2022 Colorado Music Educators Association Conference
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Keynote Address: One Person Makes a Difference
YOU make a difference, I make a difference, we ALL make a difference. The question we must ask ourselves is: WHAT KIND OF DIFFERENCE ARE WE GOING TO MAKE? Tri-M students are postured to have a positive impact on their chapters, their colleagues, their schools and their communities. The ART of MUSIC combined with the POWER of LEADERSHIP is a potent recipe-for-success in every aspect of life. The time is NOW, the LEADER is each and everyone of us!
Rehearsal Lab
Rehearsal strategies for preparing students. Helpful tools for music teachers in working with ensembles in everyday classroom settings.
Rock Canyon High School Band, under the direction of Zachary Fruits will serve as the demonstration group for this session.
Thursday, January 27, 2022
25 Best Practices, Tips and Hacks for the Middle Level Band Teacher
This session will provide you with 25 (or more!) best practices, tips, and hacks that you can use with your beginner and intermediate level bands right away. Topics will include percussion, administration, email, sheet music, planning, classroom culture and more!
Looking to dive deeper into the content of the session? Check out these supporting materials:
Building an Equity Bridge Through Student-Led Chamber Ensembles
El Sistema Colorado's mission is to harness the joy of music and ignite the potential in our future leaders through an immersive youth music education program that transcends socioeconomic barriers. We see our equity focus coming to life in two distinct areas: Dismantling white supremacy within the arts environment and facilitating socio-emotional learning with a social justice focus. How does a music program make this shift? Through student-led chamber ensembles designed to give students both voice and choice in their music making experience. We think these small ensembles may be the most efficient and effective way to shift music education to being more student-centered, equitable, and culturally responsive.
Join El Sistema Colorado and Quartet Maravilla as we demonstrate how chamber music can build an equity bridge while preparing students for lives as professional musicians.
Looking to dive deeper into the content of the session? Check out these supporting materials:
Empowered Listening: Turning Accurate into Artistic
How can you and your students elevate your performances from accurate to artistic? This session seeks to answer this relevant and vital question by providing alternative strategies that will enhance your listening skills and empower your students to engage with the rehearsal process. We will explore new methods to create your personal aural image and heighten your expectation for student performance. By using examples from a variety of scores, we will examine how to quickly process and study the printed score to make informed decisions that will determine your performance expectation. Most importantly, we will explore ways to energize your rehearsals and empower your students’ listening. It will be our goal to turn ensemble rehearsals into exciting and creative spaces where students take risks, explore the unknown, and become collaborators in the artistic pursuit.
Wellness and Self-Care for Artist’s: Tips for You and Your Students
Musician’s wellness is an under-researched topic, despite obvious impacts to overall wellbeing. Students, however, are at an age that they can start creating habits to grow an understanding of self-care practices that 1) are specific to musicians and 2) help them to keep making music in search of a career path that is healthy and sustainable.
In this session, presenters will:
- Explain the four dimensions of wellness as they relate to musicians: physical, social, emotional, and financial.
- Facilitate discussion around the principles of wellness for artists as taught at the university level.
- Share resources to apply with students; from a brief rehearsal break to long-term tactics for struggling students.
- Lead experiential exercises that offer a reset for CMEA attendees, and provide space to communicate about self-care experiences as they relate to career growth.
Looking to dive deeper into the content of the session? Check out these supporting materials:
Inherently Political: A Conversation Around Activism and Artivism in Concert Music
In this session, I will discuss the activism that is at the core of a number of my works, and considerations that should be taken when composing and commissioning such music.
Creating Your Flute Intonation Prescription
This session explores the concepts of how embouchure compression, air volume, mouth/throat shape, and rolling affect intonation on the flute. Once educators know the four main influences of flute intonation, they can more readily empower their flutists with the tools to adjust their intonation based on each student’s individual tendencies. At the conclusion of this session, attendees will come away with the skills to create a "prescription" for each flute student's intonation while maintaining tonal integrity.
Looking to dive deeper into the content of the session? Check out these supporting materials:
Friday, January 28, 2022
The First Three Years
The first three years of teaching are an important and often challenging transitional time for all new music teachers entering the profession. This panel discussion will explore the experiences of music teachers currently navigating this early career stage. Panelists Andrea Austin, Hannah Harm, Celeste Landy, and Tristan Peterson will share lessons they have learned in their journey from college to the classroom. Moderator David Rickels will also invite questions from the audience. College students, new teachers, and experienced teachers who mentor new educators will all benefit from this dialogue about experiences in the first three years.
Tune it or Die: Just intonation for any ensemble
This clinic will demonstrate the differences between equal tempered tuning versus just intonation, how and when to use both, and demonstrate why the overtone series is critical knowledge to help your ensemble tune well.
Axes of tone on brass instruments
Dr. Stanley Curtis, trumpet professor at Colorado State University, will discuss six different ways, or "axes," that tone can be changed on brass instruments. Curtis will discuss each axis in theory and then show how to change each one. Volunteers from the audience, young and old, who play a brass instrument, will be welcomed. The audience will be encouraged to weigh in on each demonstration. Strategies for optimizing tone in a band class will be discussed.
Looking to dive deeper into the content of the session? Check out these supporting materials:
Just Tell Me What I Need to Know! - 4 Things to Make Your Band Sound Better, Guaranteed!
John Pasquale
University of Michigan, Donald R. Shepherd Associate Professor of Conducting, Director of the University of Michigan Marching and Athletic Bands, Associate Director of University BandsThe Band Director’s Bag of Tricks: How to Make Your Clarinet Section Sound Bigger and Better
This session will introduce practical and efficient approaches to help your clarinet players sound better immediately, regardless of age or skill level. You will gain the tools to provide incoming band students with a successful instrument tryout experience on the clarinet, and the knowledge to set them up for success in their early years of clarinet playing. I will also discuss what judges look and listen for in honor band auditions and demonstrate methods to help students get over the break, have greater overall technical facility, and develop good tone in the altissimo register.
Andrew Holcombe, session presider
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Saturday, January 29, 2022
Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School - Symphonic Band
Presider - Greg Watkins, Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School Principal
Concert Host - Katie Schrichte, IMC District 7 Representative
Music Ensemble: Inside and Out How to for music clarity in your ensemble
John Pasquale
University of Michigan, Donald R. Shepherd Associate Professor of Conducting, Director of the University of Michigan Marching and Athletic Bands, Associate Director of University Bands
Cheyenne Mountain High School Symphonic Band
Presider - Carrie Brenner, Cheyenne Mountain High School Principal
Concert Host - Tom Chapman, IMC District 5 Representative
Percussion For the Small School Director
Are you a small school band director? Do you have limited resources at your disposal? Are you in need of some percussion help? Then this is the clinic for you. We will discuss everything from basic percussion playing techniques to repair on those many instruments. This crash course will give you tons of ideas on how to utilize your percussion equipment in ways you never thought plus bring life back to that broken cymbal stand hiding in the corner.
Looking to dive deeper into the content of the session? Check out these supporting materials: