2019-2020 Calendar of Events

  • FSMTA Student Competitive Events can be found here.
  • MTNA Student Competitive Events can be found here.
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Follow the instructions below to add the Mid-State MTA Calendar of Events to your Google Calendar.
  1. Open Google Calendar.
  2. On the left side, find "Other calendars" and click the down arrow .
  3. Select Add by URL.
  4. Enter the calendar's address in the field provided: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/8e617oh8httfdd8mqgon6n8ibs%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
  5. Click Add calendar. The calendar will appear on the left side under "Other calendars."
Note: It might take up to 12 hours for changes to show in your Google Calendar.
September 2019
Meeting/Workshop
  • Date: Thursday, September 26, 2019
  • Time: 9:30 AM General Meeting/10:30 AM Workshop/12:00 PM Lunch
  • Program: How do we Switch from Finger Technique to Arm Technique?
  • Clinicians: Dr. Grigorios Zamparas; read his biography here
  • Location: Puckett Auditorium at Florida College, 119 N Glen Arven Ave, Temple Terrace, FL​ 
How do we Switch from Finger Technique to Arm Technique?
This session will address the issue of transitioning from finger technique on the piano to more expansive movements involving the wrist and arm.  He will be focusing on some basic concepts, including:
  • Playing in a more effortless way
  • Free falling of the fingers onto the Keys; finger preparation without pushing
  • Movements of the wrist; importance of the thumb
  • The art of movement in Arch-like fashion; arm movement
  • Building up the support muscles to support the fingers
Grigorios Zamparas has received critical acclaim for his versatile performing career as recitalist, orchestra soloist and chamber musician in Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, former Yugoslavia, Austria, Russia, Brazil, South Korea and the US. He is a frequent guest at numerous festivals worldwide, having performed several times at the prestigious Newport Music Festival (US) and the Portoheli International Music Festival (Greece). He is an Associate Professor of Music and head of the piano program at The University of Tampa. Dr. Zamparas holds degrees from the University of Miami, Indiana University, University of Indianapolis, and the Aristotle University of Thessalonica, Greece. He has recorded six albums for Centaur Records, including the complete piano concertos of Anton Rubinstein. Grigorios Zamparas is a Yamaha Artist. 
October 2019
FSMTA State Conference -  "Music Meets Medicine"
District 9 Conference and Business Meeting
  • The annual District 9 Conference and Business Meeting will be held in conjunction with the State Conference
  • Date: Saturday, October 19, 2019
  • Location: Hilton University of Florida Conference Center, ​Gainesville, FL
  • Information:
    • ​9:30-10:30 - Saturday Workshop Session, "Performance Anxiety:  It's Not Easy Bein' Green", by Julie Nagel
    • ​12:45-2:00 - Business meeting and lunch @ No Name Lounge
November 2019
Fall Musicale
This is a non-competitive student merit recital. Teachers, not participating students, please complete the entry application below.
Fall Adult Soiree
This is a non-competitive event for adult students 18 years and over to gather in an informal, enjoyable and relaxed environment to share music and friendships.
Meeting/Workshop
  • Date: Thursday, November 21, 2019
  • Time: 9:30  AM/10:30 AM Workshop/12:00 PM Lunch
  • Program: How to Add the Practical and the "How-to" to make our students more well-rounded musicians
  • ​Clinician: Dr. Karen Ann Krieger
  • Location: Puckett Auditorium at Florida College, 119 N. Glen Arven Ave., Temple Terrace, FL
How to Add the Practical and the "How-to" to make our students more well-rounded musicians
Description:
Presentation will include such topics as:
How-to teach creativity through composition and improvisation
How-to warm-up a choir
How-to be a musical bandmate
How-to add keyboard choreography/technique resulting in artistry--It's more than just notes

Karen Ann Krieger, Collegiate Piano Chair, is Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at Vanderbilt University. Before coming to the Blair School of Music in 1988, she was Assistant Professor of Piano at Columbus State University in Georgia, and an award-winning television journalist in Columbus and Nashville. She is the author of student solo and duet compositions and books on blues and rock 'n' roll published by Alfred Publishing Company and FJH Music. Recently her textbook: Group Piano: Proficiency in Theory and Piano Performance was published by Hal Leonard. It includes over 50 complimentary audio tracks online for download or streaming and a commitment to inspire every student to love the keyboard/piano and to realize its foundation of "everything music."
Besides her publications, Krieger has had solo and chamber music performances, and given presentations throughout the United States, British Columbia, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Yugoslavia, and concerto performances with the symphony orchestras of Nashville, Chicago Heights, Columbus and LaGrange (Georgia), Mercer University, Western Illinois University, the Huntsville Youth Orchestra, and the Vanderbilt Wind Ensemble. She has also toured with saxophonist Neal Ramsay through Columbia Artists, New York, performing on both piano and accordion. Krieger has presented sessions at the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy, the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, and at Music Teachers National Association Conferences.

