NYSMTA Conference, October 18-20, 2013
Round up by Terry Dybvig
The NYSMTA Conference in Albany took place at the beautiful
College of St. Rose in Albany, NY October 18-20, 2013. To start with, the drives up to and back from
Albany were gorgeous! The Catskills were
garlanded with trees in every vivid fall color, and the traffic was so much
less crazy than it is here on Long Island – even though we traveled through
Connecticut at rush hour on Friday, travel was easy.
The conference itself was well-run and full of interesting
and enjoyable events. Friday, October 18
was filled with both administrative meetings, and vocal and instrumental
competitions for Juniors, Seniors, Collegiate, and Young Artists. I did not attend any of those events, but on
Saturday afternoon, we heard the winners of the Kilian, Empire State, and MTNA
competitions. The students were all in
junior and senior high school, and they were all well-prepared and
accomplished. These hard-working young
people all threw themselves into inspiring performances of their music.
The main part of the conference itself started on Saturday
morning with the featured clinician, Dr. Bruce Berr of Chicago. You may have read some of his “ad lib”
columns in MTNA journal, American Music
Teacher. Dr. Berr shared his
expertise with us for almost four hours on Saturday, covering many topics in
piano teaching. One interesting approach
he shared with us is geared toward helping students understand the foiled
expectations in music that create special moments – when a composer writes an
unexpected rhythm, an inverted melodic figure, or shift from major to minor,
for example. He has students practice
playing the “expected” sound that the composer chose not to write. After they have become accustomed to the
“expected” sound, they return to playing the music as written. At that point, they hear how the composer
created a special moment by foiling our expectations. As examples, he used a syncopated tune, Camel Ride, from Music Tree Part 1, and the
first movement of Clementi Sonatina in C Major, op. 36 no. 1. He has students play Camel Ride with the syncopated note occurring on the first beat of
the next measure, so when they return to playing the piece as written, they
feel the syncopation as exactly what it is – an early downbeat. The Clementi offers many opportunities to
experience foiled expectations; one is to have a student play the development
in major for long enough that they hear the unexpected surprise when Clementi
moves to minor instead.
Dr. Berr shared many other things with us on Saturday, and
answered some questions we wrote down on note cards. He also solicited our ideas, creating an
atmosphere of appreciation and respect.
After lunch, we had a lovely break from thinking. Soprano Susan Hermance Fedak and pianist Evan
Mack beautifully performed Six Gupta
Songs by Cynthia Lee Wong, which were commissioned especially for the
conference. Each song created its own
mesmerizing world. It was a perfect art
experience for the middle of the day.
When my own talk’s time slot arrived, participants had the
opportunity to attend one of two presentations.
I was disappointed to see that one of the presentations I had looked
forward to attending was opposite me!
Such is life. I was told later
that the participants spit exactly 50/50 between the two talks. Mine was about wellness ideas and resources
we can all bring into our teaching studios.
I was a little nervous when I started (just like performing!), but soon
I felt like it flowed. I have to thank
SPTF members Fran Hanlon, Tami Slobodkin, and Dan Fogel for helping me prepare
for this talk by attending a run-through with some other friends. I felt like everyone who attended the
run-through was sincerely engaged in helping me communicate my ideas clearly
and effectively. Everyone’s comments
made me realize elements I needed to explain better or expand upon. As a result, the talk was much more focused
and effective. The conference attendees
asked good questions and gave me positive feedback, so I felt like I succeeded
in reaching those who attended. That was
nice.
The last event before dinner was a beautiful pianist, Pola
Baytelman, played a recital of music of Villa-Lobos, Joseph Fennimore, Crumb,
Milhaud and Mendelssohn. Her playing was
mature, passionate, and engaged, and it was a pleasure to hear music that
wasn't just the old standards. A sweet
interlude occurred when Joseph Fennimore, an established upstate composer, was
presented with a plaque expressing appreciation for his work as a composer and
teacher, and his contributions to NYSMTA.
On Sunday morning we returned for 3 more sessions. The first was some extremely well-prepared
students from Ithaca College giving a presentation on preparing our students
for college entrance auditions and life as a music major. They surveyed students and faculty members at
different institutions, and quoted liberally from the responses in their
presentation. They repeatedly emphasized
the importance of getting in as many practice performances as possible before
playing an entrance audition. Also of
interest was there report that the music majors they surveyed, who had
obviously passed their entrance auditions, had begun preparing their audition music
eight months to one year before their auditions. Then, one part of life as a music major they
stressed was how much time people spend at their instruments. Piano teachers surveyed expected their
students to practice anywhere from 25 to 40 hours per week, and usually
pianists had daily accompanying and chamber music in addition to practice for
their lessons. They rightly pointed out
that this is a lot more practicing than most high school students do, and
suggested that we prepare our students gradually to spend more time at the
piano.
Next, I chose to attend a session presented by Jonathan
Bowman on using community outreach, such as lecture recitals at nursery
schools, soup kitchens, and libraries, to help further our career goals. I want to recommend a Yo-Yo Ma lecture that
Mr. Bowman cited during his presentation.
It’s entitled Art for Life's Sake,
and you can find it on YouTube. Even the short clip he played during the
presentation was inspiring.
Ending the conference was a dynamic master class presented
by Dr. Young Kim. Two excellent young
students played for her, and she gave them empowering but demanding
instruction, strategically focusing on one or two elements with each student.
Finally, I have to mention how many nice and interesting
people I met at this conference. I
enjoyed meeting the current president of NYSMTA, Christine Johanssen, the
president-elect, Emily Boyce, and a past president, Michael Merolla. And wouldn’t you know, Michael lives in
Miller Place! He has now joined SPTF,
and he has lots of ideas about collaboration between SPTF and NYSMTA, so you
will get to know him yourself! I’m sure
you will like him as much as I do.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my musical presentation and conference round up,
Terry Dybvig
