Printed on 11/2/08
< Back to 2005-6 Newsletters
October 2005
From the President
Bill Popp, LAMTA President
It was a pleasure to get started again with the new season of LAMTA.I was impressed with, and found the attendance at our first meeting to be very gratifying.With 18 members there,it was the most since my term as President. Let's keep it up, as we have a very interesting and active year ahead of us.We all owe Kitty Keim a big thank you for coming to our first meeting on short notice. If you have a chance to tell her, please do.Her program included a wide variety of teaching ideas which we all could relate to on different levels.
I am looking forward to the next presentation by our own Sonia Haxton. She and friend Hunter Moncure will be discussing music camps.
Best wishes to all, and if you haven't attended a meeting in a while, please stop by and reintroduce yourself. We would like to see you.
Meeting October 12, 2005 9:03 AM
Judy Johnson
Program:Summer Music Camps
Hostess:Sonia Haxton, 1203 Intrepid Drive, Ft. Collins
Directions:Head north on Taft which becomes Shields. Just before Trilby Road, where the first stoplight is, there is a subdivision on the left called Registry Ridge. Turn left on Truxun Drive, then left on Nimitz and then right on Intrepid.Sonia's house is on the corner on the left.
Summer Music Camps by Sonia Haxton and Hunter Moncure
This camp series, created by Sonia and Hunter,is complete with everything you will need to be successful - lesson plans, games, food, arts andcrafts, pages to copy -and was designed to keep music students interested in their studies, even during the summer months. It is meant to add a dimension that is not usually covered during a private or group music lesson and for the students and the teacher to have fun while learning. We are so fortunate to have Hunter come from so far away and be able to present this wonderful program with our own Sonia. Don't miss this.
Biography:Sonia Haxton is from Virginia Beach VA and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education.She has played the piano for most of her life and began teaching at the age of 14. After teaching in the public schools for 8 years she decided she would much rather teach piano full time. "What a great feeling it was to be doing something I loved, bringing music into other peoples' lives, and being able to be my own boss all at the same time!"Favorite composers and Mozart, Beethoven and Paul McCartney, mostly because of their beautiful melodies. Her favorite vacation destination is out in nature away from traffic and other noises of everyday life. That is why she moved to Colorado last year -- to enjoy the big vast open space and to feel free and peaceful. Her favorite color is green.
Biography: Hunter MoncureHunter is a long-time friend, mentor and colleague of Sonia. She is originally from High Point, North Carolina. She has traveled from Virginia to present this program with Sonia. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of N. Carolina and Masters of Arts and Music from George Washington University (D.C.). Hunter was encouraged by her grandparents, who were excellent musicians, to take piano, organ and voice lessons. She realized early that when she was not playing the piano or the organ she was not as happy as when she was playing. She taught public school music, but when her daughter was born,decided she wanted to tostay home with her, at least untilshe entered kindergarten. After 4 years of teaching piano, organ and voice in her home, she liked it so much that she just kept doing it."I could have my cake and eat it too." Favorite composers are Chopin for his lyrical melodies, Mozart for works that are happy and capriciousand Beethoven forthe pathos. Her favorite vacation destination is anywhere that she can truly relax and must include water. Hilton Head, SC is good. Her favorite color is red.
Alterra Recitals
Bill Popp
Two more opportunities for students to perform at the Alterra Assisted Living facility have been arranged. They are: Saturday, October 29, at 6:15 p.m.; and Sunday, November 6, at 4:00 p.m.Alterra is located on 29th and Empire, between Taft and Wilson. Please let me know as soon as you can how much time each of your students will need, as it usually only requires 10 to 12 students to fill up the allotted time. All students are welcome and this would be a good time for festival students to practice before an audience.
Finishing Touches
Caroline Orman
I would like to invite LAMTA teachers to my studio at 10 a.m., Wednesday, October 19, for a session on "Finishing Touches" -- practicing "stage presence" along with the pieces. We will share our best ideas on "finishing touches" to help students perform more effectively at any audition, public or private. I believe that achieving "good stage presence" is less mysterious than usually portrayed. What do you think?
