It Was Great To See

The CASMEC coalition, including the California Alliance for Jazz (CAJ), California Band Directors Association (CBDA), California Choral Directors Association (CCDA), California Music Educators Association (CMEA), and California Orchestra Directors Association (CODA) hopes the 2023 CASMEC conference provided our educators with the opportunity to celebrate music education in California.

This year nearly 1,500 music educators from across our state and country enjoyed our annual conference again! We hosted 118 sessions covering a range of topics that will help educators continue to navigate out of the pandemic and the impacts it has and is still having on our students and communities. Once again, conference attendees had the pleasure of listening to several outstanding performances featuring some of the best ensembles from across the state. These performances were quite impressive and left concert goers impressed and reenergized with their beautiful music. It is a true testament to the dedication and passion that we as music educators espouse, to see our students achieve so much in such a short amount of time from returning back to in-person learning. Attendees also got to enjoy our first ever CASMEC Kick-Off with plenty of food, drinks, entertainment, and awards presentations from all five organizations. A special thank you to Molly Peters and Trish Adams for their hard work in making this new tradition a success, and I can’t wait to see what it develops into in Sacramento.

Thank you to CASMEC Logistics Coordinator, Barb Shinaver, Assistant CASMEC Logistics Coordinator, John Sandler, CBDA Logistics Coordinator, Joseph Cargill and the other team members from all of our collaborative organizations that worked hard to plan and execute our sessions. Many hours were dedicated before, during and still now after the conference to ensure an inspirational experience for our attendees. Thank you all for your work to