President's Message - Lisa Vartanian

president's message

Lisa Vartanian

lvartanian[at]paramusschools.org Website: http://www.njmea.org

Hello New Jersey Music Educators! Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year. As I write this message, summer is coming to an end, and the plans for inperson learning are beginning. During the summer months, I hope that you had a chance to refill your buckets with rest, relaxation, and mindfulness practices so that you are recharged and reenergized for the new school year ahead.

As I reflect on the 2020-2021 school year, I am full of gratitude for the incredible work you, our music educators, accomplished. I am thankful to those teachers and leaders that led virtual professional development sessions. We all learned a great deal from those meetings and came away with best practices that helped navigate the many teaching scenarios we faced. You have all gone above and beyond to keep music education thriving during this time.

Although virtual, our community of music educators worked closer than ever before to brainstorm, think 'out of the box,' and find the most creative ways to reach our students. In every case, you found a way to make it work- and work exceptionally well. The enormous efforts, creativity, and perseverance everyone demonstrated were genuinely extraordinary to see.

As we begin our work for this new school year, we officially welcome our new Executive Director, William McDevitt, to the New Jersey Music Educators Association. Over the past few months, Bill has worked closely with our former director, Debbie Sfraga, to ensure a smooth transition. Once again, we thank Debbie for her years of dedicated service to the NJMEA, the Eastern Division, and NAFME and appreciate her willingness to be a continual resource to our team.

Virtual Hill Month, Eastern Division Meetings, and National Assembly 2021

During the spring and summer months, the NJMEA leadership team was busy attending state and national meetings. As part of NAFME’s Hill Month, we met with congress to share concerns and interests regarding music education, including the need for more education funding in the COVID relief package and support for the Reopen and Rebuild American's Schools Act. Additionally, in June, the leadership team of NJMEA attended the Eastern Division meetings, as well as the National Assembly sponsored by NAFME. The meetings successfully conveyed that music education is vital for all students in our state and nation.

Summer NJMEA Conference: Recharging Our Digital Batteries

Summer Conference Coordinators Casey Goryeb and Jodie Adessa prepared an outstanding virtual summer conference in August with state-level speakers, round table discussions, breakout sessions, and workshops. Thank you again, Casey and Jodie, for providing us with resources and tools to prepare us for the new school year!

Professional Development

As we head into the new year, we are excited to offer several professional development opportunities, both in-person and virtual. These professional development workshops will allow us to explore some best practices we learned along the way and how to take those best practices and reimagine and expand them.

NJMEA State Conference We have tentatively scheduled an in-person conference that will take place in Atlantic City, NJ, on February 24-26, 2022.

Virtual Office Hours This year, the NJMEA board will offer bimonthly meetings and office hours via Zoom for teachers to help navigate the 2021-2022 school year. Look out for Tempo Express emails with those invitations.

NJMEA Honors Guitar Ensemble

On May 23, Mr. Jayson Martinez, NJMEA Guitar Chair, hosted a Virtual Guitar Project entitled Stepan Rak's "Rumba." This project, sponsored by the Virtual Guitar Orchestra and Augustine Foundation, offered teachers and students the opportunity to continue learning and making music despite the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to Mr. Jayson Martinez for his passion and vision for the program and Stephen Griesgraber, the Augustine Foundation, Uros Baric, Mak Grgic, and the entire Virtual Guitar Orchestra team.

This year, the NJMEA Honors Guitar Ensemble will perform live and in person at William Paterson's 'GuitarFest.' Auditions will take place in December at The College of New Jersey. The ensemble will perform pieces by Andrew Forrest, Mark Houghton, and Jurg Kindle.

The New Jersey Guitar Orchestra is scheduled to debut this fall. The NJGO, which includes alumni from the Honors Guitar Ensemble, will perform commissioned works at the Kaufman Center in 2022.

Advocacy

The NJMEA is committed to working with the state to ensure equal access to music education. With that, the leaders of the NJMEA are members of the NAfME Equity Committee. We are working hard to continue to make intentional efforts to identify systems, policies, and practices that create barriers to equity in music education. This summer, we spent several days focusing on establishing a shared understanding of equity, examining discourse through the lens of equity, and creating a repository of resources that can support the ongoing work.

The NJMEA continues to have a seat at the table at the following state-level meetings: Esser Funding Meetings, September Ready Reports 1 and 2, AntiRacist Arts Educator Talks, Actualizing Equity in Music Education, Virtual Hill Month, and the NAFME National Assembly.

Mentorship Program

Last year, we established a mentorship program for the first time in the state. The mentorship program will launch this fall for first and second-year teachers in partnership with our New Jersey Retired Music Education Association.

Crescendo Foundation

In the spring of 2021, NJMEA established a newly formed Board of Directors of the Crescendo Foundation. The Foundation is designed to support music education throughout New Jersey by providing financial assistance to students and communities in need. In the first phase of our effort, the Foundation will alleviate the financial barriers within our various programs and All-State ensembles by creating scholarship opportunities for young musicians. To this end, the first-year goal is to raise a minimum of $50,000 and favorably position the Foundation to enhance the music experience for hundreds of students throughout the state.

As I close, I wish you a wonderful school year!