The NDMTA newsletter is published four times a year. Deadlines for submitting material are May 10, August 10, November 10, and
February 10.
Michelle Kallod, Editor
mkallod@hotmail.com
Phone: 701-235-8517
News Highlights
Dates to Remember and Reminders
2023 NDMTA Board Meeting: June 7th, Astoria Hotel, Dickinson
2023 MTNA National Conference: March 25-29 in Reno, Nevada
2023 NDMTA Conference: Dickinson, ND, June 7, 8, 9
2023 Popplers Music Competitions: Dickinson, ND, June 7th. Entry deadline is May 15th, 2023
2023 North Dakota MTNA Competitions: Oct. 21, at Valley City State University. Registration deadline is 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Sept. 13, 2023. Requirements, applications, fees and information is found on the MTNA website. Use this quick link to take you to the MTNA Competitions Page for more information: https://www.mtna.org/MTNA/Engage/Competitions/Competitions.aspx
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NDMTA Conference Rotation: 2022-2023 Badlands MTA; 2023-2024 Greater Grand Forks MTA
IMTF Luncheon Rotation: 2022-2023: Langdon Area MTA; 2024-25 Minot MTA; 2026-2027 Upper Valley MTA
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Latest Newsletter
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NDMTA Conference: June 7, 8, 9 at Dickinson State University, Hosted by Badlands MTA
•Save the dates, June 7,8,9 and take a road trip to beautiful Western North Dakota for the NDMTA Conference at Dickinson. The Badlands MTA are busy arranging an exciting line up of programs featuring presenters, Catherine Rollins, and Beth Klingenstein.
•Lisa Bost-Sandberg, NDMTA's commissioned composer will premiere her piece at the Wednesday Evening Concert. The piece will be performed by pianist, Éva Polgár.
•Popplers Music Competitions will be held on Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. at Beck Auditorium, Klinefelter Hall at DSU. The students will perform at the Wednesday Evening Concert. Competition rehearsals are scheduled for 12:00 p.m.
•The Ubuntu Marimba, a Middle School Ensemble will present a program at the Thursday Evening Concert. Catherine Rollin will round out the program with a piano performance.
•For all of the details and to register go to Events. https://www.ndmta.org/conferences.php
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Robert Groves: 2024 MTNA Foundation Fellow Nominee
Dr. Robert Groves has been nominated to be honored as the 2024 MTNA Foundation Fellow by the members of the NDMTA. With contributions of $1500 to the MTNA Foundation in his name, Groves will be honored at the 2024 MTNA Conference as an MTNA Foundation Fellow. Dr. Groves has been a long time contributor to the NDMTA and has often presented at NDMTA Conferences on teaching piano students. He has held summer workshops for piano teachers to teach pedagogy and give insights into some of the specific problems that arise when teaching piano.
Dr. Groves has been an active performer, clinician, adjudicator and author. He has been a member of the NDSU faculty since 1972 teaching studio piano, piano pedagogy, chamber music, and music history. He has also maintained a private studio of piano students ranging for early elementary through high school. More of Robert Groves academia can be read in his biography below.
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Darla Sheldon is 2023 Foundation Fellow
Dala Sheldon has been selected to be the 2023 MTNA Foundation Fellow. With contributions of $1500 to the MTNA Foundation in her name, Darla will be honored at the 2023 MTNA Conference. Darla was a long time member of Upper Valley MTA in Park River until her retirement and move to Fargo where she has continued her membership with the Fargo Moorhead MTA. Please read about Darla in her biography below.
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Enoch-Adeogo Orukotan Wins Division Junior Winds
The Division Rounds were completed in January, and ND has a WINNER! Enoch-Adeogo Orukotan is an 8th grade saxophone who studies with Russ Peterson. His family moved here from Nigeria when he was young and his dad is a pastor in Fargo for the Nigerian community. They have very limited funds, so his band teacher at Liberty Middle School in West Fargo, Lindsay Boyd, along with her mother, Linda Boyd and Russ, are helping to raise money for him to travel to Reno.
