VMTA Conference, October 29-31, 2004

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

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CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
CONFERENCE LUNCHES
MUSICAL MARKETPLACE
MONITORS AND HOSTS
ARTISTS AND CLINICIANS

Music teachers from across the Commonwealth of Virginia will meet in Richmond for the VMTA Fall Conference Friday through Sunday, October 29-31, 2004. Our conference artist will be Dr. Scott Beard from Shepherd University, Sheperdstown, WV. His concert program, "Images in Sound," will be presented on Friday, October 29. In addition to the concert, Dr. Beard will conduct a Master Class and an additional session, "Including Duets and Two-Piano Music in Studio Lessons," with his writing partner, Dr. Lucy Mauro.

Melissa Marrion, Past-President of VMTA, will present "Enhancing Musicality in Your Studio." Jeanette Winsor, Past-President of VMTA, will speak on "Music by Women Composers for You and Your Students." The Commissioned Composer, John Winsor, will premier his composition, Rondo for Horn, Percussion and Strings. Vernon McCart, VMTA member, will speak on "The Clavichord: What Every Piano Teacher Should Know About Bach's Favorite Keyboard Instrument." He will bring his clavichord with him to use in his lecture. Walter and Carol Noona, VMTA members, will present "When the Downbeat Teacher Meets the Offbeat Student." Jeanne Jackson will conduct the IMTF Open Forum; and Betsy Cole Wells, Certification Chair, will conduct the certification session. The Richmond Philharmonic will be performing in the Concerto Competition winners concert.

In addition we will enjoy the competitions, vendors, and Winners Recital. Look for registration forms in this issue of NewsNotes. Convention Registration forms are due September 30. Take advantage of these wonderful presenters and performances and make plans now to attend Your VMTA Conference.

Wanda M. Hall, NCTM

The Certification Lunch and the Council of Presidents Lunch are both on Saturday this year. This lunch must be prepaid on the Registration Form.

Lunch for conference attendees will be available, Friday and Saturday, on an individual cash basis in The Hibbs Dining Hall.

MUSICAL MARKETPLACE

Vendor displays and sales of products related to music teaching will be available from 8:30 to 5:00 on Friday and from 8:30 to 4:00 on Saturday on the second floor of the Performing Arts Building at VCU. Members of VMTA may offer their wares without the fee charged to outside vendors. To reserve your spot, please contact Myrenna Kickasola at (757) 420-6938. Come prepared to support all of our vendors.

Hosts for this Conference are the members of the Tidewater Music Teachers Forum (TMTF), but members of any chapter are welcome to assist at the registration desk or monitor competitions. Note your interest on the registration form.

Dr. Scott Beard to Perform as VMTA Conference Artist

Dr. Scott Beard is Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia and holds degrees in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Maryland. A champion of French music, he also studied over five summers at the French Piano Institute held at the Ecole Normale de Musique and the Schola Cantorum in Paris.

Dr. Beard has performed to critical acclaim as a recital and orchestral soloist throughout the United States, as well as in Canada and France. He specializes in the piano music of famed nineteenth-century pedagogue Theodor Leschetizky (on whom he wrote his dissertation) and has released two CD recordings, one of music by Leschetizky and the other an all-Chopin CD. A second volume of works by Leschetizky and a disc of holiday music by classical composers will be out this year.

A recipient of numerous grants and post-doctoral awards, he is also artistic director of the Reynolds Hall Recital Series and is part of the performing group DUO NUOVO, which has premiered works by a number of contemporary American composers. Most recently he was asked by Alfred Publications to edit several volumes of works for multiple keyboards and along with his writing partner Dr. Lucy Mauro, will be creating a textbook on keyboard ensemble history and performance for Alfred.

Melissa Wuslich Marrion is now a retired Professor of Music from the VCU Department of Music. During her tenure there, she taught applied piano, piano pedagogy, keyboard skills and accompanying. She has taught courses on both the graduate and undergraduate levels and her students have distinguished themselves in competitions, as performers, and teachers in universities, public schools, and independent studios.

She studied with Mildred Gardner, a distinguished teacher in Pennsylvania, in her formative years and received her B.M. and M.M. degrees in piano performance from the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, where she studied piano with Mme. Karin Dayas, pedagogy with Iloona Voorm and chamber music with the LaSalle String Quartet. Postgraduate work was done with Kendall Taylor, C.B.E., Senior Professor at the Royal College of Music in London, England. She is well known as a performer and adjudicator throughout the Mid-East and Southern states, and she is in demand as a lecturer and Master Class clinician.

