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Day: October 5, 2017

AMEA: On the Move!

Oct 5 2017

The AMEA Professional Development Conference is moving to the largest convention center in the state, the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC), which includes the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.  We’ve had seven great years in Montgomery and may be back in the future, but for now we look forward to what Birmingham has to offer us, including, among other things:

    Enough meeting space to eliminate the problem of sound bleeding over from one session room to the next.Two beautiful performance venues – the BJCC Concert Hall and East Ballroom.
    The adjacent Uptown entertainment district offers dining and nightlife options.
    The Sheraton Birmingham has enough hotel rooms to house all our attendees so everyone can stay in the conference hotel.
    A large carpeted exhibit hall – the Birmingham Ballroom – located conveniently just off the hotel lobby.

The conference is January 18-20 and your AMEA Governing Board has worked hard to fill the schedule with outstanding clinic sessions and performances.  In this issue of Ala Breve, you’ll find the complete  2018 AMEA Conference schedule beginning on page 19, conference performing groups beginning on page 24, and clinician photos and bios beginning on page 34. The conference preregistration form is on page 44. Please visit AMEA’s website, myamea.org, to preregister online.  Highlights of the conference will be the keynote address by Peter Boonshaft and performances by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and Voctave.

Visit our website to register students for the FAME program by January 12 or submit an application for a lobby performance––we have extended that deadline to November 1.

If you have not renewed your membership, please do it right away.  As many of you know, NAfME recently made changes to the login procedure requiring everyone to update their password.  You’ll need your new password to login, renew membership, or register for the AMEA Conference. If you have not already updated your password, visit either the NAfME or AMEA website, click login, and follow the instructions.  You’ll be asked to enter your email and click SIGN-UP.  Then you’ll receive a verification email.  Once verified, you can renew or register for the conference.

Use the link on our website, myamea.org,  to reserve your room at the Sheraton.  If your school is paying and needs an invoice, call the Sheraton at (205) 324-5000 and request one.  If you’re reserving multiple rooms, use the group reservation form on our website.   We encourage everyone to stay at the Sheraton for many reasons.  Sure, it will be more convenient but you’ll also get a 50% discount on parking.   In addition, construction in the area may make coming and going much more difficult.  Save time, money, and gas.  Check in Wednesday night and out Saturday with no need to crank up your car in between. And, the more rooms we book the better deal AMEA gets in the future on room rates, meeting space expense, etc.

We know there will be growing pains with our move to Birmingham.  You may remember our first year in Montgomery some of us complained that the Renaissance was so large we kept getting lost.  Where’s registration? Where’s my session?  Where’s the coffee?  The BJCC is larger and we’ll likely encounter many of the same issues at first but just like Montgomery, we’ll quickly learn how to get around and become accustomed to our new home.  We hope you’ll join us in Birmingham for what is shaping up to be an outstanding conference.  See you there!

AMEA Registrar: From the Registrar

Oct 5 2017

Pat Stegall

Registration for the January AMEA Conference in Birmingham has just begun and many of you have already registered!  Thank you for being pro-active and preregistering. Remember to remind your colleagues to join; include the new music teachers; invite the inactive music teachers and be involved as a mentor to the young music teachers.

A pre-requisite for registering for the conference is that you must renew your membership now at www.nafme.org .  Membership in NAfME is required for participation in state MEA sponsored events like the AMEA Conference, the Elementary Division Fall Conference, All-State, and Musical Performance Assessments.  Joining NAfME secures your membership in AMEA and in your division.

If you have not registered, you can pre-register now for the 2018 AMEA conference online at www.myamea.org. You may also choose to preregister by mail using the form in the Ala Breve.  You will find it is easy and will save you time and money. Do it NOW!!!  Reunite with friends and colleagues from all over the state in January. Rejuvenate your energy and renew your enthusiasm for the rest of the school year!

 

Pat Stegall

ABA: Make Plans for the AMEA Conference in Birmingham!

Oct 5 2017

 

A new school year is filled with new beginners; making sure we have all our paper work done and trying to get all the drill on the field.  It has all flown by so quickly.  Soon we will be hearing the sounds of our holiday concerts and how many different ways we can play Jingle Bells.