Friends of Chamber Music
Ruth Hale
The Friends of Chamber Music have an important concert coming up Sunday, October 16, at 3:00 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church, 4th and Jefferson, helping them celebrate their 100th anniversary. The program will include; Ravel F Major String Quartet and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet Op. 115.Please plan to attend!
Alterra House Performances Scheduled
Bill Popp
Two more opportunities for students to perform at the Alterra Assisted Living facility have been arranged. They are: Saturday, October 29, at 6:15 p.m.; and Sunday, November 6, at 4:00 p.m.Alterra is located on 29th and Empire, between Taft and Wilson. Please let me know as soon as you can how much time each of your students will need, as it usually only requires 10 to 12 students to fill up the allotted time. All students are welcome and this would be a good time for festival students to practice before an audience.
Do You Need Students?
Betty Lou is getting calls for teachers. If you have any openings, please let her know right away! (669-3473)
PREP - Professional Reading and Enrichment Program
Carol Condit
We still need three more volunteers to read and review a book for the PREP list this year. Please check out the Book Review page and let Carol know what you can do to contribute.
Booster Cushions
Sandy Lundberg
I have carried though my plan to start making and selling booster cushion sets for getting small students up to the right height at the piano. I hope if these are available locally many families will be able to put away the slippery phone books and squishy pillows and get their children sitting securely at the right height without the several-hundred-dollar expense of an adjustable bench. I will bring several samples with me to the October meeting. The cost will be $15 per set, plus tax, and shipping if applicable.
November Meeting
Music of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, by Carol Condit & Judy Johnson/ Hostess:Caroline Orman
Book Review
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
by Parker J. Palmer
(Reviewed by Carol Condit
Reading this first selection from the PREP list was truly an enlighteningjourney with the author. Yes, the book applies specifically to classroom teachers, but it is a must-read for anyone who teaches or works with children.
Have you ever taken the time to explore the inner landscape of your teaching life? Surely you have something special and unique to offer your students, but what brought you to this point? If you are willing to travel with the author through this text, you will gain amazing insights into just what it is that you do when you teach. In the first chapter, Palmer establishes the premise that "we teach who we are." The subject matter in any given discipline is too vast for any one person to fully comprehend.Your knowledge of what you teach will always be imperfect and incomplete."Teaching,like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse.As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together."
The author proceeds to build his theory on a very simple premise:"good teaching cannot be reduced to technique;good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher."Teaching is not a stable field by any means. If we are to grow as educators, we must be willing to learn on our own, from our students, and most importantly from each other. There is great fear present in each of us as teachers - fear that we aren't doing the right thing, fear that we won't measure up, fear that we are being left out or left behind, fear that we really should not be teaching at all, fear of sharing thoughts and ideas with other teachers, etc.The author offers positive suggestions for dealing with such concerns.One sentence is very telling: "...we learn that the self is not a scrap of turf to be defended, but a capacity to be enlarged."
No teaching job is without its frustrations and tensions, but you must learn to look "past the tension within ourselves toward the best interests of the student". That can come about when you are willing to seek the inner landscape of your life as a teacher. Until you develop and deepen that inner life, you certainly will not recognize it in another person, especially in a student.
What happens in the field of piano teaching when you are exposed to and surprised by a new idea that dos not fit your conventional mode of thinking?Do you dismiss it as nonsense?Do you feel threatened?These thoughts only serve to contribute to your own diminishment.Perhaps it is time for an inner change. Let that new idea generate yet another in you.Put on your thinking cap and be willing actually to entertain that new idea and all of its ramifications.If the idea works for you, wonderful.If it does not, then move on to another.
Are you a teacher who can successfully make a new concept come alive for a piano student? Are you able to open that proverbial magic box for a student musician and bring the song or piece to life in ways the student never thought possible? What is in your teaching studio in addition to you as the teacher and an individual student?Be aware of the music itself! Let it live! Open more space for the student to get involved. Try being "more engaging than engorging."
Give some thought to "who you are when you are at your teaching best." Take your teaching seriously.
Your efforts as a teacher are far-reaching.The author concludes by saying something we all know, that generations of students have been transformed by people who had the courage to teach - "the courage to teach from the most truthful places in the landscape of self and the world, the courage to invite students to discover, explore, and inhabit those places in the living of their own lives."
