September Meeting
Wednesday, September 12, 9:00 a.m.
Salad Luncheon; Achievement Day Discussion. Each teacher brings a game suggestion appropriate for kids to play at Achievement Day, and be prepared to have us try it out.

Home of Renee Clay; 4510 Pika Drive, Loveland, 613-1165.

President's Message
Dear Colleagues,
This summer has been a whirlwind of mostly family activities that it seems like a year since Debi Strict and I were heading up the road to Silvercreek. Just getting to the Conference was an experience. We arrive at the entrance to Trail Ridge before anyone told us that due to paving just the turn onto the road we had to go all the way back to Estes Park and take Hwy 36 up to the road to Silvercreek. We could even wave to the ranger who told us to turn back. Anyway, we arrived safe and sound to be housed in the famous BIG room which many of you have used before. We had rain most of the time so enjoying the view only happened on the way home.

I attended workshops on organization (I think Im a lost cause), artistry and technique, the use of the Electronic piano as a help in your studio, the PREP program, vocal science. These are some. Debi attended some of these with me and also took in Teaching the Students First Beethoven Sonata. Of course, we both heard Angela Changs Masterclass as well as her fabulous Concert. She played Haydn - Sonata in C; Memories from a Jade Terrace - Alexina Louie; Beethoven - Sonata #31 in A-flat; and three Chopin selections. What a very special treat!!!

This year we have an exciting set of meetings. The first one at the home of Renee Clay is a games meeting. We are asking each member to bring ONE game. We will have a mock play of each game to see which we might use for Achievement Day. Our first meeting is also a salad potluck. So choose a good one and be there.

At the October meeting will have a discussion on ideas to make Achievement Day more inviting for students and their families. Sonia will lead this meeting.

Be aware that Piano festival is one week earlier due to a schedule conflict at CSU. Also, did all of you read the poem Piano by Joana Campos (a student of Ann Bunyans) on page 29 in the July issue of Notes and News?

See you all on Sept. 12 at Renees.
Peggy Tighe, President

Music & Arts Special
Sonia Haxton
The teacher special for September will be announced at the meeting.


Schedule Updates
Debi Strick
Hi everyone! Here is the LAMTA schedule 2007-2008. Meetings are still the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 9:03 A.M.

September 12, Salad Luncheon Home of Renee Clay
Achievement Day Discussion. Each teacher brings 3 game suggestions appropriate for kids to play at Achievement Day.

October 10, Home of Peggy Tighe
How to improve Achievement Day. Also, discussion of November 3 Piano Festival at CSU

November 3, Piano Festival--CSU

November 14, Home of Ruth Hale
Wrap up of discussion about Piano Festival
Program: Those Spanish composers: Albenez, Granados, 250th anniversary of Scarlatti and de Falla

December 12, Home of Ann Bunyan, Potluck Luncheon
Program: Jazz, Rags and Blues, or women composers. LAMTA members play pieces for each other.

Christmas Break: Dec. 22- Jan. 6

January 9, 2008 home of Judy Johnson
Judy discusses Deep Practicing: Completely learning a piece enough for presentation

February 13, First Christian Church, Achievement Day Planning

Feb. 23, Achievement Day

March 12, Home of Debi Strick. Bonnie Hoffman, representing CSMTA, will speak with us, some subjects will cover chamber music, for which she is the CSMTA representative. Also, evaluating of Achievement Day.

Mar 29-April 2, MTNA National Conference in Denver

April 7-11 Spring Break

April 16, the LDS church. Jeremy Ditters will speak with us about Dalcroze Eurythmics and demonstrate with us!!

Honors Recital April 26

May 14, Home of Sonia Haxton, Open Meeting and Discussion. Salad Pot Luck Luncheon

June 4-7 CSMTA Conference in Colorado Springs at Embassy Suites

Most important to notice is that the first meeting, at Renee Clays home, the subject is music games. Each person attending needs to bring a game to play, and have the directions for the game copied off to share with the other persons attending the meeting. It should be fun!

I was contacted by Krista Warnock who is the secretary for Fort Collins MTA. We had talked about exchanging the list of programs for the year and posting them so that if any LAMTA member wanted to go to a Fort Collins meeting, he or she could, or if any Fort Collins member wanted to come to a LAMTA meeting, he or she could. We could discuss this at our first meeting.

