MAY 2005 NEWSLETTERDATE: May 10, 2005 PLACE: Raoul’s Restaurant, 5120 FM 1960 W. (on south side, just west of Greenwood Forest Dr.) TIME: Program 10:00 AM continuing through Luncheon 11:00 AM From the president: From the President: It has been my distinct pleasure to be your president for the last three years. This year has been especially great since it was our 25th anniversary year. We have grown in teacher membership, and student membership since I became president (again) in 2003. We also have had very successful fundraisers, and increased our scholarship monies. I have enjoyed being a part of all of this healthy growth and outreach to the community. I hand over the torch now to Dorothy Kirkpatrick, who will be a very able and outstanding president. I hope that all of our teachers will continue to support our organization just as they have for the last three years, and in the years to come that CCMTA will become a real beacon for music for our community. Best wishes to all. See you at the luncheon. Rebecca S. May Installation of Officers: The following, having been elected at the April meeting, will be installed May 10th:
Grants-in-Aid Recipient: This year’s award goes to Veronica Llanos-Butler, the full-time music therapist and internship supervisor at The Rise School of Houston, a non-profit preschool for children with disabilities ages 6 months to 6 years. She was recently trained in Neurologic Music Therapy and has wanted to start a Rhythmic Speech Cuing group using a series of gathering drums and floor drums to help the children work on their speech and language development, as well as overall fine/gross motor and social/communication skills. Our grant, which we are pleased to award, will help her purchase those drums. Travels With Andrea: Andrea Cannon’s first stop was El Salvador. Her report follows (check out the link below—more fascinating detail!): I have just returned from the 3rd Salvadoran Suzuki Festival in San Salvador, El Salvador. My class included 12 teachers who were there to learn the process for teaching Level 1 of the Suzuki Guitar Method. In addition there were 10 students ages 6 to 14 there for Master Class and Ensemble instruction. The Final Concert performance was great! I was interviewed by the newspaper and the TV news. I was even able to (haltingly!) teach the children's classes in Spanish. For the teachers, though, I had a translator. I’ve already been invited back for the 4th Festival and am looking forward to it. This summer I will travel far and wide to teach at camps in Canada, Colorado, Ohio and Pennsylvania. At every opportunity when I am away, I speak of the benefits of our organization and encourage teachers to join their local MTA. Anyone who is interested in keeping up with the places and travels of the summer can do so at: www.xanga.com/HoustonGuitarGal Results of Harris Activity Awards Finalized: Cash awards were won by nine of the twenty-four students who succeeded in achieving the required number of points for entry in CCMTA’s third annual Harris Activity Awards Competition. All the remaining fifteen students earned honorable mention awards for their impressive efforts as well. A list of cash award winners and honorable mention recipients is included as an insert in this newsletter. Both cash and honorable mention awards will be presented to the involved teachers at our May Luncheon so that each teacher may have the flexibility of presenting the awards to their individual students at their own convenience. The competition was narrowed down to a very select group of students this year, due to the number of points required for entry jumping from last year’s 12 points for all grades to this year’s 14 points for grades 1-8, and 17 points for grades 9-12. Only the most enthusiastic student workers throughout the year were able to meet the challenge. CCMTA proudly commends the enthusiastic work of all involved teachers and students! (Funding for these very special annual awards is made possible through an Endowment Fund set up by Pat Wickey, CCMTA’s first President, and her family. We are most grateful for their generosity.) High School Piano Competition: Chairman Linda Herring reports that 12 students participated at the event on April 9th at H&H Music. The judges said that they were happy with the level of performance. Teachers of the winners are Sharon Anthony, Colleen Bell, Don Harris, Linda Herring, Sharon Peng, and Janice VanDerbur. Junior Division 1st place-Vicky Ren 2nd place-Victoria Yeh 3rd place-Enstin Ye 4th place-Laura Trujillo Senior Division 1st place-Robert Conrad (no 2nd place awarded) 3rd place-Soma Ghoshal 4th place-Stephanie Harris The winners will be invited to perform one piece of music at the Luncheon. The Competition’s sponsors, H&H Music Co. and The Music Rack, will present the award checks and plaques to the winners. Publications Contest: Chairman Terri Matchett is pleased to announce that CCMTA has both a winning and an outstanding entry in the TMTA Publications contest. The winning entry is Michael Cook (student of Nancy Johnston), and the outstanding entry is Christina Witkowsky (student of Cheri Bell). Teachers can pick up their entries at The Music Rack, and the two teachers above should do so immediately, as the students need to return a picture and additional information to TMTA by May 1st. Member Disciplined for Rules Infraction: Our teachers have usually been good about reading the rules governing the activities involved in our events and obeying them. However, the CCMTA Executive Council was recently called into emergency session due to one member’s disregarding the rules at the Piano Contest. Scheduled to work from 7:30 AM to noon, the member arrived at least an hour late with no explanation and left unannounced a half hour early. The contest chairman wrote a letter to the president, who in turn wrote to the offender, explaining that the contest rules were quite explicit, stating that failure to comply called for disallowing that member from entering students in that event the following year. The letter requested a reply with an explanation, if any, by a given date, but no answer was received. The Council, therefore, met in person, with six present in addition to the president, and voted unanimously that the member not be able to enter students in that event next year, and the president was instructed to so notify the member by mail. |