Bill Popp, LAMTA President
It was a pleasure to get started again with the new season of LAMTA.I was impressed with, and found the attendance at our first meeting to be very gratifying.With 18 members there,it was the most since my term as President. Let's keep it up, as we have a very interesting and active year ahead of us.We all owe Kitty Keim a big thank you for coming to our first meeting on short notice. If you have a chance to tell her, please do.Her program included a wide variety of teaching ideas which we all could relate to on different levels.
I am looking forward to the next presentation by our own Sonia Haxton. She and friend Hunter Moncure will be discussing music camps.
Best wishes to all, and if you haven't attended a meeting in a while, please stop by and reintroduce yourself. We would like to see you.
Meeting October 12, 2005 9:03 AM
Judy Johnson
Program:Summer Music Camps
Hostess:Sonia Haxton, 1203 Intrepid Drive, Ft. Collins
Directions:Head north on Taft which becomes Shields. Just before Trilby Road, where the first stoplight is, there is a subdivision on the left called Registry Ridge. Turn left on Truxun Drive, then left on Nimitz and then right on Intrepid.Sonia's house is on the corner on the left.
Summer Music Camps by Sonia Haxton and Hunter Moncure
This camp series, created by Sonia and Hunter,is complete with everything you will need to be successful - lesson plans, games, food, arts andcrafts, pages to copy -and was designed to keep music students interested in their studies, even during the summer months. It is meant to add a dimension that is not usually covered during a private or group music lesson and for the students and the teacher to have fun while learning. We are so fortunate to have Hunter come from so far away and be able to present this wonderful program with our own Sonia. Don't miss this.
Biography:Sonia Haxton is from Virginia Beach VA and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education.She has played the piano for most of her life and began teaching at the age of 14. After teaching in the public schools for 8 years she decided she would much rather teach piano full time. "What a great feeling it was to be doing something I loved, bringing music into other peoples' lives, and being able to be my own boss all at the same time!"Favorite composers and Mozart, Beethoven and Paul McCartney, mostly because of their beautiful melodies. Her favorite vacation destination is out in nature away from traffic and other noises of everyday life. That is why she moved to Colorado last year -- to enjoy the big vast open space and to feel free and peaceful. Her favorite color is green.
Biography: Hunter MoncureHunter is a long-time friend, mentor and colleague of Sonia. She is originally from High Point, North Carolina. She has traveled from Virginia to present this program with Sonia. She holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of N. Carolina and Masters of Arts and Music from George Washington University (D.C.). Hunter was encouraged by her grandparents, who were excellent musicians, to take piano, organ and voice lessons. She realized early that when she was not playing the piano or the organ she was not as happy as when she was playing. She taught public school music, but when her daughter was born,decided she wanted to tostay home with her, at least untilshe entered kindergarten. After 4 years of teaching piano, organ and voice in her home, she liked it so much that she just kept doing it."I could have my cake and eat it too." Favorite composers are Chopin for his lyrical melodies, Mozart for works that are happy and capriciousand Beethoven forthe pathos. Her favorite vacation destination is anywhere that she can truly relax and must include water. Hilton Head, SC is good. Her favorite color is red.
Alterra Recitals
Bill Popp
Two more opportunities for students to perform at the Alterra Assisted Living facility have been arranged. They are: Saturday, October 29, at 6:15 p.m.; and Sunday, November 6, at 4:00 p.m.Alterra is located on 29th and Empire, between Taft and Wilson. Please let me know as soon as you can how much time each of your students will need, as it usually only requires 10 to 12 students to fill up the allotted time. All students are welcome and this would be a good time for festival students to practice before an audience.
Finishing Touches
Caroline Orman
I would like to invite LAMTA teachers to my studio at 10 a.m., Wednesday, October 19, for a session on "Finishing Touches" -- practicing "stage presence" along with the pieces. We will share our best ideas on "finishing touches" to help students perform more effectively at any audition, public or private. I believe that achieving "good stage presence" is less mysterious than usually portrayed. What do you think?
Friends of Chamber Music
Ruth Hale
The Friends of Chamber Music have an important concert coming up Sunday, October 16, at 3:00 p.m., at First Presbyterian Church, 4th and Jefferson, helping them celebrate their 100th anniversary. The program will include; Ravel F Major String Quartet and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet Op. 115.Please plan to attend!