In your busy schedules, make plans for the AMEA conference in January in BIRMINGHAM!  This venue is going to be great.  I would like to thank everyone who submitted performance and clinic applications.  We have an outstanding schedule of concerts and clinics.  As you prepare and think about applying for next year, I would like to encourage you to program your concerts with multiple levels of music like the Midwest Band convention.  The majority of bands in our state are typically CC classification (old classification system).  Their directors love to hear grade 6 literature but usually can’t play their programs.  Program your selections to have literature from different levels.  There is great music at all levels and that lends the opportunity to the small bands to hear great music they can take home and use with their bands.  For the performing group, it allows you to program some pieces that may not be as challenging and allow your upper-level selections to be even more difficult.  I believe this will make the performances better but allow them to be more educational to our younger directors in the smaller programs.

As you also begin the process of selecting music for MPA, remember the new classification system.  It is listed in the bylaws on the myamea.org website.  The piece you select as your list piece will determine your level of sight reading.  Be sure you understand the legislation.

The AMEA conference is going to be a great event. The groups selected to perform are: Thompson Jazz Band, Southside High School, Jacksonville Jazz/Latin Ensemble, Hoover First Edition, Hillcrest High School, Redstone Brass, and Pelham High School.  Also, several great clinics that are listed in this Ala Breve.    The conference is a wonderful way to learn new ways and techniques to improve our programs.  It is also a great place to talk to veteran directors who may have similar situations and how they handle it, or new directors with cutting-edge ideas for us more mature (OLD) directors.

The board is continuing to strive to make ABA a stronger organization to serve its members, and we would like to thank you for your support, encouragement, and feedback to fuel us to stay on that track.

AOA: Fostering a Spirit of Friendliness, Fellowship, and Cooperation

Oct 5 2017

Sam Nordlund

Paraphrased from AOA’s bylaws, this title exemplifies the message that our organization attempts to spread throughout our musical, and non-musical community.  Despite the state of our country and politics, AOA seeks to be an inclusive organization striving to support Alabama’s existing string and orchestra programs, teachers, and students, and helping nurture new ones into existence.  There is no room for discrimination.  In our state, we are the musical minority, the red-headed step-child, if you will.  Therefore, we are constantly seeking to gain equal recognition in the public eye.

Paraphrasing further in our bylaws, the AOA seeks to stimulate professional growth and advance standards of achievement in the string and orchestra communities.  I believe we have had remarkable success in raising the standard of string and orchestral playing in the state.  Alabama All-State Orchestra now has three highly competitive orchestras, where twenty years ago, we only had one.  AOA will host our third MPA in April 2018, a tradition we hope to continue and expand upon.  New school programs have sprung up in Tuscaloosa in the past fifteen years thanks to Dr. Anne Witt and Birmingham city programs are starting to make a come-back.  Just this year, Norwood Elementary in Birmingham started a new program, feeding into the middle and high school programs that already exist.  In time, this system will be musically strengthened.

Despite the positive news and trends, I am very frustrated by the refusal of administrators in the wealthy “Over-the-Mountain” area south of Birmingham, my own home base, to support string and orchestra programs.  I’m also frustrated by accounts from parents of band directors refusing to sponsor students to All-State Orchestra when the schools do not have an orchestra program or director to sponsor them.  Another complaint is against administrators who view All-State Orchestra as akin to a “baseball travel-team,” and not an excused absence.  Attitudes like this are what our community deals with frequently in Alabama, if you were unaware.  In other states, school orchestra is viewed as an essential and beneficial offering.

