UTSA EARNS TITLE OF TMTEF CHAPTER OF THE YEAR

UTSA Students Earn a Competitive National Grant and Title as Chapter of the Year!

Each year, the Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA) recognizes an outstanding music student chapter, its advisor, and members for showing an exceptional level and depth of activities. This year, UTSA’s student chapter of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) received the honor of the 2020 TMTEF (Texas Music Teachers Education Foundation) Collegiate Chapter of the Year award! The UTSA collegiate chapter also received a certificate and a competitive national grant from the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) in the amount of $250.00.

Despite the challenge of COVID-19 and virtual learning beginning in March, the chapter managed to do great things during the 2019-2020 school year. Since September 2019, seven members of the UTSA MTNA chapter and three UTSA piano faculty members have been traveling to the downtown location of SA Youth to provide weekly piano lessons for their Out-ofSchool Time (OST) Program. The $250 grant received from the MTNA is to be used to purchase supplies for the UTSA chapter’s SA Youth project.

SA Youth provides year-round positive youth development programs during non-school hours to low-income students ages 5-13. All activities are provided at no cost to families who participate. Adriana Flores from Alamo Music Center, which has been in business for 90 years in San Antonio, donated the keyboards to SA Youth used for the lessons. To date, there are 17 first and second graders enrolled in bi-weekly piano lessons.

Other activities MTNA members participated in during the year include volunteering at the Janice Kay Hodges Contemporary Piano Competition, participating in masterclasses given by Olga Kern and Dr. Rene Lecuona, and serving as greeters at piano auditions for potential UTSA music students. They were disappointed that they were not able to fulfill their main April activity – an interactive Beethoven Sonata recital– due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The award-winning TMTEF Chapter of the Year members include Emily Myers (President), Ke Pan (Vice-President), Eymen Geylan (Secretary), Ji Hyun Kim (Treasurer), Jihye Cheon (Historian/SA Youth Chair), Samuel Castillo (Past-President), Juliana Woodlee, Azziya Richardson, Kalin Brown, and Noah Serrata. Chapter advisors are Dr. Ivan Hurd and Dr. Kasandra Keeling.