She has been active for many years in the Music Teachers National Association, The Virginia Music Teachers Association, The Richmond MTA and the American College of Musicians. She has served on state, division and national committees and was President of the Virginia Music Teachers Association, 1979-1981. Since then she has served on the Administrative Board of VMTA. She continues this service as well as being Parliamentarian and member of the Certification Committee.

She is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, the national fraternity for women in music; Pi Kappa Lambda, the national honorary music society; and the Leschetizky Society.

Lucy Mauro is an Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Accompanying at Radford University. She is a frequent collaborative pianist in recitals throughout the Northeast. Recent performances include concerts at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., "Music at Ogontz" in New Hampshire, the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown (West Virginia), ArtsFest in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania), the reunion of the French Piano Institue, and recitals at Shepherd College, West Virginia Wesleyan College, Salem International University and Radford University. She studied with Ann Schein and Julio Esteban at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where she received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees. Dr. Mauro has written pedagogical articles for American Music Teacher and Piano Rendezvous and is currently working with her colleague, Dr. Scott Beard, on a series of piano ensemble books for Alfred Publishing.

Vernon McCart has played numerous recitals, delivered lecture recitals, and attended many workshops and early music festivals. His specialty is music for clavichord and fortepiano of the 18th and early 19th century. In the spring of 2000 he was selected to compete in the Second Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs in Fort Worth, Texas. He has coached on fortepiano with Penelope Crawford, Malcolm Bilson, and Lee Teply and modern piano with Lee Jordan-Anders. Mr. McCart is a native of Garden City, Kansas. He studied piano with Charles Bath at Wichita State University, where he earned a Bachelor and a Master of Music in piano performance. He also earned a degree in Library Science from the University of North Texas. For 26 years, he was a librarian. His first position was as music cataloger at the University of Virginia and later, fine and performing arts reference librarian at Old Dominion University. He retired from librarianship in 1998.

As an active member of the ODU Classical Period Piano Competition Committee for the past 18 years, Mr. McCart has served as a preliminaries judge for many of those years. He has also served a board member of the Norfolk Chamber Consort and secretary of the Hampton Roads Early Music Society. He has been a member of the Tidewater Music Teacher Forum for 10 years. For the past five years, Mr. McCart has been teaching piano at the Arts Enter in Cape Charles, Virginia. His hobbies are gardening, cooking and swimming.

In the future Mr. McCart wants to demonstrate the clavichord and fortepiano to as many college students and piano teachers as possible so that they are not just words in history books, but viable instruments of the 18th century milieu.

Carol Noona was born Carol Ann Menke and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Her earliest piano training was with Ethel Davis Marley. At fourteen she began studying at the American Conservatory of Music under Howard Hanks, who stressed teaching his student show to teach. At the age of fourteen, Carol Noona began accepting piano students of her own. She feels fortunate to have received theory under Leo Sowerby and Edwin Fissinger during this time.

After six years at the Conservatory she transferred to the University of Illinois where she studied under Joseph Battista, an Olga Samoroff protege. It was here that Walter and Carol met in an ensemble class where they were coupled as a duo piano team.

The Noonas' home is in Virginia Beach, VA, where Carol maintains her studio. Besides writing and testing pedagogical materials and working with her piano students, she is active as a music editor, reviewer, lecturer, and performer. For nine years, Carol was the Managing Director of the Virginia Beach Pops Orchestra. Carol has always written piano music for her students, and has been a published composer since 1973. There are well over 150 publications on the international market written by the Noonas. They have lectured throughout all of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom extensively since the early 70's. Recently their music has entered the German and Japanese music markets.

Carol is at present the Minister of Music at the Church of St. Gregory the Great in Virginia Beach. In this capacity she accompanies their 60-voice choir and recently performed in the National Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Walter Noona was born in Norfolk, Virginia and received the majority of his early piano instruction from Bristow Hardin. He received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Education with a Major in Piano from East Carolina University where he studied with Dr. Robert Carter. His Bachelor of Music and Mast of Music degrees were earned at the University of Illinois where he studied with Soulima Stravinsky.

