News From the Board of Directors

Orchestra Performance/Festivals

Susan Meuse

susanmeuse[at]gmail.com

The next All State Orchestra event will be our March auditions. They will be held on Saturday, March 18 at JP Stevens High School in Edison. Both the High School (ASO) and Intermediate (ASIO) auditions will be taking place at this time. Auditions Chairs Sue Mark and Arvin Gopal are currently preparing for the event.

The All State Intermediate Orchestra will begin rehearsing soon after auditions, at the end of April. Colin Oettle from West WindsorPlainsboro HS North will be conducting this year.

I’m happy to say that we are in the middle of our three orchestra festivals right now. Thank you to all of the schools that have and are participating in the festivals!

Retired Members/Mentorship

Kathleen

Spadafino

kspadeb[at]aol.com

It was wonderful to see so many of our fellow retired NJMEA members at the conference in February! We had good discussions with Wayne Mallette, NJMEA president and also David Westawski, incoming president about becoming more involved with mentoring new members of NJMEA. We also shared ideas about our general membership meetings and making them performance based. We will be changing our May meeting date, so please look for an email from Ron Dolce, president of NJRMEA. We will also send out a TEMPO express so that everyone is aware of our spring General Membership meeting. We will be finalizing plans at our March Executive Board meeting, so if you want an update please email me at kspadeb@aol.com or Ron at rdolce561@aol.com later in March. We would love to increase our membership, so keep in touch!

Special Learners

Maureen Butler

maureenbutlermusic[at]gmail.com

As a new calendar year begins, we can take the opportunity to reflect on the first four months of the school year and consider how our special learners are faring. Have we been able to successfully include them in our classes? Are all our students developing the music skills that will enrich their lives? Is there more that we can do to facilitate this? One of our resolutions at the start of 2023 may be to develop deeper insight as well as new strategies and techniques to reach all of our students. If so, join us next month at the annual conference in Atlantic City, where several excellent sessions will focus on this important topic. Our annual Roundtable Discussion will feature a panel of teachers who are expert in this field, who will be available to answer your questions and concerns. The conference is always a valuable networking opportunity where we can support and learn from each other.

In the meantime, if you have questions or concerns about any of your students, please contact me at the email listed above.