With the mixture of public and private programs (youth orchestras, string projects, and programs that serve the economically disadvantaged), Alabama is on a positive trajectory, however slight.  Bringing in top notch clinicians and conductors is one way the AOA strives to foster growth and excitement in our state.  At the 2018 AMEA conference in January, our headline clinician will be world-renowned pedagogue and educator, Dr. Robert Gillespie, Professor of Music at The Ohio State University.  At the conference, we will have the opportunity to learn teaching methods and techniques to improve ensembles and students in both the classroom and studio settings.  We will also have the opportunity to learn about physical and mental wellness, and how it can affect our performing and teaching.  A new addition in 2018 will be chamber music performances and masterclasses, an element that will show off our top students, and increase AOA’s presence at the conference.  Besides these sessions, there will be many other topics discussed, and professional opportunities that I hope you will be as excited as I am to experience, including the outstanding Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

We are honored to have Norman Huynh direct the 2018 All-State Festival Orchestra.  Norman is Associate Director of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.  Leading the Sinfonia will be Dr. Perry Holbrook, Director of Orchestras at Walton High School north of Atlanta, and the Consort String Orchestra will be conducted by Dr. Andrew Dabczynski, Professor Emeritus at Brigham Young University.  I hope to see you in Birmingham at the conference, and again in February at UA for All-State Orchestra!

AVA: MID-SEMESTER UPDATE

Oct 5 2017

Ginny Coleman

FALL WORKSHOP RECAP

I was glad to see many of you at Fall Workshop.  Thanks so much to all who helped make this year’s Fall Workshop a success.  I hope that you enjoyed interacting with your colleagues from around the state.  I was thankful for the opportunity to watch Judy Bowers teach.  It is evident that she has spent many hours in the classroom doing just what you and I do every day.  What a refreshing approach to professional development.

Please thank Jim Schaffer for securing Dr. Bowers as our clinician.  She was excited to get to interact with the music teachers in Montgomery, where her grandchildren go to school.  If you have the chance, thank Dr. Bowers for providing her services to us free of charge.

The handouts and presentations from Fall Workshop can be found on the AVA website.  They include the notes from Dr. Bowers’ sessions as well as the All-State presentation, and other notes from our meeting.

Please continue to send your feedback about Fall Workshop.  How can we better fulfill our mission through our Fall Workshop event?  If you have ideas, please let us know.

POLICY CHANGES

  • Please remember that the new deadline/late fee policy is as follows:
  • Registrations are due AND payments must be postmarked by the deadline. There is no longer a “deadline” and “absolute deadline.” There is only one deadline.
  • Schools are scheduled in the order that payments are received. Your registration does not reserve your place in the schedule. Your payment (along with completed registration) does.
  • Only those that have registered and paid by the deadline will be scheduled.
  • Registrations that are not paid by the deadline will be canceled.
  • If your registration is canceled, you will have to re-register and pay a late fee.
  • Late payment period is 2 weeks at $50, 3rd week at $100, and 4th week at $150.
  • No payments will be accepted more than 20 business days late.

To sum up, we have:

  • Removed the double deadlines (deadline and absolute deadline).
  • Extended the late payment period if you want to be extra late and pay extra money.
  • Fixed our system so that schools who have not paid never appear on any schedule. When the schedule is sent, and you discover that your name is not there, that means we have not received your payment and you will have to register again and pay a late fee.

What does that mean to you?

  • Register and pay by the deadline if you want to appear on the schedule.
  • Be exceedingly pro-active in making sure that your bookkeeper sends your check.
  • If you happen to miss a deadline, you still have four weeks to register. But you will only be scheduled where there is an opening.

We hope that these changes will allow us to spend less time chasing payments and policing deadlines and more time focusing on the mission of our organization.

BYLAW VOTE

At Fall Workshop, the membership voted to change the bylaw that deals with how we elect officers.  Here are the differences in the old and new bylaws.

OLD:

  • President-elect selected candidates.
  • Candidate announced at All-State general meeting.
  • After candidates were announced, the floor was open to nominations.
  • Immediate vote.

NEW:

  • Committee consisting of Executive board selects candidates.
  • Candidates are announced at the AVA general meeting at the AMEA conference.
  • Nominations from the membership are accepted for a predetermined time period.
  • Vote at All-State general meeting

CONTINUING INITIATIVES

We will continue to use online registration this year. 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 will continue to offer 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.

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.  Like last year, All-State results will not be mailed 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-20th at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham.  J.D. Frizzell will serve as our Honor Choir clinician.  We look forward to having Dan Davison join us for this conference.  He will present sessions about the male voice and share a reading session­ sponsored by J.W. Pepper.  AMEA President Susan Smith has also secured the popular a cappella group Voctave to present a concert and session.  You won’t want to miss this conference.

