Certification News

Certification is an important step in developing and maintaining your professional development.  IMTA is pleased to note that seven IMTA members are newly certified!
IMTA members will notice in our 2010-11 IMTA Directory some new names in the list of Nationally Certified IMTA Teachers. Please talk with them about their process of becoming certified. These are members who have been certified after the 2009-2010 handbook was printed. The list includes the following IMTA members:

  • Jeanette Benedict
  • Leon Harshenin
  • Karin Hartman
  • Cynthia Hawkins
  • Candace Henkler
  • Jedda Newton
  • Nancy Spahr

Carolyn Hertzler, chair of certification is making a plea for all full time and part time faculty to take the earliest opportunity to become nationally certified. The process is extremely easy and is outlined on page 29 of the current handbook. Please contact her if you have questions.

Indiana Music Teacher newsletter now online

The Indiana Music Teacher, the official newsletter of the Indiana Music Teachers Association, is now fully online!
Transitioning from print to online format does not change the quality of the newsletter; in fact, you now have access to IMTA news in a timelier and frequent fashion. Just as soon as news is available, it will be posted here. Please note, because this is our first newsletter, it only has the most recent news available, and so only a few articles are available. Over time, it will become a substantial resource of information about our thriving and vibrant organization. If you have questions or concerns about the newsletter, please let us know.Continue reading

MTNA Composition Competition Winner Evan Rees

Congratulations to student Evan Rees, and IMTA teacher, Don Freund!
Evan’s composition, The Summer of Wistaria for violincello and piano
was selected as the Representative for the East Central Division of
the 2010 MTNA Composition Competition.  We were privileged to hear
Evan’s piece at last year’s state conference.

Member Profile: Rachel Donahue

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

2010 Ensemble Concert News

The 2010 IMTA Ensemble Concert “Holiday Musical” was presented at Beech Grove High School on November 13.  Student pianists, teachers, parents, grandparents and alums came  together to create a memorable concert. 156 players participated in groups at every level of accomplishment. The largest group of 44 players at 22 keyboards played “The Most  Wonderful Day of the Year.”  For those who prepared the students it truly was the most wonderful day of our ensemble year.  After months of preparation the music came to life under  the direction of Dr. Stephen Reen.  Dr. Reen  offered musical challenges to the pianists thanks to the excellent preparation of their teachers.  In addition to the musical challenges his leadership taught the students stage and audience etiquette.  As the students took the stage and exited IMTA member Charis Vander Plaats offered narration about each piece about to  be performed.  Charis is a veteran of ensemble concerts dating back to the early 1990’s.   She now has a private studio of over 30 students in Romeny, Indiana. Perhaps she is a  testimony to what this event means to our students.
Special thanks are in order to Scott Bradford at Beech Grove High School for his help in making the concert possible and to his students who decorated the stage for our concert, to Piano Solutions for the 22 instruments on stage,  to the teachers who prepared students and participated in the concerts and to IMTA for being IMTA.

In Memoriam Mavorette Fummerfelt

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.


2010 Hoosier Auditions – State Results

May 15, 2010 State Winners and Honorable Mentions
Thanks to all who participated in the 2010 State Hoosier Auditions: to the students for their hard work and preparation, to the parents for their support and encouragement, and to the teachers for their guidance and inspiration for each student who played. The results for the Hoosier Auditions are below. We hope to see all of you at the District Round of the 2011 Hoosier Auditions.
EARLY ELEMENTARY PIANO
Winner Franklin Hou,  Student of Ada Shebanova
Honorable  Mention, Christina Shi Student of Nadya Dubikovsky;  Peter Yang Student of Kathleen KeaseyContinue reading

In Their Words: BSU Collegiate Chapter reflects on 2010 MTNA National Conference

by Lori Rhoden
Three members of the Ball State University Collegiate Chap­ter represented the state of Indiana at the 2010 Music Teachers National Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Each student submitted a conference retrospective on what this experience meant to them. We attended the collegiate chapters forum as well as the collegiate members reception and got to interact with a lot of other chapter members and their advisors. The national confer­ence will be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 26-30, 2011.  Make your plans now to attend the conference – let’s have a great representation from Indiana next year!
Conference Retrospective from Yuka Nakayama, Doctor of Arts Candidate at BSU
While I have attended the IMTA state conference several times in the past, this was the first time for me to attend the MTNA national conference. I had a great experience; I made many musical contacts, was musically inspired by the master classes and performances, and gained a new respect for piano pedagogy. There were many sessions and master classes on Chopin’s works, some of which I have played in the past, but not to the level of detail that was taught. I especially enjoyed attending the master classes where the pianism as well as the teaching were of the highest caliber.
Continue reading

Local Association News, Fall 2010

by Margaret Roby, NCTM
Messages from local association presidents with news of the past year have been arriving in my e-mail box. If you are a local association member planning for next year or an IMTA member considering joining (or forming!) a local, these are some offerings to consider.
Greater Indianapolis MTA – This group had four “meet-ups” over the past year.  Their professional sharing time has evolved from an initial plan to meet as a pedagogy book group. They will meet in August for their “pre-AIM” session to help each other prepare students for the November AIM festival at Butler.  In collaboration with the Indianapolis Piano Teachers Association, they will present an all day workshop by Dr. Paul Wirth in February 2011.
Tippecanoe MTA – In the Lafayette area a highlight of the year was hosting a master class for advanced students with Jeremy Denk in connection with his performance on the Purdue Convocation Series. The group also had more than 100 participants in AIM, 44 in Hoosier Auditions, and 80 in their Sunday Showcase recitals.  Plans are already in gear for their Monster Piano Concert scheduled for June 9, 2011.
Northeast Indiana MTA – In Fort Wayne, there have been many performance opportunities – AIM, Hoosier Auditions, Christmas Recitals at Von Maur, a master class with Dr. Robert Palmer, and finally a Germanfest Recital in their downtown. The teachers concluded the school year with a music-making day of their own at the home of Beverly Norton.
Wabash Valley MTA – In Terre Haute, besides the annual participation of member teachers in AIM, Hoosier Audtitions, and the Wabash Valley Recital Series, there were two new, successful initiatives in 2009-10: Dr. William Hughes conducted a student master class, and the group presented its first student composition recital. Dr. Ray Kilburn will be conducting a workshop in Terre Haute during the 2010-11 school year.

President's Message, Fall 2010

Dear IMTA Members,
I am always thinking of ways to guide my students to learn music musically. How can I assist them to develop practicing habits for a musical performance? What is the very first  practicing habit my students need to learn to make music musical? Is it posture, hand position, rhythmic stability, note and finger accuracy, pattern recognition, phrasing, or musical  analysis? What are the other important practicing habits that need to become second nature during my students’ practicing?
As a young pianist prior to college, my practicing habit was to learn notes, rhythms and fingerings. As soon as those were established I went on to “making music.” Upon entering college, my piano professor told me to make music the first time I  looked at a piece of music. I thought he was kidding – I always learn notes, rhythms and fingerings before I make music. Lesson by lesson, he guided me to study and hear a score before touching the piano – to analyze a score musically and theoretically. He taught me to ask questions of the score. What is the meter at the beginning, the middle and the end, what are the  large parts, where are the repetitions, the variations and the contrasts, where is the climax, what moods are conveyed, and is this phrase a question or an answer? From there he  encouraged me to carefully practice the score by including accurate readings of the notes, rhythms and fingerings, while making beautiful phrase shapes, interesting colors, rhythmic  and metric vitality, and architectural sense of the piece.Continue reading