Alterra House Performances Scheduled
Bill Popp
Two more opportunities for students to perform at the Alterra Assisted Living facility have been arranged. They are: Saturday, October 29, at 6:15 p.m.; and Sunday, November 6, at 4:00 p.m.Alterra is located on 29th and Empire, between Taft and Wilson. Please let me know as soon as you can how much time each of your students will need, as it usually only requires 10 to 12 students to fill up the allotted time. All students are welcome and this would be a good time for festival students to practice before an audience.
Do You Need Students?
Betty Lou is getting calls for teachers. If you have any openings, please let her know right away! (669-3473)
PREP - Professional Reading and Enrichment Program
Carol Condit
We still need three more volunteers to read and review a book for the PREP list this year. Please check out the Book Review page and let Carol know what you can do to contribute.
Booster Cushions
Sandy Lundberg
I have carried though my plan to start making and selling booster cushion sets for getting small students up to the right height at the piano. I hope if these are available locally many families will be able to put away the slippery phone books and squishy pillows and get their children sitting securely at the right height without the several-hundred-dollar expense of an adjustable bench. I will bring several samples with me to the October meeting. The cost will be $15 per set, plus tax, and shipping if applicable.
November Meeting
Music of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, by Carol Condit & Judy Johnson/ Hostess:Caroline Orman
Book Review
The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
by Parker J. Palmer
(Reviewed by Carol Condit
Reading this first selection from the PREP list was truly an enlighteningjourney with the author. Yes, the book applies specifically to classroom teachers, but it is a must-read for anyone who teaches or works with children.
Have you ever taken the time to explore the inner landscape of your teaching life? Surely you have something special and unique to offer your students, but what brought you to this point? If you are willing to travel with the author through this text, you will gain amazing insights into just what it is that you do when you teach. In the first chapter, Palmer establishes the premise that "we teach who we are." The subject matter in any given discipline is too vast for any one person to fully comprehend.Your knowledge of what you teach will always be imperfect and incomplete."Teaching,like any truly human activity, emerges from one's inwardness, for better or worse.As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together."
The author proceeds to build his theory on a very simple premise:"good teaching cannot be reduced to technique;good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher."Teaching is not a stable field by any means. If we are to grow as educators, we must be willing to learn on our own, from our students, and most importantly from each other. There is great fear present in each of us as teachers - fear that we aren't doing the right thing, fear that we won't measure up, fear that we are being left out or left behind, fear that we really should not be teaching at all, fear of sharing thoughts and ideas with other teachers, etc.The author offers positive suggestions for dealing with such concerns.One sentence is very telling: "...we learn that the self is not a scrap of turf to be defended, but a capacity to be enlarged."
No teaching job is without its frustrations and tensions, but you must learn to look "past the tension within ourselves toward the best interests of the student". That can come about when you are willing to seek the inner landscape of your life as a teacher. Until you develop and deepen that inner life, you certainly will not recognize it in another person, especially in a student.
What happens in the field of piano teaching when you are exposed to and surprised by a new idea that dos not fit your conventional mode of thinking?Do you dismiss it as nonsense?Do you feel threatened?These thoughts only serve to contribute to your own diminishment.Perhaps it is time for an inner change. Let that new idea generate yet another in you.Put on your thinking cap and be willing actually to entertain that new idea and all of its ramifications.If the idea works for you, wonderful.If it does not, then move on to another.
Are you a teacher who can successfully make a new concept come alive for a piano student? Are you able to open that proverbial magic box for a student musician and bring the song or piece to life in ways the student never thought possible? What is in your teaching studio in addition to you as the teacher and an individual student?Be aware of the music itself! Let it live! Open more space for the student to get involved. Try being "more engaging than engorging."
Give some thought to "who you are when you are at your teaching best." Take your teaching seriously.
Your efforts as a teacher are far-reaching.The author concludes by saying something we all know, that generations of students have been transformed by people who had the courage to teach - "the courage to teach from the most truthful places in the landscape of self and the world, the courage to invite students to discover, explore, and inhabit those places in the living of their own lives."
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