MTAC SFEV BRANCH
NEWSLETTERS
June 20, 2016
Dear MTAC SFEV Branch members,
A few words of appreciation…
Thank you to our Board Members who
have been collectively responsive, supportive, positive,
helpful, creative, reliable, kind and funny.
Mark Richman , Vice-President
Francine Ross-Pancost, Membership
Secretary
Aziza Syed, Treasurer
Thelma Mericle, Recording and
Correspondence Secretary
Arjang Hedayati, Director
Rita Hovanesian, Director
Kathleen Rabun, Director
Anahit Sevoyan, Director
Thank you to Laura Halladay, our
Branch Liaison with Valley College. She was spectacular
managing this huge job, ongoing for much of the year and
requiring consistent reliability and diplomacy!
Thank you to Sharon Shaheed for
her work handling the biggest job in the Branch as Certificate
of Merit Chairperson. Sharon is organized, enthusiastic,
energetic, caring and makes us laugh even when she is working
extremely hard all year taking care of the innumerable details
demanded by this job. Thanks also to our other CM Chairs:
Denia Bradshaw, CM Winds; her assistant, Francine Ross-Pancost
who chaired this event for 13 years before this past season;
Hillary Smith, CM Strings; and assistant, Chris Ahn.
Thank you to Paul Pitman for
Chairing the Benefit Concert, which raises money for our
Scholarship Competition Winners. He was wonderful serving
in this capacity for many years, organizing the performers, the
program, and the venue. Paul did most of the
behind-the-scene work and performed as well.
Dilara Khalilova and Paul came up
with the idea for this event some years ago. Dilara also
contributed much to this event including her beautiful
performances. She will chair this event next season with
Yolande Witkin. Enormous thanks to Dilara, who is warm, charming
and fun, for hosting many of our meetings at her place.
Thanks also to Dilara for her help with the Branch Website.
The website was run professionally
by Ronda Flanzbaum. Thank you to Ronda who willingly
attends to year-round updating of the website.
Communicating with her is always a pleasure. She takes
care of all the website updating with thorough competence and
offers creative ideas of her own to enhance the look of the
website.
Thank you to all chairs and
assistants of the recitals and festivals, which give young music
students opportunities to perform in public. This is the
backbone of our work as a Branch of MTAC and it is valuable.
·
General Recital “Pops and Beginners”
- Michael Paul
·
Mark Richman Masterclass – Mark
Richman
·
Contemporary Festival – Nobuyo
Nishizaka, Chair and Mariko Urushidani, Assistant
·
General Recital – Anahit Sevoyan
·
Classical Romantic Festival -
Kim O’Reilly, Chair and Meg Falk, Assistant
·
Certificate of Merit Honors Festival –
Roger Eshleman and Laura Halladay, Co-Chairs
·
Southern California Junior Bach
Festival – Kathleen Rabun, Chair and Aziza Syed,
Assistant
·
Scholarship Competition – Mark
Richman, Chair and Tamara Gyulnazarova, Assistant
·
Spring Festival – Regina
Verteym, Chair Nicole Nale, Assistant
Thank you to those of you who send
your students to perform in our branch events. Thank you all
for the collective effort and enthusiastic spirit, which makes
our branch work well and happily in the process.
Wishing you all a great summer,
Gillian
PROPOSED MTAC SFEV
Calendar of Events 2016/2017 To be confirmed
Meetings
September 12, 2016 Monday Piano
Play
December 6, 2016 Tuesday TBD
May 16, 2017 Tuesday TBD
June 19, 2017 Piano Play TBC
? October 23 ? General
Recital “Pops and Beginners” Los Angeles
Valley College TBC
Registration Deadline October 5 (postmark)
Chairperson: Michael Paul
Assistant: Teachers of performing students may be asked to
assist on the day of the recital
November 13 Mark Richman Masterclass
4:00 – 6:00 PM Keyboard Concepts
Chairperson: Mark Richman
?December 4 or 11 ?
Contemporary Festival Valley College
preferred TBD
Registration Deadline November 14 or 21 (postmark)
Chairperson: Nobuyo Nishizaka
Assistants: Mariko Iwasaki
? January 22 ?
General Recital Keyboard Concepts
TBC
Registration Deadline January 2 or 9 (postmark)
Chairperson: Valeria Danielyan
Assistant: Alla Arutunyan
TBD ??? Fund-Raiser Concert TBD
????
Co-Chairs: Dilara Khalilova and Yolande Witkin
Assistants:
? February 12 ?
Classical / Romantic Festival Los
Angeles Valley College TBC
Registration Deadline January 23 (postmark)
Chairperson: Kim O’Reilly
Assistant: Meg Falk
March 5
Certificate of Merit – String Instruments
Piano Play
Registration Deadline October 31
Chairperson: Hillary Smith
Assistant: Christopher Ahn
March 5
Certificate of Merit – Winds Instruments
Glendale Adventist Academy, 700 Kimlin Drive, TBC
Registration Deadline October 31
Chairperson: Denia Bradshaw
Assistant: Francine Ross-Pancost
March 12/19 Certificate
of Merit - Piano Piano Play
Registration Deadline October 31
Chairperson: Sharon Shaheed
Assistant: Pamela Prasarttongosoth
? April 2 ?
