Tag: visiting artist

Musical March Madness

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Fountain near the abbey at St. Martin’s University in Lacey, Washington.
Edgewood Baptist Church, Edmonds, WA.
One of the Edmonds teachers kept my afternoon energy going with this lovely fruit plate.
Because….. Outfits!
St. Martin’s University in Olympia
St. Martin’s beautiful campus.
Teacher Hannah Kyeong Cho and three brothers-all enrolled in lessons with her.
Laura with Hanna’s two sons- both pianists- in Olympia.
Vegan on the road with tofu banh mi.
Back in my studio with Delaney
Ukes ready for the high school class at APL.
A Music class at APL.
Practice Time
My guard cat Simba – he’s happy to see my car back in the driveway.

March is a frenzied month for Washington music teachers! Many teachers and students across the state participate in the WSMTA (Washington State Music Teachers Association) Music Artistry Program, or MAP for short. This event takes place at multiple venues across the state and entails teachers registering their students to play for visiting artists who travel to chapters all over the state to hear performances from hundreds of students. The visiting artists provide written and verbal comments and also work at the piano for a few minutes with each student. I am a WSMTA visiting artist and recently spent six days adjudicating students from the Edmonds and Olympia chapters of WSMTA. In those six days, I put some miles on my Leaf, stayed in hotels, and worked with 15 teachers and over 125 students- around eight hours each day.

The days zoomed by with outstanding performances from piano students of all ages! Students performed music by the likes of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Amy Beach, Scott Joplin, and Chopin. Upon reflection, I am inspired by the dedication and high level of professionalism of the organizers and teachers, the hard work and polished performances of the students, and of course, the never ending parental support. It truly takes a village- a musically minded village. These types of events are not easy to pull off as there are many moving parts.

I barely caught my breath after the whirlwind of MAP events and headed back into my studio for my own practice and to resume lessons with my 23 private students. I also jumped right back in at the Academy for Precision Learning in the University District where I teach several weekly general music classes to grades K-12.

I eagerly await the page proofs of my forthcoming book (Music in the Westward Expansion: Songs of Heart and Place on the American Frontier), but am told that McFarland (the publisher) is working steadily behind the scenes and the book should be ready in the next few months. (Sigh….patience has never been one of my virtues). In the meantime, there are classes to teach, lessons to plan, and music to practice.

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