Presidents Message November December 2010 Im trying to find the courage to say goodbye to 2010.

. We are still busy with this years events, meetings and retrospections. A state of the union address would include a glowing report of the LVC successes for the (calendar) year. A glance back at the years highlights indicates that we can be justifiably proud of the student and teacher offerings. Our most recent guest master teacher declared that he was most impressed with our organization. It would be interesting to calculate exactly how many students have benefited from participation in the Met Opera field trip, PMTA student recitals, auditions, the Playathon, Master classes, special student rates for concerts, summer camp/ Chesebro scholarships, and programs for the teachers that ultimately aid their students. Im certain wed be surprised at the number. Our heads remain full of the weekend of AAAthe planning, anticipation, implementation, and review of the event. The report from the committee chair is found elsewhere in this newsletter. We are grateful to the members who donated endless hours prior to this weekend and on this weekend, those who dealt with problems with no complaints, those who pitched in when more personnel were needed, and the spouses who spent one OR two whole days serving our organization! Do they stop to celebrate a success? No, they look to the future and search for ideas to make AAA better the next time. Linda Perron will be relinquishing the position of AAA Chair in April when she is installed as President. You may recall how close we came to canceling AAA in 2009 until Linda, who was new to our chapter, stepped forward to volunteer her service as Chair. She has created an impressive number of files and job descriptions that will be an enormous help to her successor. Please contact me if youd like to volunteer for this position. Warm wishes to everyone a relaxing, Happy Thanksgiving and a joyous Holiday Season. Carolyn Anderson, President LVC-PMTA Recital An LVC-PMTA Recital is scheduled for December 12, 2010, Sunday at 4:00 pm at Luther Crest Retirement Facility. Please submit applications found on the website lvpmta.org to Darlene Ziegler by December 6, 2010. Each teacher may submit up to four students with a total (for all students) of 15 minutes.

Collaborative Recital A special recital will take place in Peter Hall Saturday, January 22, 2011. The Lehigh Valley Salute to Collaborative Music will be celebrating MTNAs Year of Collaborative Music. General information and a mission statement about YCM is located on the MTNA website. We invite all teachers to submit applications for student ensembles to perform. 2011 PLAY-A-THON The 2011 Hannah Young Play-a-thon will take place on Saturday, February 26 from 10 am to 8 pm, and Sunday, February 27 from 12 to 4 pm at the Palmer Park Mall in Easton. Information on this annual fundraiser is currently available on the LV-PMTA website; the updated forms will be available on the site around December 1. The deadline for submission of the Studio Registration form is February 14. Please note that students will once again use the Pledge Sheets in collecting their donations, and also that, like last year, all donations will be collected at the Mall before each student performs. Questions should be directed to Co-Chairs Randi Paul (610-360-0149) or Cherie Murray (610-967-1067). Contact Cherie if you are not available to access the forms online and wish to have hard copies sent to you. Please encourage your students to participate in this important event! Scholarship Auditions Just a reminder for teachers having students who are seniors planning on becoming music majors in college: scholarship auditions will be held on Sunday, May 15, 2011; the postmark deadline for applications is Monday, April 18, 2011. See the website later this month for details. Submitted by Martha Schrempel News from the studio of Darlene Ziegler Congratulations to Jesse Huang, student of Darlene Ziegler, for receiving Honorable Mention in the Ithaca Piano Competition, Division II, September 25, 2010 at Ithaca College, New York where he performed pieces from Mozart and MacDowell. News from the studio of Denise Williams The following Students of Denise A. Williams were recent Winners in the Yocum Institute for Arts Education Second Annual Piano Competition: Abbi Wang, 6th Grade...........1st Place Winner in the 4th-6th Grade Category Zachary Fung, 4th Grade.......3rd Place Winner in the 4th-6th Grade Category and Seth Aaron Yoder, 12th Grade..........1st Place Winner in the 10th-12th Grade Category. Auditions took place on Oct. 16th and 17th. The Honors Recital was held on Nov. 7th.