Honors Festival Los Angeles
Valley College TBC
Registration Deadline March 23 Thursday)
Co-Chairs: Roger Eshleman, Laura Halladay, and Constance Kuhne
? March 26 or April 9 ?
Bach Festival 12 - 3PM
? Steinway Beverly Hills TBC
Registration Deadline March 20 (postmark)
Chairperson: Kathleen Rabun
Assistant: Aziza Syed
? April 30 ?
Scholarship Competition
TBD
Registration Deadline April 10 (postmark)
Chairperson: Mark Richman
Assistant: Tamara Gyulnazarova
?? May 14?
Southern California Junior Bach Regional Festival
Pasadena Steinway TBC
Chairperson: Kathleen Rabun will organize two assistants to help
with the regional festival from those teachers who have students
participating. If participating teachers are unwilling to assist
at the regional, if asked, their students may not participate.
? May 21 or June 4 ?
Spring Festival - General Recital/Scholarship Winners
Award Performance ?
Valley College TBC
Registration Deadline May 8 or 22 (postmark)
Chairperson: Regina Verteym
Assistant: Nicole Nale ?
June 30 - July 4
MTAC Convention Santa Clara Hyatt
Holidays
Super Bowl February 5
Academy Awards February 26
Palm Sunday April 9
Easter April 16
Passover April 10 – 18
Mother’s Day May 14
Ramadan May 26 – June 26
Father’s Day June 18
Music Teachers’
Association of California
San Fernando East
Valley Branch Meeting
June 20, 2016 –
Keyboard Concepts in Van Nuys
Minutes
In attendance (21 members): Dilara
Khalilova, Connie Kuhne, Janet Kaplan, Aziza Syed, Meg Falk, Gillian
Smith, Michael Paul, Tamara Gyulnazarova, Raisa Menkina, Mia Paul,
Valeria Danielyan, Alla Arutyunyan, Nicole Nale, Kathleen Rabun,
Rita Hovanesian, Mark Richman, Anahit Sevoyan, Thelma Mericle,
Francine Ross-Pancost, Roger Eshleman, and Chin-Suk Kim.
President, Gillian Smith, called the
meeting to order at 10:30AM. She said that, as this was her
last meeting as President, she would like to thank many members for
their contribution to the Branch. Gillian stated that she had
enjoyed serving this community and its members, and handed out
written statement of her acknowledgments (copy attached).
Gillian called on Membership Secretary,
Francine Ross-Pancost, for the membership report. Gillian
thanked Francine for her work as Membership Secretary and presented
her with a plaque thanking her for 13 years chairing Certificate of
Merit for Strings. Francine reported the name of a transfer
member. Gillian mentioned that the Branch has approximately 68
members.
Gillian asked Aziza Syed for the
Treasurer’s report. Aziza stated that she had taken $1500 (all
of which might not be needed) from the savings account to cover cost
over-runs from the 2015/16 fiscal season. The deficits were
attributed to two main causes: the Benefit Concert, instead of
raising funds, lost $57 mostly attributed to a heavy rain storm
which kept many traditional attendee/donors away from the concert;
and student attendance at some of the Branch Festivals has dropped
in recent years resulting in deficits for some events. Aziza
will provide a copy of the budget breakdown as soon as the last
receipts for the year are in.
Gillian asked the group why they thought
participation was down in numbers, and what might be done to improve
it. Valeria Danielyan suggested that perhaps including age
categories for the Contemporary Festival might encourage teachers to
enter younger students. It was also suggested that scheduling
events at somewhat different times during the year might attract
more partcipants. Gillian said that they would cover the
calendar issues one-by-one. It was also agreed that a
Contemporary Festival committee would be formed over the summer to
discuss ways in which the event might attract more participants.
Michael Paul, not present at the meeting
in May when the issue was thoroughly discussed, expressed concerns
that Certificate of Merit for piano would not be at Valley College
next year. Several members in attendance reiterated the reasons why
CM will be held at the new Piano Play facility, instead.
Gillian mentioned that other branches borrow pianos from major piano
stores for their Certificate of Merit process, and Rita found out
from Keyboard Concept administrators that KC would be happy to loan
us pianos for our CM process, if needed.
Dates for each event were discussed.
Although final dates for each event can only be confirmed in the
fall when the various venues confirm with us, desired dates for
events were decided upon. Tentative Schedule is attached.
Roger Eshleman installed the Branch
Officers for the new year: President, Nicole Nale; Vice-President,
Mark Richman; 2nd Vice-President, Meg Falk; Treasurer, Aziza Syed;
Corresponding Secretary, Thelma Mericle; Recording Secretary,
Barbara Yellin; and Directors, Arjang Hedayati, Kathleen Rabun,
Anahit Sevoyan, Gillian Smith, and Rita Hovanesian. All present
stated that they would serve the Branch in good faith, and the slate
was accepted unanimously.
Meeting adjourned at 12:05PM.