Krieger earned a MM in piano performance at the University of Illinois and a BA degree in piano performance with a minor in business at Western Illinois University. Her performance and pedagogy teachers include William Heiles, James Lyke, James Magsig, Ann Collins and Roger Shields. Master class performances and coachings include John Browning, Ilana Vered, Ann Schein, John Perry and Mitch Miller.
December 2019
Members Christmas Holiday Luncheon
January 2020
Lois Golding Memorial Teachers Benefit Recital
This recital is a tribute to Lois Golding, former pianist and pedagogy professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, who encouraged teachers to never stop learning. It is through her inspiration we dedicate this teacher participant recital as one way to provide funding to award scholarships to teacher members for the sole purpose of furthering their education in music.
 February 2020
Meeting/Workshop
Aural Skills: How Hearing Makes Doing and Seeing Work
Teaching music students to listen to themselves is crucial for their own success. Yet students who mostly "play by ear" often struggle with technique, sight-reading, and basic practice skills. How does effective teaching balance the necessity of listening with the need for doing and seeing? Far from "playing by ear," students who can accurately remember, identify, analyze, and manipulate sounds are posed to excel at technique, sight-reading, practicing, and a host of other functional skills. This interactive workshop explores ways to teach ear training less as a disconnected topic and more as a fundamental practice technique.

Dr. Jonathan Reed is a professional pianist in both the concert hall and the classroom. An active arranger and performer, Dr. Reed has arranged and recorded six albums of piano music, presented numerous sacred and classical concerts in the Central Florida area, and performed with both choral and instrumental ensembles. Dr. Reed holds music degrees from Butler University, Bob Jones University, and University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He is Assistant Professor of Music at Warner University, where he teaches piano, music theory, and music history.
MSMTA Music Festival
This is a non-competitive student merit recital for students to be adjudicated. All students are awarded trophies.
March 2020
​District 9 Concerto Competition
Students who win this highly prestigious esteemed competition move on to the Florida State Music Teachers Association (FSMTA) Competition.
Spring Adult Soiree
This is a non-competitive event for adult students 18 years and above to gather in an informal, enjoyable and relaxed environment to share music and friendships.
April 2020
Meeting/Workshop
  • Date: Thursday, April 9, 2020
  • Time: 9:30 AM Meeting/10:30 Workshop/12:00 Lunch
  • Program: Articulating Bartók:  Understanding the Touch Notation in his Pedagogical Works
  • Clinician: ​Dr. Victoria Fischer Faw
  • Location: Puckett Auditorium at Florida College, 119 N. Glen Arven Ave., Temple Terrace, FL
Articulating Bartók:  Understanding the Touch Notation in his Pedagogical Works

Béla Bartók (1881-1945), composer of those difficult, formidable and modern piano works also stands as one of the most important contributors to the elementary and intermediate piano repertoire. His Piano Method and First Term at the Piano, For Children, Fourteen Bagatelles, Op. 6, Ten Easy Pieces, Mikrokosmos and various other beginning pieces provide teachers with high quality 20th-century literature as well as an introduction to the charms of folk music.  But the notation----the articulatory signs, pedal indications and unconventional key signatures and rhythms---can be difficult to interpret.  The solutions can be found in understanding the sources:  the folk music Bartók incorporated, as well as his ideas about piano technique and how to teach it.  Bartók’s deep study and appreciation of the folk music he collected transferred to his compositions.   This, combined with his pedagogical interest in developing coordination at the piano, resulted in a thick layer of dots, dashes and slurs, pedal marks, and all manner of combinations.  This presentation will share insights into what the notation means, and how to teach and play it.   Representative works valuable to the beginning and intermediate studio will be demonstrated and explained.

Victoria Fischer Faw, NCTM,  received her musical education at Centenary College of Louisiana (B.M. in piano performance), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (M.A. in musicology), the University of Texas at Austin (M.M. and D.M.A. in piano performance), and the Vienna Conservatory in Vienna, Austria (Rotary Foundation Fellowship). She pursues an active career as performer, scholar, teacher and adjudicator, with activities in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, Italy, Hungary, England, Greece, Germany, Austria, and Belize. Now in her 29th  year on the music faculty at Elon University, she has also served as Visiting Professor at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and the University of Belize. In addition to performing and teaching a varied repertoire of the standard keyboard literature, Dr. Fischer specializes in the music of Béla Bartók. A first-prize winner of the Bartók-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition, and recipient of the 2004 Regional Artist Award of the National Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, she is in demand as a performer, scholar and clinician. She is the author of a number of publications, including Bartók Perspectives  (Oxford University Press), edited with Elliott Antokoletz and Benjamin Suchoff, a chapter contributed to A Bartók Companion (Cambridge University Press) and an article The International Journal of Musicology. Her recordings include a solo CD of the works of Bartók entitled Evening in the Country, and a Wild Songs, a CD of American art song with soprano Polly Cornelius. As Professor of Music at Elon University she  teaches piano, piano pedagogy, chamber music, and mentors undergraduate research. She currently serves as President of the North Carolina Music Teachers Association.  She speaks fluent German and wishes she spoke better Italian. When not at Elon, she lives with her husband, Stephen Faw, in Alleghany County.
Student Day
This is a non-competitive event for students to be evaluated on performance, written theory and aural theory skills. ​
​​Senior Scholarship Recital ​
​Pre-Planning Meeting
  • Date: Thursday April 30, 2020
  • Time: 10:00 AM-12:00 PM
  • Program:  This meeting is designed to pre-plan, determine and designate future student activity and teacher meeting/workshop dates for the upcoming 2020-2021 school calendar year.
  • Location: Chicken Salad Chick, 2790 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL
May 2020
End of the Year Meeting/Luncheon
This meeting and members luncheon is designed to present the proposed dates for the upcoming 2020-2021 calendar and complete any unfinished business.
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