Robert A. Spahr, husband of Nancy Spahr, passed away on Monday, September 3 in Peru, Indiana.  The online obituary can be found on the Eddy Funeral Home website. Nancy serves on the Indiana Music Teachers Association Board of Directors as the Recording Secretary.

Longtime IMTA member Nancy McFarland passed away on May 31, 2012. Her obituary can be found online at http://www.bannergraphic.com/story/1855820.html

Long-time IMTA member and former Goshen College music professor Kathryn Sherer died Tuesday, February 28, 2012. A tribute to Kathryn and her obituary can be read here on the Goshen College Music Center website.

Douglas Strong passed away on Wednesday, April 20th in Minneapolis.
Doug was a retired head piano technician at the Jacobs School of Music, where he worked for nearly 30 years. For many years he played french horn in the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. Doug was also a life-long member of the Friends of Music.
Doug was the recipient of the Marge Counsilman Service Award in 2007. A former swimmer at Northwestern and a 1949 graduate of the University of Texas, Strong was an accomplished masters swimmer. He holds a number of state masters records, especially in the 75-79 and 80-84 year old age groups. He was ranked top 10 nationally in dozens of events, going back as far as 1971. Last summer (2010) he placed in the top 10 nationally in four long-course events in the 85-89 age category. He is survived by his wife Margaret Strong, a longtime member of IMTA.

Name: Rachel Donahue
Degrees Earned: General Music degree from the University of Indianapolis; Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy from Butler University
Years of Teaching Experience: Started teaching in 1999. There were several families from my home town who contacted me wanting lessons. I started with ten students that fall. I later taught in the community music centers at UIndy and Butler. During my year between UIndy and Butler I taught for a small new business. There I got experience teaching group piano classes. Since then I have taught independently and have added two teachers to my studio.Continue reading→

Mavorette Fummerfelt, 96, NCTM, piano teacher for over 70 years and a member of MTNA for over 50 years, died December 19, 2009.  Mavorette taught piano in Vincennes, Indiana, raised four children, was an accompanist, played piano for church and other organizations, and ran a funeral home with her husband Ross from 1944-1975.
Honored in March of 2002 at the Music Teachers National Association Conference in Cincinnati, the following is from an article in the American Music Teacher, December 2002, beginning with with Mavorette commenting “I will be 90, but I’m very, very young with lots of spirit.”
After attending Indiana State Teacher’s College, where she studied musical education, Mavorette earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Evansville. She also studied piano pedagogy at The New School for Music Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and she follows the “Music Tree” approach of Louise Goss and the late Frances Clark.
“They’ve revised their books several times, but I started hearing of Frances Clark way back in 1957,” she says. “I’ve used other approaches, but I favor the interval approach, learning to play all over the keyboard from the very first lesson, rather than the middle-C approach. I also like to teach their way of combining private and group lessons.”
As an active member of the Indiana Music Teachers Association, Flummerfelt served on the certification committee and as corresponding secretary. She also is a member of the Wabash Valley MTA in Terre Haute, and was named Co-Member of the Year in 1999. Of her many students, the two she is proud of are her daughter, Carol, who plays the flute and her son, Joseph Flummerfelt, director of choral groups that sing with the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center in New York City and past conductor of the Westminster Choir at Ryder University in New Jersey.