Music Educators Association of New Jersey

Serving teachers and students since 1927

Welcome to the Music Educators Association of New Jersey Website!

Celebrating 90 Years of Music Excellence

The Music Educators Association of NJ is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization of private piano teachers founded in 1927. Our mission is to raise the standards of private music teaching throughout New Jersey, while encouraging musical excellence and instilling a love of music in our students. To achieve these goals, we provide continuing education opportunities for our member teachers through monthly lectures, workshops, recitals and master classes. For our students, we offer auditions, competitions, recitals, scholarships and master classes given by artist teachers. Our current President is Yudit Terry, 2019-2021. Click here to read Messages from the President. (These can also be found under Membership on the main menu.)

We invite you to browse our website and discover the exciting world of music MEA offers.

Please note that hyperlinks are noted in Bold Red and when clicked will bring you directly to related pages or forms.

2019-2020 Welcomes New Executive Officers!

The MEA extends a very warm welcome to new President, Yudit Terry. In addition to Yudit, we have Marcia Maull replacing Beverly Shea as 2nd Vice President and Rebecca Eng and Linda Petrocchi replacing Yuly Verbitsky and Lisa Cassia as Co-Recording Secretaries. Salvatore Mallimo, Lynne Rogerson, Bertha Mandel and Clarisse Kant continue uninterrupted in their Executive Board positions and Nancy Modell now serves as Immediate Past President, replacing Joan Bujacich. With this great line-up, we continue to be in valued hands! You can see a full listing of our Board Members and Committee Chairs HERE.

 

2018-19, PROGRAM RECAP

All the Highlights for last season’s programs and events can be found under For Members/Highlights from our main menu.  Many thanks to all the writers, layout designers and photographers for bringing these great articles to our membership: Sophia Agranovich, Joan Bujacich, Lisa Gonzalez, Bertha Mandel, Nancy Modell, Beverly Shea and Charlene Step! If you are a great writer, photographer and/or good with graphic design using a program like Pages or Word and would like to find out how you can contribute, contact Joan Bujacich at website@mea-nj.org.

September 20, 2018: Homage to Bach
The Competition Committee performed  the repertoire from the 2019 Annual Piano Competition Syllabus (Highlights for this event are listed under the March.) 

October 18, 2018: Ingrid Clarfield
Keeping the Spark Alive and Still Learning After 50 Years: Pedagogical Tips from A to Z ingridclarfield.com

November 15, 2018: Juliana Osinchuk
Leonard Bernstein – the American Renaissance Man. Celebrating the Great Musician’s 100th Birthday linkedin.com/in/juliana-osinchuk-73b26b17

January 17, 2019: Jed Distler
The Golden Age of Pianism on Record www.jeddistler.com

February 21, 2019: Aaron Wunsch
Debussy and Visual Arts aaronwunsch.com

March 21, 2019: Joseph Kalichstein
Teachers Master Class juilliard.edu/music/faculty/kalichstein-joseph

April 18, 2019: Jeffrey Biegel
Modern Embellishments in Bach and Mozart jeffreybiegel.com

May 16, 2019: Adam Kent
Portraits of Barcelona — works by Catalan composers Federico Mompou and Manuel Blancafort adamkentmusic.com/about

June 13, 2019: Douglas Humpherys
Young Artist Master Class esm.rochester.edu/faculty/humpherys_douglas

2020 Annual Piano Competition
“50th Anniversary: The Best of Yesteryear"
If you haven’t explored the syllabus for this celebratory year it is still not too late to get your students started. Click Here for the APC 2020 Syllabus. And of course as is customary, the APC Committee will present all the music at the September meeting, check the calendar for details.

YOUNG ARTIST MASTER CLASS
JUNE 13, 2019
DOUGLAS HUMPHERYS
WOW, what a wonderful class!

In spite of the rainy morning, the sun was shining at the Wharton Institute! 

 

Check out the  HIGHLIGHTS  FOR THIS MAGNIFICENT CLASS HERE! DOUGLAS HUMPHERY'S WORK WITH THESE TALENTED STUDENTS WAS 
INSPIRING AND MAGICAL. 


