Just a reminder that lessons at Brunner Studios will resume on Jan. 2, 2013. I look forward to the chance to continue on a musical journey with my students. Festival registration for NFMC and NCMTA ends next week. More students than ever will be participating.
Brunner Studios is currently accepting new students for piano, voice and oboe lessons. Please check the contact page for how you can reach us to schedule your trial lesson.
Off to teach some lessons!
Congrats to all the students who participated yesterday in the NCMTA Festival for the Charlotte area.
A big thank you to all the teachers who ‘volunteered’ and helped the day run smoothly. Is it really volunteering if participation is mandatory?
See everyone again next year.
This year I am chairing 2 different piano festivals. Honestly, the amount of work doesn’t bother me. The hours of paperwork, a whole lot of email, phone calls, it really isn’t that big of a deal. The hardest part is getting volunteers.
Now for both of these festivals it is mandatory, according to the festival rules, that participating teachers volunteer on the day of the festival. The option is given to send a student or parent representative from your studio. Some teachers are really great about being ready to volunteer and even sending students. Many kids can get community service credit. Other teachers really drag their feet. There are very few legitimate excuses for not helping in some fashion, but you know from the paperwork that you submitted that volunteering is required. So if you just had surgery or have been sick, please find someone to take your place. If you are out of town, find someone to take your place.
Teachers who are only entering 1 or 2 students do have a little bit of a harder time, but it is right there on the paperwork. Those one or two students still have to be checked in just like those students from the teacher who entered 25.
It takes team work to make these festivals work. Students don’t need to be harried because there aren’t enough grownups to keep things running smoothly.
So call up your local music festival and see if they need some help. I promise that they will probably be happy to see you.
Hello to all my fellow teachers in North Carolina. If case you have lost your registration forms for the spring contest, you will find them at the bottom of the Resources pages of www.brunnerstudios.com
https://www.brunnerstudios.com/resources
Good luck to everyone this spring. The registration deadline is January 21, 2012.
Tomorrow, Ruggero Piano Store in Raleigh will be hosting the 2011 NCMTA Piano Repertoire Workshop. The schedule for the day looks like this:
Workshop schedule:
8:30 Registration
9:00 Junior A repertoire
10:20 BREAK (time approximate)
10:30 Junior B repertoire (presentation of Junior B music might begin earlier, allowing a longer lunch break)
12:00 LUNCH
1:00 Senior A repertoire
2:50 BREAK (time approximate)
3:00 Senior B repertoire
5:00 End of workshop
The cost is $30 for teachers and $5 for students. Please either bring a lunch or visit a local dining establishment.
The same workshop will be presented in Charlotte, NC on Sept. 17 at Queens University in the E. H. Little Fine Arts Center.
This is an excellent opportunity to familiarize yourself with the repertoire for the NCMTA Festival in the spring of 2012.
What are the formats of studio class?
The things we do for professional advancement and for the good of our students. North Carolina Music Teachers Assocation hosts a festival in the spring for those students to aspire to a high level of musicianship. Due to the large volume of literature to choose from, the NCMTA puts on 2 workshops in the fall so that teachers can hear all of the music in a live setting.
Since I will be out of town next weekend when the workshop is in Charlotte, I elected to drive to Raleigh for the day. Leaving at 6:00 this morning in order to get there by 9:00 was not my idea of fun. But it was well worth it. The music was wonderful and God bless those clinicians. I can’t imagine learning that quantity of music. For a quick guestimation, they each played approximately 40 pieces of music. The level of difficulty ranged from early intermediate to advanced repertoire.
So 3 bottles of water, 3 diets cokes, a cup of coffee, and a stop of Chick-fil-a later, I am home. Oh yeah and a bag of gummy worms, the yellow ones are the best.
For more information on the NCMTA festival visit www.ncmta.org Also, watch the website for more updates.