Peggy Tighe and I attended the CSMTA Conference at Silver Creek. I always feel motivated after the conference to improve how I teach. Some of the classes I attended were: How to physically organize a music studio so that it is more efficient (Mary Ellen Moore), how to turn a studio into a laboratory using more recent technology and electronic keyboards (Patty Kershaw), and exploring our dreams as teachers (Kitty Keim). The highlight of the conference was listening to William Hill, a commissioned composer, play his composition using mathematics written for percussion, a piano and a violin. It was mesmerizing! Also, Angela Cheng was amazing with pieces she played on the piano: Beethoven, Chopin, Haydn, and two compositions by Chinese composers. What strong tones she uses when she plays, and her facial expressions really draw the listener into her performance. Next year the conference is in Colorado Springs. I hope there is a big turn out from our organization! Also, the National conference is in Denver. Cant beat that for convenience!

One change to the May minutes: Renee Clay and Bill Popp are co-chairs for Piano Festival. Ginny Gingrich is on the committee.

Hope everyone had a great summer!

Happy music to you all,

Debi Strick


Featured Teacher of the Month
Dr. William Popp

A Quick Glance at a Long Journey

Its funny how music grabs you. I can remember at the age of five going to my grandfathers small rental in downtown Derby. Ever hear of Derby? Well, it was just north of Denver, had two intersecting paved streets, the rest were dirt, there were no sidewalks, and the Burlington Northern train line ran through town. This was 1955 and the town some years later morphed into Commerce City. In any case, my grandfather had this really spiffy Zenith Cobramatic record player, a small portable unit. He would put on some 78s of the Warsaw Concerto and Cornish Rhapsody and I would sit and watch the records spin and listen to the music over and over and over.

Well, it was no surprise that this fascination I had with music and the piano translated into piano lessons when I turned six. It was an ill fated beginning however, as we moved to New Jersey a year later to be near my mothers family. We did not take the piano. But, after I completed the second grade in New Jersey we came right back to Colorado, yeah. I didnt take up the piano again for awhile, but my sister, who is two years younger, flooded our house with toy accordions from the 5 & 10 and Ben Franklin. The constant screeching persuaded my parents to start her on accordion lessons. After she had been taking lessons for two months I started. I really dont know why. Of all the instruments I heard on the radio and television, the accordion was my least favorite. Well, I grew to like the instrument and in less than five years I was playing transcriptions of the Grieg Piano Concerto, the Tchaikowsky Piano Concerto, Von Webers Concertstuck, etc. These were good technique builders, however needless to say, with maturity I moved on to more appropriate accordion repertoire.

Time marches on. In 1968 I graduated from Adams City High School. A top 20 senior, lettering and going to state in two sports, tennis and track, and receiving a scholarship offer for tennis, which I turned down. I had applied for financial aid from CU in Boulder and DU. My intent was to study music. Going to school out of state was unrealistic at our financial status, in fact, going to college at all without massive financial assistance was impossible. I was deflated when CU graciously offered me a partial student loan. I had not heard from DU and since the tuition at this school was much steeper, I felt the odds were bad. I received the envelope in the mail and was very reluctant to open it. When I did, I almost jumped over the roof. A full tuition grant for two years (which was renewed for my final two years) with no duties to perform or stipulations on major; just go to school. Upon graduation a fellowship and stipend would allow me to finish my masters degree.

There were of course, a number of performance opportunities at the university that were quite rewarding, like two appearances with the DU Symphony Orchestra. But, an unquestionable highlight came as I was about to graduate with my masters. The Denver Symphony Orchestra (now the Colorado Symphony) was in residence at DU and I was selected to perform the Zador Accordion Concerto. The performance must have been pretty good because the conductor, Brian Priestman, called me a few days later and asked me to play it again on their summer Concerts in the Parks series. The reviews were good.

Well, you know you meet people in college. By the end of my first quarter I was asked to teach accordion for, at that time, a very large studio in Denver which employed many teachers. However, it wasnt long before I went off on my own. I managed to maintain between 30 and 40 students for the next 14 years. Some students went on to major in music themselves. I ended up having a myriad of performance opportunities as well. I worked three nights a week, for a year at a Holiday Inn, as a soloist and accompanist for singing waiters/waitresses. For eight years with Young Audiences Inc. presenting educational programs in Denver area public schools. The Young Audiences groups included a small ballet ensemble for five years and then a modern dance group for three years. A lot of audience participation was involved and students really lit up during the programs. To continue, during that 14 year stretch I also worked with two traditional Greek bands, a rock band which played at some of the classiest events around the state, and with two strolling violinists (one was a former colleague at DU). I guess you could say I became well rounded, which served me very well in the future.