Their goal is $6000, which includes air travel, hotel, food, uber, accompanist, and they’d love to get him a new saxophone (he currently borrows one from the school). Sue Nagel was fortunate to accompany Enoch for his MTNA performances, and can vouch that he is an exceptionally talented, and dedicated young man. If anyone can help this young performer, please contact Sue Nagel at nagstur82@gmail.com.
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MTNA Competitions held Oct. 22 at VCSU
The three-tiered MTNA Performance Competitions (Junior, Senior and Young Artist) began with the state competitions level held at Valley City State University, on Oct. 22, 2022. Categories of performance competitions include string, brass, woodwind, piano, piano duet, voice and chamber music in string and woodwind with 3-6 performers. The non performance category includes composition in the levels stated above and also an elementary level.
This year there was just one competition entered, the Young Artist piano competition. Pictured is Lydia Watson, honorable mention, student of Oswald Johnson, VCSU; Zhouya Yang, winner, student of Dr. Tyler Wottrich, NDSU; Kevin Vandal, alternate, student of Dr. Dianna Anderson, MSU.
In addition, NDMTA will be sending these representatives: Vedant Srivastava in Junior Composition, Enoch-Adeogo Orukotan in Junior Wind, Gabe Sagini in Senior Strings, Katelyn Albers in Senior Woodwinds, and Danica Rumney in Young Artist Wind.
The winners of the state performance competitions will advance to the video-only Division level and the winners of the Division level advance to the in-person national finals to be held during the MTNA Conference in Reno, Nevada, March 25-29, 2023
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New: North Dakota Virtual MTA
The North Dakota Music Teachers Association has created a new association, the NDVMTA (North Dakota Virtual Music Teachers Association). The idea is to connect more teachers in rural areas across North Dakota and the goal is to offer membership to teachers across the state who do not have a local association near them.
The NDVMTA hopes to reach out to and support rural teachers, while also attracting young tech-savvy teachers and training student teachers, who find a virtual local meeting more accessible. The MTNA and NDVMTA are offering financial incentives for first-time members so if you are a teacher in a rural community this is a great opportunity to connect with other music teachers.
To sign up, send a text to (701) 620-9043. Please include your name, location and email address.
(Paraphrased from the August 2022 NDMTA Newsletter article by Tamara Bertram)
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Highlights of NDMTA 2022 Conference
A hearty thank you to the Fargo/Moorhead Music Teachers Association for hosting the 2022 NDMTA Conference in June. Also thank you to NDSU for the venue site at Reineke Hall and all the presenters who shared their knowledge to our benefit. It was wonderful to meet face to face again and be able to talk shop with our fellow teachers. The programs and sessions were inspiring and provided opportunity to learn and listen. The ultimate people that gain from this are the students we teach. Below are some of the pictures from the conference.
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The NDMTA Conference started with a supper meeting with the board members
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NDMTA board members meeting
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The first concert and official opening of the NDMTA 2022 Conference was the Popplers Competition and Commissioned Composer Concert, Wed., June , 2022. What an enjoyable way to start the conference!
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Popplers Competition Winners: Kathryn Toomey, 1st High School Division, Jacob Hausen, Grace Zhong; Ariel Bahn, 1st in Junior High Division; Elaine Liu, 1st in Elementary Division, Caroline Nelson
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After the Popplers Competition winners performed, the audience was treated to the piece " Suite of Uncommon Dances" composed by Christopher Gable, the 2022 MTNA Commissioned Composer. The three dances in the suite are "Streetlight Sarabande", "Awkward Middle School Slow Dance", and "Samba".
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Dianna Anderson and Eric Anderson perform the Suite of Uncommon Dances by Christopher Gable. What joy to listen to the premiere of this delightful piece performed by these two gifted musicians!
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NDMTA Vice President, Tamara Bertram, and composer, Christopher Gable discuss the commissioned piece, Suite of Uncommon Dances. Dianna Anderson and Eric Anderson, performers, are on the right.