Walter Noona was a winner in the district and state competitions of the Steinway Centennial Contest, which led to participation in the semi-finals. He was awarded the Woolley Foundation Scholarship which entitled him to a year of study at the University of Paris, France. He has appeared in solo recitals in cities throughout the country and has appeared as guest soloist with orchestras in New Orleans, Chicago, North Carolina, and Virginia.

For a number of years, prior to establishing his own studio and becoming deeply involved in writing for children, Mr. Noona was on the staff of several schools, including the University of Illinois, Xavier University in New Orleans, LA, and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. For the last several years his private piano studio has been located at the Norfolk Academy in Norfolk, VA.

Along with a vital interest in piano performance and pedagogy, he is also deeply involved in symphonic music. He is the former musical director and conductor of the Virginia Beach Pops Orchestra. Mr. Noona is also a guest conductor across the nation. Walter Noona was selected by the late Ethel Merman to be her personal conductor for the last two years of her performing career. In this capacity he conducted orchestras across the country for her appearances.

He is the leader and founder of the Walter Noona Trio, a leading sophisticated group, in step with the music of contemporary America.

Walter Noona has built an outstanding reputation as a lecturer on various aspects of music, including pedagogy and improvisation. For the last several years Walter and Carol Noona have appeared in numerous workshops throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Jeanette Winsor studied piano with Clifford Herzer, Lois Rova Ozanich, and Shirley Harrison. She received a Bachelor of Music degree cum laude from Heidelberg College and a Master of Music degree in piano performance from Kent State University. She has occasionally coached with Thomas Schumacher. She teaches piano in her studio in Virginia Beach and music appreciation, theory and piano at Tidewater Community College, accompanies the Virginia Beach Chorale, and serves as an adjudicator for the National Guild of Piano Teachers. She frequently appears as a soloist and lecturer. Lecture topics include Why Piano Teachers Should Practice, Music by Clementi for You and Your Students, How to Deal with the ADHD and LD Student in the Private Studio, and Music by Women Composers for You and Your Students. She is also the pianist for the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble. Jeanette holds National and State Professional Teaching Certificates from MTNA and VMTA as well as certification through the American College of Musicians.

Jeanette is listed in the 21st edition of Who's Who of American Women. She is the MTNA Southern Division Competitions Chair and is past president of the Tidewater Music Teachers Forum and the Virginia Music Teachers Association. Her articles on piano pedagogy have been published by Piano Guild Notes. Recent performances include the College Music Society/NACUSA National Conference in Kansas City, MO, Salon Concert Series in Princeton, NJ, NACUSA concerts in Philadelphia, New York City and throughout Virginia, and soloist with the Virginia Beach Symphony.

John Winsor studied clarinet with Robert Harrison, David Harris, and Robert Marcellus of the Cleveland Orchestra and composition with John Rinehart and James Waters. He received a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from Heidelberg College and a Master of Arts degree in music theory from Kent State University. During the 1979-1980 school year, he was a doctoral assistant in music theory at Kent State. He has taught music theory and designed bandsman training materials at the Armed Forces School of Music. He has also taught clarinet, music theory, and composition at the Virginia Governor's School for the Arts. He has served as an adjudicator for VMTA composition contests (both the professional and student contests). He is a senior computer programmer for Unisys Corporation and an adjunct clarinet instructor at Tidewater Community College.

John is a founding member of the Hardwick Chamber Ensemble, which was formed in 1988. The HCE performs about a dozen concerts annually for Virginia's colleges, universities, and other presenting organizations. They also perform once or twice annually in New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the United States. The HCE has received grants from the Virginia Commission for the Arts and from the arts commissions of Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach.

John's composition prizes include the 1992 Delius vocal award for Four Songs, the 1995 Delius keyboard award for Three Preludes, the 1992 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition prize for Hardwick Quartet, the 1994 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition prize for Midas Retold, the Modern Music Festival 2000 Film Scoring Competition prize for Totem, and the 2004 VMTA Commissioned Composer Competition for Chamber Symphony. John has received grants from the American Music Center and from Meet the Composer, and several ASCAP awards. His works are frequently performed on composer conferences and festivals throughout the United States and, occasionally, in Europe. Since 1992, he has received seven commissions from various arts organizations. Articles by and about him have been published in ComposerUSA. He is the author of Breaking the Sound Barrier: An Argument for Mainstream Literary Music (iUniverse Writer's Showcase).