This frenzied professional activity continued until January, 1983 when I enlisted in the United States Air Force. You see, several months earlier I saw an ad in the International Musician announcing an opening for an accordionist (what a surprise) in the USAF Band in Washington, D. C. To make the story short, I auditioned along with 25 to 30 other accordionists and got the job. For twenty years I was stationed in Washington performing with the Strolling Strings/String Orchestra on accordion and harpsichord. This group was quite popular, averaged 100 performances a year, and toured internationally. (Five times to Europe, twice to the Far East, twice to Hawaii, many times to Alaska and other regions in the United States.) Highlights included many performances at The White House, the State Department, the American Ambassadors home in London, and at some wonderful concert venues like The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, and Joseph Meyerhoff Auditorium in Baltimore.

Beside the work with the Air Force, the pay gig seen in Washington thrived. On occasion I was included in chamber ensembles which featured principals from the National Symphony. I also completed my doctoral degree in composition during this period, managed to write more than 70 arrangements for the strings and won two national composition awards; the winning compositions: Toccata, was performed in San Francisco, and Ballet Dancer After Degas (for winds and piano) was performed in Atlanta, which I conducted. I was invited to perform as a soloist at an international accordion festival in Beijing, China, and performed one of my own compositions at the Kennedy Center on a Composers from Colorado concert. Oh yes, I mentioned harpsichord earlier. I did manage to take up piano again. We got another piano when I was in high school. On my own I managed to learn pieces like Rachmaninoffs Prelude in C# Minor, Moonlight Sonata, Chopins Valse in C# Minor and Fantasy Impromptu. I eventually continued with formal lessons while pursuing my bachelors and doctoral degrees. But I digress. The most important event of my life also occurred during this twenty year span.

On a tour of the West Coast I met a young lady named Jeannette. It turned out she played tennis. We played the next morning. When I returned to Washington we began phoning and writing. Then we began flying back and forth from Washington to California. Then in about a year, we were married. We now have two children, David and Rachel. David, a junior at Loveland High, is in his third year on the varsity tennis team. Rachel is a freshman and will be playing clarinet in the concert band and guitar in the jazz band. Oh, I almost forgot, she was also selected to compete in the Miss Teen Colorado Pageant this Fall. Knock em out Rachel!

Well the story is almost up-to-date. We live in Loveland now, duh, and love it. I still write music and perform on occasion. In fact, I plan to release a series of student works this Fall. Jeannette is working in bookkeeping/accounting. I am back to enjoying activities that I pursued from B. A. F. (before the Air Force) like teaching, climbing fourteeners and thirteeners, hiking, biking, and playing tennis. My sister and brother-in-law live in Northglenn. But why Loveland? When I began teaching again I sent a new accordion student to a man in Denver that I heard had a large stock of used accordions for sale. I never met the man. When he asked the family who the girl was taking lesson from they mentioned my name. Bill Popp, he said. Whats he doing in Loveland? He should be in Los Angeles. As you can imagine, I have the answer. Jeannette and I both love it here and there are fourteeners, thirteeners, hiking, biking, tennis, cross country skiing, Broncos, Rockies, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

Denver Student Opportunity

Dear Colleagues,
Music Extravaganza! will occur on April 19, 2008 at the Central Christian Church in Denver (by Cherry Creek Shopping Center). Music Teachers Association Suburban Northwest is sponsoring this new event and is opening it to all 4th-12th grade students in the state of Colorado. Many, many hours of preparation promises a very well-organized, EXCITING event! This event is non-performance-based, providing a FUN avenue for students to demonstrate their theory/terms or history/composer knowledge. It also will have a name-that-tune category and a unique category for that student who loves to speak/entertain (without performing on an instrument!). Picture spelling bees, geography bees, Americas got Talent, etc.but with a music-knowledge basis! Some of the categories will involve teams, which will build camaraderie in your studio! Much more info regarding all of the categories is available by request. This is a great incentive for students to learn those essential music facts!

You will see the attached ad for this event in the next Notes & News " but those of you who have provided email addresses are getting this head start! You may also share this info with any colleagues in your local association who do not have email addresses.

This is a great opportunity for your good performers..BUT ALSO A CHANCE, NOW, FOR YOUR OTHER STUDENTS TO SHINE!!!!

If you have any problem opening the attachment, please call or email me.

HURRY! Dont miss out!!!

Hope Haberer, NCTM
President, MTASN
10997 Balsam St., Westminster, CO 80021
mehope88@comcast.net
303-465-2160

Friends of Chamber Music; Loveland
Ruth Hale
Friends of Chamber Music will kick off their 2007 - 2008 concert season with the classic musical story of Peter and the Wolf, featuring Sharon Sheets as narrator. There will also be a quintet by another "wolf"--Wolfgang Mozart. The peformance will take place on Sunday, September 9, 6:30 p.m. at the Aldrich Residence, 8133 Scenic Ridge Drive, Fort Collins. Please call for reservations: 970-663-7928. Adults $15, Students K-12 free.