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Melody Bober presented three sessions on Thursday of the Conference: Session I - Practice and Performance Tips for the Successful Pianist, where she gave tips on how to have a good quality practice/performance and on performance anxiety as well as recital ideas.
Session II - Melody presented composition strategies for students. Many suggestions were given on how to jump start your students on a composition pathway.
Session III - In this session, Melody presented many ideas for summer piano such as offer unique choices such as group lessons, duets, etc. and suggested the web sites of Colourfulkeys and Wunderkeys.com for more ideas. Other suggestions were to customize the lesson to the students' interests and needs. Melody gave many group lesson ideas and games to use as summer ice breakers in the group lessons.
There was so much and so many great ideas from Melody for the whole year of teaching!
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The Independent Music Teachers Forum was presented by Lisa Schuler with the topic of Summer Music Classes for 3-6 year olds. Many great ideas were given and the 'how to' of organization, ages and class subjects were explained by Lisa and the handouts that she distributed.
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Lisa Schuler presenting the IMTF program on Summer Music Classes: Ideas for Exploring Music with 3-6 year olds. At the luncheon, the teachers were her 3-6 year old students. It was a fun time for everyone!
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The 2022 NDMTA General Member Meeting was conducted by President Dianna Anderson. Installation of officers was held: Tamara Bertram is the incoming president and Michael Langer is the incoming vice president. Returning officers includes Sheryl Kjelland, Secretary, and Michelle Kallod, Treasurer. President Dianna is at the podium with the incoming president, Tamara Bertram on the right.
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Michelle Kallod was presented with a 25 Year Member certificate at the banquet. On the left is Lisa Schuler, Membership Chair, and on the right is Dianna Anderson, President.
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Two Foundation Fellows were recognized at the banquet: 2021 Fellow Marjorie Johnson and 2022 Fellow Lisa Schuler. Because of the pandemic and cancellation of the MTNA Conferences for two years, Marjorie and Lisa didn't get to go to the National Conference to be recognized. The NDMTA wanted to give them a special recognition. Pictured right to left is Vangie Johnson-Parker, Foundation Fellow Chair, Marjorie, Lisa and President Dianna Anderson.
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The Service to the Profession Award was given to Don Langlie for all of his support to the NDMTA and independent music teachers at Popplers Music. Amy Mercer, Service to the Profession Award Chair is presenting the award to Don.
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The Thursday night concert was a real treat!! The Excelsior! Trio performed an eclectic program of pieces to excite the soul! Members of the trio are Debra Harris, flute; Jay Hersberger, piano; Russ Peterson, saxophone.
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Friday morning session with Melody Bober was a showcase of new music. It is always fun to hear that new piece that will be just the perfect one of that particular student. Duets, ensembles and soloes were played for the enjoyment of all.
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Dr. Amy Mercer concluded the NDMTA Conference with a session on Interpreting Musical Styles in Elementary through Intermediate Teaching Repertoire.
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All in all, a great time was had by all who attended the 2022 NDMTA Conference and we look forward to traveling to the western part of North Dakota in 2023 when the Badlands MTA will host us dates TBA. Again we extend our thanks to the Fargo Moorhead MTA for hosting the 2022 conference.
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Check This Out!! Beth Klingenstein Featured in New MTNA Online Business Digest!
(Taken from MTNA Business Digest email, October 2021, Volume 1, Issue 1)
See the full October 2021, Volume 1, Issue 1, by clicking on this link or doing a 'copy and paste' of this web address: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Welcome-to-the-Inaugural-MTNA-Business-Digest.html?soid=1131528944391&aid=ed0oWaziV4E
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50 Year Members Honored by MTNA!!
Marjorie Johnson, NCTM, and Karen Okerlund, members of Fargo/Moorhead MTA are being recognized by the MTNA as a 50 year members of MTNA/NDMTA. They will receive a special 50-year Member pin from the MTNA. Congratulations, Marjorie and Karen for your dedication to the MTNA/NDMTA and the piano teaching profession!! It is a great achievement!
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