President’s Message – Winter 2012
Welcome to new year of 2012! The Year of Dragon!
As we sent off Year of 2011, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the NJMTA Board members for all their effort and support to NJMTA through out the year. We are very fortunate to have a group of music teachers who dedicate their time and energy voluntarily to serve the NJMTA community. In 2011, all NJMTA events were run smoothly with outstanding results. Congratulations to your accomplishments and achievements. I am very proud to be part of the team.
The NJMTA’s fall events came to a strong conclusion at the State Conference which was held at Rider University from 11/18 to 11/20. It was a memorable conference for NJMTA this year with the special guest – MTNA President Dr. Caton joined in commemorating our 50th Anniversary of affiliation. A beautiful plaque from MTNA was presented to NJMTA at the cake cutting ceremony for this semi-centennial celebration.
The conference was highlighted with sessions conducted by our featured artists: Eduardus Harlim’ s lecture recital with all Liszt Transcendental Etudes, and the inspiring advanced master class; Jennifer Linn’s informative Intermediate master class and her “Young and Impressionable” presentation; commissioned composer Vivian Fung’s compositions performance at winners recital; our own member Prof. Veda Zuponcic’s presentation on “Competitions” that provided in-depth insights we all took to heart; Prof. Phyllis Lehrer’s College Faculty panel discussion presented multidisciplinary perspectives from faculty members of several NJ universities; the Independent Music Teachers Forum’s presentations and performances led by Dr. Hendry Wijaya with the repertoire for “Four Hands and More”; and the MTNA Certification’s session led by Ting Ting Lien, with the experiences sharing from NJMTA certified members Chiu-Ling Lin, Marcia Yurko, Christina Xie, and Rose McCathran. A jam-packed intellectual and stimulating program indeed!
For a great Conference, there is much “labor of love” behind the success. All the credit go to conference planning committee led by NJMTA’s President Elect and Conference Chair – Christina Xie, and the planning committee members including Chiu-Ling Lin, Lillian Livingston, Chiu-Tze Lin, Grace Chang, Hendry Wijaya, Betty Stoloff, Phyllis Lehrer, and Phemie Chien. Thanks so much for all of your effort that made this exceptional conference possible.
During the conference, NJMTA also presented a number of awards to recognize those individuals who have contributed and accomplished significantly to the organization and the music teaching profession. Congratulations goes to Chiu-Tze Lin who is our “Teacher of the Year” recipient for 2011. In addition to her outstanding teaching, Chiu-Tze also serves as the music director and conductor of Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra.
We want to congratulate both Christina Xie and Jessica Tsai for receiving the 2011 NJMTA Service Award. They have served as Co-Chair of the Recital Auditions in Princeton area for the past 7 years, contributed countless hours of hard work and handled over thousand of registrants annually. What a task! NJMTA is very thankful to have both of them for all they have done. With their accomplishments, Christina is moving on as NJMTA President-Elect, Jessica will continue to serve as the Recital Audition Chair for Princeton area.
Three winner recitals of Young Musician Competitions, MTNA Competitions, Commissioned Composer Competitions, were outstanding at the conference. Thanks goes to all the event chairs – Grace Chang, Deborah Gers , Tomoko Harada, Margaret Knight, Hwei-Lan Luo, Kyun-Jung Rhee, Eunju Joung Kim, Yi Yang, Ingrid Tang, Renae Block, and Li-Chan Chen-Maxham, as well as all the teachers who had volunteer their time and effort to host and to help at the recitals. Congratulations to all the winners and their superb performances. Job well done!
Special thanks to Megan Register for the tremendous work and hours she provided to put together our new 2012 yearbook, to Yvonne Chin’s effort in keeping the NJMTA quarterly newsletter published on time, and being our web coordinator, to Victoria Chow’s coordination effort on the advertisements for the yearbook and the conference, to Phemie Chien and Sandra Lippman for their effort in taking care of the conference registration desk during the conference.
We also want to express our appreciation to Chiu-Tze Lin and Linda Fields, who are leaving their posts of NJMTA Treasurer, for their outstanding services to NJMTA community. Chiu-Tze has served as NJMTA Treasurer for more than a decade, and Linda as Co-Chair for 5 years. Both together had provided a secure and stable financial environment for NJMTA to grow and to serve the greater music community. They have contributed tremendously to the organization and we will truly miss them. Best wishes to them for their future endeavors.
There are two major upcoming events to be noted at this time – The MTNA competitions of the Eastern Division will be held on January 6 & 7, 2012 at West Chester, PA. NJMTA has many Winners who will be there to compete at the division level. Our winners list can be found at njmta.com. Stay tune for the updates!
Mark your calendars for the MTNA National Conference in New York, NY on March 24-28, 2012! It is practically at our “back yard”. I encourage you to register for the event, especially for those who have not attended the National Conference before. It is a great opportunity!
Wishing a healthy and prosperous new year to all NJMTA members! The Board is looking forward to work with you. Your constructive suggestions and new ideas will be most welcome. Together let’s make NJMTA an outstanding organization to provide excellent music environment for the teachers and students in NJ!
Diane Hou
President, NJMTA