News from the studio of Betty Hoch Serg Romanchak, a former piano pupil of Alma Hoch at the 101 year old Bethlehem Conservatory of Music paid Betty a surprise visit in September on his return home from a concert tour of 3 Eastern European countries namely Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland. While in Warsaw, he was honored to participate in the dedication ceremonies for a one time only in the world museum dedicated to Chopin, unique in that it is in 3 sections: 1) As a child, 2 ) Adult as we know him and 3) As a teacher. While there Serg also cut a CD of which 1 side is Ravel and the 2nd Chopin. Serg, now 57, has his own school for music in Mclean, VA. While a student at West Chester, Serg was an outstanding student of the late Ben Whitten, winning the concerto competition in his freshman year. He expressed his gratitude to Betty for opening the door to the wonderful world of music for him. AAA The 2010 Achievement Awards Auditions was held on November 13 followed by three Honors Recitals the next day. Both events took place at Moravian College as usual. There were 276 students, including strings and a records number of voice students, and eight judges. Lots of thanks to those who served in so many ways to make the weekend of great value to our students. Many thanks to Jack for working late into the night preparing the recital programs. Thanks to Herb for striking a great bargain when our ribbon supplier wanted to almost double our prices. A reminder for next year, all participating teachers need to serve during the event weekend, except for application and program committees. (Accompanying does not count, as that is a studio matter.) Many hours are spent making preparations leading up to the event. The weekend of the event itself requires about 124 hour of service. With the average of 23 teachers (not counting the 5 exceptions above) that means each needs to serve at least five hours. Many served all day Saturday and some served Sunday as well. Some teachers hire responsible students to cover their obligations; this is fine. The jury is out on the new Judges Rating Sheets. Participating teachers are reminded to fill out and mail the surveys attached to their ribbon envelopes. Judges are doing the same. Apologies to those of you who found the new AAA Rules and Regulations were not posted on the web as early as would have been comfortable. The modifications were made over the summer. They took a little longer than anticipated to complete. Onward to the next event. Linda Perron AAA Chair Vice-president

MTNA Conference Grant If you have never attended a national conference, do consider applying for the MTNA National Conference Grant. The application form, found under Forms on the LVPMTA site, is not onerous. Terms and conditions of the award can be found on the Teachers National Conference Grant page in the For Teachers column. Attendance at the National Conference is a special opportunity to be musically and pedagogically inspired. No applications have been received as of Nov. 16. The 2011 conference is being held March 26-30, 2011 in Milwaukee. Send applications to Carolyn Anderson, Conference Grant Chair. January General Meeting The next general membership meeting takes place Wednesday, January 12, 2011 in Hearst Hall. Please note the time of the meeting: 9:30-10:00 am. Meet and Greet will be from 9:00-9:30 before the meeting. We look forward to a presentation by The Flutations beginning at 10:00 am. Annual Opera trip to the Metropolitan Romeo and Juliette by Gounod February 28, 2011 Only 35 tickets available this year so get your requests in early. All chaperone seats have been filled. Janice Derstine Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival The local Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival was held on October 9, 2010 at Moravian College. Students of the following teachers participated: Beatrice Allen, Carolyn Anderson, Susan Kuntz, Keren Ligowski, Rosemary Murdy Haber, Martha Schrempel, Gloriana Sewell, Jack Stevenson, Darlene Sydlik, Denise Williams, Elizabeth Zemanek, and Darlene Ziegler. There were a total of 101 solo performers and one duet pair. All participants were pianists. 48 students received overall grades of "superior" and were therefore eligible to perform at the Showcase recital held at Penn State University on November 20. Thank you to co-chair Darlene Ziegler, to all participating teachers, and to all the volunteers that helped make this event a success! Respectfully submitted by Elizabeth Zemanek LVC/PMTA Dorothy Sutton Performance Festival Chair

Memo to Members It is the responsibility of leadership to provide opportunity, and the responsibility of individuals to contribute. (William Pollard, 1911-1989) Your suggestions for improvement of AAA procedures are taken seriously. That is why teachers who participated in this years AAA received a questionnaire asking for your opinions about the AAA judging form. Please complete and return these questionnaires so your voice can be heard. I will be contacting many members to offer positions on several committees for the 2011-2012 year. This is an opportunity for every LVC member who teaches to walk the walk; it is not enough to talk the talk. Our abilities and talents differ, and if one person lives far away or is not suited to the work of a particular committee, other options exist. If you are not currently serving on a committee or in some other capacity, please consider giving back to the organization that serves our students and teachers. If youd like to serve on a committee that doesnt currently exist, you can offer to assist in the formation of a new (or revived) committee. Some committees have been disbanded over the years for lack of personnel. It would be great to have more than two people on the AAA, DSPF or Playathon committees. It would be great if no one needed to work on more than two committees. It would be great if we were an organization in which each and every member committed to a particular responsibility. Think about it. Carolyn Anderson