Colleagues:

It was good to see many of you at our virtual Fall Workshop in September. Thank you to Meg Jones, Hilen Wilson, Cameron Weiler, Chris Brown, and all who presented sessions. A special thanks to Jim Schaeffer, our interim webmaster for facilitating the online format for the workshop. At the general membership meeting, we voted on the wording in the AVA Handbook, which we feel clarifies the fact that directors are the experts who should decide the best voice parts for their students regardless of the students’ genders; there were no policy changes. Please visit the website to read the adopted Handbook revisions as well as the minutes of the meeting. Recordings of the sessions will be available on the website through October 11. We expect the newly revised AVA Handbook to be available online soon.

All-State Auditions are November 2-10. We will invite each registered student to join a Google Classroom through which we can communicate instructions with the student and accept recordings of their auditions. We will also send information to teachers through email. Please refer to the website for the official All-State repertoire lists, as there has been some confusion about All-State repertoire. Check your email on October 3 for a preliminary announcement as to how we plan to proceed with auditions based on the numbers of students who registered to audition.

The 2021 AMEA Conference will be January 21-23. The conference will be virtual, and to minimize time away from students, will be Thursday and Friday evenings and all day Saturday. This conference promises to be an event you will not want to miss. We will have live-streamed or recorded concerts of exemplary ensembles from our state as well as the live-streamed performance of our All-State Show Choir. Because this conference will be virtual, we have the unique opportunity to offer timely sessions by presenters from not only our state but from around the nation as well. I look forward to seeing you virtually at the conference.

All other spring semester activities are on track to happen as normal. However, your board is evaluating each event, listening to your concerns and recommendations, and considering the safety of our students. We will announce plans for all spring activities by mid-January. As always, please feel free to reach out to your district chair or me whenever you have a concern or idea that will benefit our students.

Warm Regards,

Randall Fields

AVA President