Yesterday, I received a notification about a survey being conducted by Carnegie Hall and The Julliard School. (Click here if you are interested in taking part in the survey.) The survey is gleaning information from teachers about the plausibility of offering a National Music Achievement program. I think it’s an interesting concept, and completed the survey in about 10 minutes. I found a number of the questions somewhat thought-provoking, including this one:

What factors do you believe motivate your students to be engaged in music? Please think of your students between ages 5 and 18. (Please select all that apply)

* Playing music naturally excites them
* They enjoy gaining recognition for their skills
* They hope to use music to help them get into college
* Their parents urge them to continue playing music
* None, my students are not really motivated to study music
* Other (please specify)

I’d be curious to know how other teachers would answer a question like this. What do you find are the motivating factors for your students? I’m actually going to ask my students this question, too, to get their first-hand answer on what motivates them. That will be quite interesting, I think!

MTNA has announced their 2010 conference:

Take a trip down Route 66 as MTNA heads to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for this year’s National Conference, March 20–24, 2010, at the Hyatt Regency and Albuquerque Convention Center! This year’s conference highlights include:

• Evening concerts by pianist Kevin Kenner and cellist William De Rosa, the American Pianist Association Fellows and the winners of the Canadian and United States Chopin Piano Competitions
• MTNA Student Competitions
• Pedagogy Saturday
• Educational sessions
• Teaching demonstrations and master classes
• Industry showcases and Exhibit Hall demonstrations
• Nearly 100 exhibitors

Since I didn’t get to attend the Atlanta conference this year, I’m thinking about trying to make it to Albuquerque in 2010. Anyone else making plans to attend?

This weekend, I’ve been attending our annual state music teachers conference. We’ve had a slate of wonderful musicians and presenters. Here are some pictures with a few notes:

The conference began with Brenda Dillon sharing about the Recreational Music Making program that has been developed in the last several years.

Dr. Robert Weirich gave a masterclass yesterday. My student, Luke, was one of four that played for Dr. Weirich. It was a wonderful experience! I always love attending masterclasses and learning from other teachers – watching their interaction with the students, and their approach for dealing with the problems that they observe.

In the evening, Dr. Weirich gave a lecture recital called “Aaron Copland’s America: Cultural Identity Explored through his Piano Music.”

I’m more familiar with Copland’s orchestral music than his piano music. And for the most part, I prefer his orchestral music, although Dr. Weirich introduced me to some nice piano selections as well.

This morning, Wendy Stevens gave a session on teaching composition to our students. You can find a lot of great material and tips on her new website.

Tony Caramia spent the day with us yesterday and then presented two workshops today. It was fun to meet him in person and find out that he is a Music Matters Blog fan! He’s got a great sense of humor, and of course is a wonderful Jazz musician.

There were numerous other aspects of the weekend, but these are some of the highlights. I love attending our state conference each year! It’s been a great way to connect with teachers from across the state, meet and learn from wonderful presenters, and pick up lots of great teaching ideas! Do any of you attend your state conference? Have you been to any particularly interesting sessions? Or heard any particularly great presenters?

If any of you, like me, wish you could have been at the MTNA Conference in Atlanta, but couldn’t make it, you will definitely want to take a few minutes to visit Laura Lowe’s blog. She did some blogging at the conference, and has several additional posts up now with brief summaries from some of the sessions she attended. I know from my experience live-blogging the 2007 NCKP that it’s a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun! Plus, doesn’t this just make you want to attend the conference in person and drink in all the great information and ideas?!

I just received the following e-mail from some doctoral students at UMKC and would encourage you to take 10 minutes to help them with their research by completing the survey they’ve created. It’s very easy-to-understand-and-navigate, and I’m sure the findings of the research will be very beneficial!

We are Doctoral students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City doing research for a presentation at the 2009 Music Teacher’s National Association national conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Our research is about how the present economy has affected private music teaching.

We are looking for private music teachers of any instrument to take 10 minutes out of their busy schedules to complete an online anonymous national survey to help us with our research for our session presentation in Atlanta at the end of March. We would greatly appreciate it if you could participate in our survey and could also forward this on to your members and encourage them to participate as well.

We need several hundred responses from across the nation. Please feel free to send this link to any private music teachers that you know.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WHXP_2bsgy1ASCvcsp_2bWOyaw_3d_3d

Thank you so much for your time and your responses!

About.com’s Music Education Blog has some great information about the musical performances scheduled to be a part of the Presidential Inauguration Ceremonies on January 20. On this historic day, Americans will be hearing from:

The Marine Band
The San Francisco Boys Chorus
The San Francisco Girls Chorus
Aretha Franklin
John Williams with Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, Gabriela Montero, and Itzhak Perlman
The United States Navy Band

You can visit the Presidential Inaugural Committee website for a complete schedule of events and order of ceremony.

A couple of weeks ago I received an e-mail announcing the dates for our local Clavinova Festival. The Clavinova Festival is one of our favorite studio events! In addition to being a fun opportunity to explore the latest in music technology, students receive t-shirts and get their name entered in a drawing to win their own Clavinova! Over the years, I’ve had three students win the prize Clavinova and one of them now makes its home in my studio (thanks to an incredibly generous student!).

Anyway, I’ve been recently perusing this site run by Susan Ogilvy: SOspace. Lisa, a regular Music Matters Blog reader, sent me the link a little while back and it is loaded with ensemble music written specifically for use with the Clavinova! Many of the ensemble pieces have audio excerpts so you can get a better idea of what might be of interest to your students. A perfect place to find appropriate repertoire if you have students participating in a Clavinova Festival!

I’m also intrigued by the Clavinova Composition Challenge that Susan is offering. Students aged 8 and up are invited to compose a piece specifically for the Clavinova utilizing one or more of a variety of technological elements as listed on the Composition Rules Sheet. The winner is awarded publication by Ogilvy Music and Performance at KETS 8 in June of 2009 and at Clavinova Festivals around the country. What a great opportunity for students to delve more into the use of technology and instrumentation in composing! I’m looking forward to presenting the challenge to my students!

If you’re interested in participating, just e-mail Susan Ogilvy and request a Registration Form.

I’ve been looking over the info for the 2009 MTNA Conference and am still debating whether to try to make the trip or not. Anyone else planning to attend?

Thanks to Chris Foley over at The Collaborative Piano blog for alerting me to this excellent offer! From now through November 24th, you can register on the Radio 4 website to gain access to 10 beautiful symphonies which you can download for free. You can never have too much good music on your computer, right?

Isn’t this exciting?!