians last year, and she has some great sessions to share with us. We also welcome back Roger Sams from “Music is Elementary” along with David Frego and Georgia Newton as our other main clinicians. They will be presenting throughout the conference. David Frego will also have an evening fun session Thursday night on Dalcroze.
We will also hear from several of our own elementary division teachers including Lea Hoppe, Dr. Rob Lyda, and Deanna Bell. They will also be joined by Dr. Patricia Corbin of Jacksonville State University, and Dr. Suzanne Burgess of Samford University. We will have two elementary choral performances on Friday afternoon at 1:15 PM in the MPAC featuring the Montgomery Academy 5th & 6th Grade Chorus, under the direction of Meg Griffin, and The Ogletree Elementary Singers, under the direction of Phil Wilson. Other sessions of interest will be presented by Quaver Music and ChordBuddy. This will be one of our best conferences yet! I want you to be a part of the action so get pre-registered today!
If you are not receiving emails from the elementary division, I would love to add you to our email list. Just send me an email and I will add you to our email list: elementaryamea@gmail.com
I look forward to seeing you and learning together at our upcoming events.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cliff Huckabee
Upcoming Events
10th Annual Elementary Music Festival – Samford University Birmingham, AL
October 21
Fall Joint AMEA/AOSA Workshop – Vestavia Hills Elementary East Birmingham, AL
October 22
AOSA 2016 Professional Development Conference Atlantic City, NJ
November 2-5
NAfME 2016 National In-Service Conference Grapevine, TX
November 10-13
AMEA 2017 In-Service Conference Montgomery, AL
January 19-21
AOA: Alabama All-State Orchestra – ALL are welcome!
Oct 5 2016
Autumn in Alabama. Leaves changing, a break in the heat, and of course… All-State Orchestra auditions!
OK, back to reality. Fall in Alabama is reserved for football and marching band. I know because I was and still am a part of it (football fandom, at least!). As a serious cellist growing up in Alabama, I ended up playing trumpet in band because schools in the Birmingham metro area did not offer string programs of any sort. My experience in band was terrific, and my band directors, Kim Bain and Jim Duren, were and still are as good as it gets. I was a pretty decent trumpeter, and I had many outstanding classmates, but when I think back to those days, All-State Orchestra never seemed to be on the radar in band circles. A few brave souls ventured into the Alabama Youth Symphony, and were thus indoctrinated into the orchestra world, but the large majority didn’t even consider orchestra, although they would participate in several honor bands throughout the year. Now, as a professional cellist and official ambassador of the orchestra community, I would like to begin to strengthen the ties between our outstanding band programs, and the orchestra opportunities offered in this state.
Do not be afraid! Band students who participate in orchestra will only become stronger band players. They will gain confidence from playing individual parts, learn nuance from balancing with stringed instruments, master skills such as transposition, and be exposed to centuries-worth of timeless orchestral repertoire. I remember sensing a fear of the unknown when terrific wind players decided not to audition for All-State or youth orchestra. If you are a parent or band director, even without an orchestral background, I hope you will encourage your students to participate in orchestra. It may open up a future in orchestral performance to them. If you are lucky enough to have strings at your school, collaborate on a full orchestra production, or simply spend a class period playing part of a Mahler symphony for your students. You may transform somebody’s world, and that is our goal as educators and parents, is it not?
It is my great honor to announce our fantastic 2017 All-State Orchestra conductors. Directing the Festival Orchestra will be Dr. Sandra Dackow, Music Director of the Hershey (PA) Symphony Orchestra, and well-known arranger. Leading the Sinfonia and Consort Orchestras will be a husband/wife duo. Foster Beyers, Sinfonia conductor, is the newly appointed Director of Orchestras at James Madison University, after spending several years in the same position at Concordia College in Minnesota. Dr. Christina Chen-Beyers, Consort conductor, has extensive experience with collegiate, youth, and string orchestras in Western Minnesota and the Eastern Dakotas. Complete bios can be found in this edition of Ala Breve and at www.alabamaorchestraassociation.org.
Our second annual Orchestra MPAs will be held April 21 and 22, 2017! We are planning two host sites this year – a northern regional at UNA (Florence), and a South Central regional at ASU (Montgomery). At time of press, details are still being hammered out, but by the time you are reading this, we should have the application process in full swing. Youth Orchestras, school string programs, guitar ensembles, and any other string-involved ensembles are encouraged to register. We had 14 groups participate last year, and we hope two locations will help us increase this number even further. So come on down – ALL are welcome!
ABA: Are you ready for another great AMEA Professional Development Conference?
Oct 5 2016
Football games, marching band contests, homecoming parades, shiny new instruments for the beginning band students, concerts, Veteran’s Day performances, air freshener for the middle school band room, the first day of fall and it’s still 95 degrees outside. Don’t you just love band? I love how much band students love band. What’s not to love? You get to learn to play an instrument which puts you in a position to perform music. You get to make friends for life, because you sit, march, eat, ride a bus, sweat, and make music with the same people all throughout middle school and high school. I also love the time I get to spend with my colleagues. Friday night games, standing on the sidelines at half-time watching, listening, and discussing how the bands are doing with the visiting band staff never gets old. I enjoy visiting at our District meetings listening to everyone talk about how many beginners they have this year, the theme of their marching band show, how hot it has been, and then to see how happy they are when A. B. Baggett walks in with a box of his homemade fudge.
