MMTA Newsletter, September 2024 🎶

A message from the President:

Teachers-

I hope this newsletter is reaching you at the end of a restful, invigorating and inspiring summer season. I always appreciate the opportunity to spend a lot of time with my family over the summer, and we made the most of it.

I also hope that you plan to attend our upcoming state conference at Calvin University. The conference committee has been working around the clock to bring you an exceptional lineup of speakers, presenters and performers. I just reviewed the schedule, and I now have the weekend of October 18 circled on my calendar as the thing I'm most excited about this fall!

Sending you the best for your teaching this fall. I looking forward to seeing you in Grand Rapids.

Sincerely,
Derek Kealii Polischuk

From the desk of Laurie M. Marshall, Vice President / Conference Chair:

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

First, I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming Michigan Music Teachers Association 2024 Annual Conference, October 18-19, Calvin University, Grand Rapids.

We received nearly 50 conference proposals and are excited to report we will offer a two-track conference with two packed days of performances, presentations, awards, and more. Modeled after the MTNA National Conferences, these events will include professional development, performance artistry, technique, literature, leadership information, and more. See the conference presenters, abstracts, and schedule HERE!

For an all-inclusive conference package, register HERE! Early registration ends September 15^th.

Also, calling all Michigan MTA members who have published or recorded: We are offering you vendor space at the conference. Please contact me for details.

Next, just returning from the MTNA Annual Leadership Summit, we have so much exciting information from our new CEO Brian Shepard. The leadership team of President Peter Mack, President-Elect Kevin Chance, and Immediate Past President collaborate with an outstanding team of leadership volunteers and staff with much exciting news. MUCH information will be shared at the MMTA Conference next month; however, registration is now open for the MTNA Annual Conference, March 15-19, 2025 in Minneapolis, MN.

As always, your input is important to me. Please feel free to contact me at any time.

Laurie

Nominating Committee Report

The Nominating Committee was composed of:

Michelle Mitchum (Grand Traverse - Central District) 

Jeanne Hanley Thelen (Livonia and Detroit - Eastern District)

Silvia Roederer (Kalamazoo - Western District) 

Béatrice Ellis, Committee Chair, Immediate Past President (Ann Arbor)

The Nominating Committee is presenting Janice Derian as the Nominee for the position of MMTA Vice President (2024-2026). This nomination will be submitted for a vote at the Membership Business Meeting on October 19, 2024 during the MMTA Conference at Calvin University in Grand Rapids.

Treasurer's Report

Members can view a year end financial report and the proposed budget for the coming year on the MMTA website. That link is: https://michiganmusicteachers.org/financial-documents/
Members will have to be logged in to access the folder and view the documents.

The Piano Handbook and Testing committee has been working on the 2025 tests since May and they’re looking great already! We’ll continue through a few more rounds of proofing and correcting until December. We have a great group of teachers working on the tests but can always use some new eyes. If anyone is interested in writing tests or proofing them, we’d be glad to have you!

This summer the SAT Advisory committee has made a few changes based on teachers’ recommendations:

Level 8 now has three minutes to prepare Sight-Reading. Keep in mind that students can use the three minutes however they choose.
Memory requirement: students not participating in Semi-Finals will perform three complete pieces with at least one being from memory. This is now a permanent change to the handbook.
The registration fee paid to MMTA will increase from $7 to $12 for each student. The $5 increase will be set aside to save for future investment into the SAT program.
The SAT certificates are being redesigned into an 8.5 by 11-inch certificate that can be printed by the local chapter or by individual teachers. We are discontinuing the SAT seals, and will include a seal image as part of the certificate design. The state will no longer send out certificates.
We are working on changing the trophy process to make ordering and delivery more streamlined and more cost-effective. Look for details later in the MMT and in communications to local chairs.
Levels 6-12 students NOT planning to proceed to Semi-finals may now play solo arrangements or transcriptions. Students who DO plan to proceed to Semi-Finals may only play transcriptions that are listed in Maurice Hinson’s “Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire.”
We added Jane Magrath’s updated book “Piano Literature for Teaching and Performance” as another resource for performance options.
The performance rating sheet is being updated and will be available online later.
A few Aural Awareness tempo markings for rhythm and melodic dictation have been changed slightly.
We are also working on updating the Aural Awareness instructions to make them more consistent from level to level and are looking at changing instructions for how to give the melodic dictations (which may make these a bit easier for the students) Look for more information in future MMTs and in communications to local chairs.
The SAT sections of the MMTA website have been cleaned up for easier use. All the changes from the past few years have been consolidated into one document. All the old multiple documents of changes have been removed, leaving just the 2017 handbook and a summary of all updates.
The handbook is currently being updated to include all the changes made since it came out in 2017. It should be up soon.
It will now be easier to either add all updates to your old handbook or to print out the updated one.

Submitted by Janice Derian, SAT Advisory committee chair
Jacki VanderSlik, SAT Handbook & Testing chair

MMTA is a vitally important organization for music teachers in Michigan! We offer engaging professional development webinar series, local association and collegiate chapter memberships, the annual state conference and both competitive and non-competitive student performance opportunities and events.

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