ELEM/GEN: A Time for Renewal

Oct 5 2017

When the air begins to have a hint of coolness in it and the moon becomes shaped like a football, it can only mean one thing…..Fall is here. With fall comes the beginning of a new school year and opportunities to reach your students as you never have before. A willing spirit and a little time will make all the difference in how you are going to take students from passive music listeners to active music consumers. As President of your AMEA elementary/general division board, along with the other board members, we want to assist you with innovative, rigorous and exciting ideas. With the release of our new standards and higher expectations facing us, these next years will be like none ever before.

In just a few days, the 12th Annual Elementary Music Festival will take place at Samford University’s Wright Center on Friday, October 6. Approximately 400 elementary students representing over 40 schools across the state have registered. The clinicians for this event will be Erika Bridge and Vic Oates. This music festival is a great opportunity for our students to learn and grow. Consider including your students for next year’s festival. The following day, Saturday, October 7th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. we will have our joint Fall Workshop sponsored by AMEA Elementary/General Division and AOSA. This year our clinician will be Orff specialist Ericka Bridge. The workshop will be held at Liberty Park Elementary at 17051 Liberty Parkway, Vestavia Hills, AL 35242.

As you know, the 2018 AMEA Professional Development Conference will be moving from Montgomery to the BJCC in Birmingham, Alabama. You will not want to miss this one. This year we are honored to have Lorelei Batislaong as our featured clinician. She will be presenting three sessions for us, while an Alabama favorite, Roger Sams, will return to present a session. Bring your ukuleles as Lorelei will take us through new ways to teach with them.  We will also have member-guided sessions ranging from bucket drumming with Viktoria Truesdail to around-the-world recorder with Darla Meek. Steve Campbell will introduce us to some rhythm-teaching strategies while Jeanette Shorey will lead us through stories that sing. The Mitchell Elementary Honor Chorus, under the direction of Doris Day, will be our featured choral performance. Please be sure to reserve Friday night for an evening of fellowship and music-sharing fun. We look forward to seeing you in Birmingham on January 18th -20th. Be sure to check the AMEA website (www.myamea.org) for details about preregistration and hotel information.

We hope to see you all at the Fall Music Workshop on October 7, and at the 2018 AMEA Professional Development Conference in Birmingham in January. Please contact us at elementaryamea@gmail.com for questions or concerns.

Phil R. Wilson, President

AMEA Elementary/General Division

HED: See you in January!

Oct 5 2017

Beck Halliday

Greetings and welcome back to a new school year! We are very excited about the 2018 Professional Development Conference to be held at our new venue in Birmingham January 18-20. Information about the Sheraton Hotel can be found on the AMEA website and I encourage you to book rooms sooner than later. Not only is this more convenient as a conference attendee, but it is anticipated that construction in the downtown Birmingham area will cause heavier traffic than usual, so staying in the conference hotel will be to your advantage.

We have a wonderful lineup of presenters, including sessions by Michael Zelenak (EdTPA), Becky Halliday (2017 Alabama Course of Studies), Ted Hoffman (Music Teacher Education Roundtable), Jamila McWhirter (Mentoring), Shane Colquhoun (Secondary General Music), Ellary Draper (Universal Design), Cameron Weatherford (Choral Leadership), Sean Murray (New Media), and Joe Brashier (International Band Music).

The HED luncheon will again be held on Thursday, at which time we will elect new officers for the positions of President-Elect and Secretary Treasurer. I hope you will consider filling these important roles within the HED Executive Council. You will receive an Evite through which you can RSVP.

This year, we are inviting collegiate soloists and chamber groups to perform in our Higher Education Division recital, also on Thursday. I ask that you contact me by December 15 with names, repertoire, timings, and any other specific needs. We will not have an accompanist available so please make arrangements accordingly. That evening, we will have an opportunity to socialize with our students in a more relaxed setting at our combined mixer.

I look forward to seeing you all in January and I hope you have a wonderful fall semester!

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