Speaking of spending time with colleagues, it’s time to make plans to attend our January Alabama Music Educators Professional Development Conference. Those that have been selected to perform or present a session have had this conference on their minds for some time now. We should all plan to be in attendance to support our fellow music educators and their students. ABA will be well represented again this year. We have a nice variety of high school and middle school concert bands, jazz ensembles, and percussion ensembles performing. The Collegiate Honor Band sponsored by the Higher Ed Division will be a featured performing group. There is also an array of clinic/sessions that should prove to be of interest to our attendees. This issue of Ala Breve is filled with schedules, bios, registration forms, and all manner of information needed to prepare you for the conference. Please make every effort to attend. As you read this issue, you will become better informed of the details of the clinics and ensembles that will be performing. Renew your NAfME membership now if you have not done so. Your membership must be current in order to register for the conference. Pre-register now. Reserve your hotel room now. Our onsite pre-registration materials pick-up is very fast and easy. Don’t create a traffic jam by waiting until you get to the conference to renew your membership and register for the conference. See you in Montgomery!
Check the AMEA/ABA website regularly. You will find needed forms, All-State Band audition requirements, and access to the Cumulative Music list, ABA Directory, District and State Calendars, and other useful and needed information. Check the abafest.com site weekly for announcements and calendar updates. Your ABA state officers and district officers will be using this site to keep you informed as well as have you register for events such as All-State and MPA. I hope to see you at Midwest and AMEA. The sun is still shining, so DON’T FORGET THE SUNSCREEN!
AVA: It’s hard to believe that the school year is already a quarter complete!
Oct 5 2016
It’s hard to believe that the school year is already a quarter complete! Thanks to all who helped to make this year’s Fall Workshop a success. I hope that you enjoyed connecting with your colleagues around the state. I think our interaction with Dr. Redding was just a small sample of what our SATB All-State students will experience in March. Please continue to send your feedback about Fall Workshop. How can we better fulfill our mission through our Fall Workshop event? If you have great ideas, let us know.
NEW FOR THIS YEAR
Online registration is up and running for all events. We appreciate you helping us work out the kinks in the online registration process. Please be sure to read the instructions within the registration forms and continue to send your questions and concerns. Your feedback is valued.
In an effort to connect with our colleagues who are not plugged in with AVA, we are offering a free registration initiative for State Choral Performance Assessment. Directors may register one choir for free (school fee and student fees waived) if their school has not participated in SCPA in the past three years. Please share with your colleagues who may be interested in taking advantage of this offer.
We are also pleased to be able to provide additional services this year during our SCPA event. Each district chair will contract a recording engineer to record all choirs that perform at SCPA. After SCPA is complete, each director will receive a copy of his/her ensemble’s recordings at no additional cost.
UPCOMING EVENTS
We look forward to hearing your students at All-State auditions next month.
Please be sure to check the instruction pages provided in your music packets and on the website and make sure that your students are singing the correct notes for your district. All-State results will not be mailed this year, but will be posted online. After auditions are complete, look for an e-mail notifying you that results have been posted.
Our AMEA Conference will be held January 18th-21st at the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center in Montgomery. We look forward to having J.D. Frizzell join us for this conference. He will present sessions entitled “Reinvigorating The Choral Warm Up: Invest Time To Save Time” and “A Choir Director’s Teaching Philosophy: Choosing Inspiration, Empowerment, and Success.” He will also share a reading session (sponsored by J.W. Pepper) entitled “Poignant, Yet Accessible Music for Mixed Voice Middle School and High School Choirs.” Other session topics cover such as expressiveness, beginning a cappella pop, recruiting and retention, vocal jazz, and diction.
Congratulations to the choirs who submitted and were selected to share performances with us at AMEA. We will hear from middle schools, high schools, and colleges from all over the state. The number of submissions that we received has increased from previous years. Please consider submitting for the 2018 AMEA Conference. Use the recordings that you receive from your SCPA performance and complete an application by June 1 to be considered.
Thank you for taking to the time to read about your professional association. Please send questions, suggestions, or ideas to me at presidentofava@gmail.com. Your feedback is always appreciated. I am looking forward to seeing you in January!
Ginny
COLL: 2017 AMEA Professional Development Conference Highlights for Collegiates
Oct 5 2016
Clinics chosen especially for the Collegiate Division
- Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle: Resources and Ideas for Pronunciation, Comprehension, and Memorization of Sung Texts Tiffany Bostic Brown and Ian Loeppky, Clinicians
- The ‘Few Good Men’ in a Choir of Women: How to Employ Quality Repertoire and Teaching Strategies Greg Lefils, Clinician
- Learning from the Great Maestros: Five Principles We Can Apply to our Daily Conducting Blake Richardson, Clinician
- Developing PartSinging Skills in SchoolAge Musicians Georgia Newlin, Clinician
- Copyright Barry Morgan, Clinician
- Communication with Parents Anne Witt, Clinician
- Congratulations! You Got Hired! Now, Don’t Get Fired Lisa Gillespie, Clinician
- Get Organized!: Time Management for Music Educators Frank Buck, Clinician
- Woodwind Repair: I Can Do All THAT By Myself? Dave Lawson, Clinician
- The Developmental Years of a Band Director What I Needed to Know but Didn’t. Russ Thompson, Clinician
- Plus 49 other clinic sessions of interest to music educators and future music educators
Performances:
- Alabama Intercollegiate Band
- The Huxford Symphony Orchestra
- Alabama AllState Show Choir
- Alabama AllState Jazz Bands
- 22 Invited Performing Groups (bands, choirs, percussion ensembles, jazz bands) representing Elementary, Middle School, High
School and College
Special Events and other Conference Highlights
- Collegiate Luncheon
- Collegiate/HED Mixer
- Keynote Speaker: Scott Lang
- Conference Exhibits Networking
Joshua Meyer
AMEA Collegiate Division President
jpmeyer@crimson.ua.edu
(256) 566-1265
