WMEA News Brad Schneider, WMEA President-Elect
Wisconsin State Virtual Music Conference - October 25-30, 2020
For obvious reasons, the WMEA annual October conference was held virtually. Using a platform called Accelevent, WMEA presented over 48 sessions, four keynote speakers and 43 exhibitors.
The keynote speaker was Kai Kight. Featured speakers included an exploration of the musical Hamilton by Sarah Marty, a demonstration of creating student com- positions in a large group rehearsal by Jim Papoulis and a very special address from Dr. Mackie Spradley – NAfME president. The entire conference was very well received with comments such as “Great week! Kudos to all our friends at WMEA!!” from attendees. The amount of work to shift our in-person conference to a virtual format cannot be overstated. A special “Thank you, and job well done!” to Executive Director Laurie Fellenz and the entire conference planning team.
Annual awards were given out at Friday’s closing session:
Service Awards
• Distinguished School Board Member Award - Pete Chisholm - North Fond du Lac
• Distinguished Legislator Award - Rep. Sondy Pope of the 80th Assembly District.
• Music Industry Award - David “Arnie” Arneson - Schmitt Music- Eau Claire, Tristann Rieck - Brass Bell Music - Milwaukee
• Michael G. George Distinguished Service Award - Dr. Gregg Butler - Fall Creek
Additional Awards & Recognition
• Melvin F. Pontious Creative Sparks in Music Education Award - Con- ferred this year to the Middleton High School Music Faculty -
24 January 2021
Douglas Brown, Steve Kurr, Jamie Pitt, Eric Rothacker and Michael Ver Voort for their innovative sec- ondary general music curriculum which they call the ‘non-semble’ program
• Richard G. Gaarder Award - Presented to Marissa Altendorfer, an undergraduate music education student (UW-River Falls) who has shown exceptional leadership, musical excellence, and service to campus and community.
• Wisconsin Award for Excellence in Teaching Music (WMEA/WSMA co-sponsored) - To Steve Sveum (Sun Prairie) - In recognition of a career of inspiring his students’ passion for music.
WMEA Advocacy Committee
Brad Schneider – Chair
The WMEA Advocacy Committee spon- sored two sessions at the October 2020 virtual conference. Below are their titles and conference recording links:
Advocacy Success Stories: Wisconsin Teachers Share Ideas That Have Worked
https://www.accelevents.com/e/2020W isconsinStateMusicConference/portal/ schedule/31882
Panelists that shared their ideas, initia- tives and ongoing projects were Carolyn Atwell, Erica Breitbarth, Laura Burns, Corynn Nordstrom, Matt Quaglieri, Kati Seiter and Brad Schneider. Three basic tenets unified the session:
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