Sarah Schrader - President, Alabama Orchestra Association
Alabama will be our performing group this year. The Tuscaloosa City Schools string program has grown tremendously and accomplished amazing things in the few years it has been around.
This school Why Do We Teach Music?
Not because we expect you to major in music, not because we expect you to play or sing all your life, not so you can relax, not so you can have fun, but so you will be human, so you will recognize beauty, so you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world, so you will have something to cling to, so you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good. In short, more LIFE! ~Author Unknown
I am sure you have heard this saying before, but have you ever stopped to think after reading it, what exactly it is that makes you excited about teaching music every day? I have recently have been overjoyed and inspired to see Facebook posts from teachers and students showing why it is amazing that we get to do what we do. There was a post of a 4 year old playing the first line of Twinkle with perfect posture and perfect intonation followed by a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY TEACHER! There have been many posts of students playing in their spring recitals, some even duets with their teachers, and the mother’s proud comments with the videos. Some teachers post inspirational and hilarious stories from their days and years of teaching, all with exciting undertones that they have molded extraordinary human beings in their classrooms. When reading these posts and this quote, it reminds me that we are in a profession that is amazingly wonderful for us and the students. As you continue on with your school year, remember to be inspired by music and use your talents to form amazing human beings.
To help sustain your inspirational and energetic teaching throughout the school year remember to attend our annual AMEA conference in January. We have a very exciting conference line up for AOA this year. We will have Crystal Plohman, fiddle professor at Vanderbilt University, Suzuki teacher, and Canadian fiddle champion, present methods for incorporating fiddling in our string programs. Thank you J.W. Pepper for sponsoring Crystal’s trip. Rock Quarry Middle School from Tuscaloosa,
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system should serve as a model for us when exploring how to grow an outstanding string program in our schools. I am also delighted that we will have presentations on shifting, rhythm, orchestra classroom technology, classroom management, bass techniques, and an orchestral reading session sponsored by J.W. Pepper. There will be drawings for the music played in the reading session, so don’t miss out! Bring your instruments!
The 2015 All State Orchestra Audition results will be posted on November 17th. Thank you AOA district chairs for your extraordinary work during the audition season. We couldn’t pull this off without you! All registration for the festival will be done online and the deadline for this is December 1st. The actual festival will take place at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on February 12-15th. We look forward to seeing you and the students there. Thank you to all the band teachers who sent students to audition. A Special thanks to the ABA Officers and district chairs for sending the information out to all the band directors in the state. Your help got the word out to many teachers who will have students participating for the first time!
String teachers, now that your students have finished their All State Orchestra auditions, they can look forward to auditioning for UNA’s Honor Orchestra and attending the ASTA Alabama Honor Orchestra Festival. UNA’s Honor Orchestra will take place on UNA’s Campus January 9 and 10, 2015. Auditions for this will take place on November 4, 2014. Please contact Dr. Daniel Stevens at
dstevens1@una.edu or go to
http://una.edu/shoals-symphony/honor- orchestra.html for more information. The ASTA Alabama Honor’s Orchestra Festival will be held at the University of Alabama, November 7-9, 2014. No audition is required for this event! For more information on the Honor’s Festival go to
www.astabama.org
My list of youth orchestras was incomplete in the last Ala Breve.
There is another
outstanding youth orchestra in the Birmingham area called MOP (Music Opportunity Program). They have three
October/November 2014
Thank you for all the work you do to give students more LIFE. We are blessed beyond measure to do something every day that we love and to share it with others to help enrich their lives and make them better for knowing music!
Calendar of events: All-State Results Posted
online...Nov. 17, 2014
All-State Scholarship Application
Deadline...December 1, 2014 All-State Festival....Feb. 12-15, 2015
orchestra levels, so there is a place for everyone desiring to play in a group. For more information on the program please visit:
www.musicopprogram.org.
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