MASTER CLASS PROGRAM

Beethoven Sonata Opus 31, No. 2 : First Movement
Sunny Yu: Teacher, Ana Berchadsky

Un Sospiro, Etude No. 3, S. 144  by Liszt
Alyssa Zylberger:  Teacher, Sophia Agranovich


Nocturne Opus 38, No. 4 by Lowell Leibermann
Jasmine Meyer: Teacher, Julia Lam

Re: The YA Master Class Auditions were held on  June 1 at The County College of Morris. The judges were very impressed with all the candidates. Congratulations to the winners and their teachers. Joan Bujacich, Coordinator

 

Congratulations to the winners of the
2019 Eric Steiner Original Composition Competition!

Elementary Division
1st place - Bunny Hop by Emi Simonds, student of Sondra Tammam 
2nd place - Weekday Mornings by Vinayak Sinha, student of Lisa Casia

Junior Division
1st place - Impromptu by Joshua Li, student of Marcia Maull
2nd place - Rhapsody in Sleep by Tarun Kalyanaraman, student of Kay Tsuji
3rd place - Seasons by Karan Kalyanaraman, student of Kay Tsuji
Honorable Mention - La Mariposa by Miranda Drace, student of Ruth Pasquariello
Honorable Mention - Island of Aphrodite by Sophia Georgiades, student of Joan Bujacich
Honorable Mention - The Platypus Cakewalk by Charles Love, student of Nancy Modell

Senior Division
1st place- Dance of the Faeries by Kedhar Narayan, student of Eric Olsen
2nd place - Ballade No. 3 in C Minor by Cole Griscom, student of Susan Leiser
3rd place - A Tree in Blossoms by Yutong Lin, student of Kay Tsuji
Honorable Mention - The Illusionist by Shuchi Patel, student of Kay Tsuji
Honorable Mention - Walking in the Storm by Anyah Kumar, student of Boeun Kim
Honorable Mention - Journey to Prospect Mountain by Jacklyn Zhu, student of Danette Whelan
Honorable Mention - Gurney Street, Cape May by Rhea Kapur, student of Danette Whelan
Honorable Mention - Fantasia Espanola by Kailyn Williams, student of Danette Whelan
Honorable Mention - Sulle Acque del Como by Olivia Escousse, student of Danette Whelan

Visit the webpage to learn more about this annual event HERE.

Original Composition Festival
Caldwell University
 May 5th  -  2 P.M.
Big Success!

The  Original Composition Festival was held at Caldwell University on May 5th  at 2 p.m. This year's festival had the largest audience to date, it was quite inspiring! There were 26 original compositions performed this year. Many students who competed in the Eric Steiner Original Composition Competition also  performed and were awarded their trophies and certificates.  Five of the student compositions were for violin and piano and one was an electronic music performance piece! This was  a very exciting program with a lot of talented students performing.  Our esteemed judges were most impressed with the level of the compositions and the quality of the writing! Chair, Kathy Knittel, did a wonderful job organizing both the Eric Steiner Original Composition Competition and the Original Composition Festival.  Committee members Joan Bujacich, Lisa Gonzalez and Nancy Modell also were there to help in various capcaities, all making a great day of music! 

49th Annual Piano Competition Highlights
To view the Highlights in full click Here.

Congratulations to all the students and teachers who participated in this year’s piano competition, “Homage to Bach”.  The level of playing was of the highest standard, and the concert on March 17th in the Leshowitz Recital Hall at Montclair State University was a great success. 

The teachers of the first, second and third place winners are:  Hyunjin Cho, Gloria Chu, Shinwen Chung, Rebecca Eng, David Iskowitz,  Anna Katznelson, Mansoon Kim, Ruth Kotik, Julia Lam, Yuhui Chloris Li, Florence Liu, Beatrice Long, Aziza Khasanova Madaski,  Marcia Maull, Eric Olson, Daniel Parente, Thomas Parente, Gena Raps, Youson Soheil, Stella Xu, Yuka Yanagi and Grace Yang.

Special thanks to the APC committee for all their hard work all year long: Barbara Landi Hause and Anna Katznelson -Co-Chairs, Ana Berschadsky, Rebecca Eng, Vicky Griswold, Florence Liu, Beatrice Long, Kai Pangune Kim, Youn-Hee Bang Kim, Ruth Kotik, Michelle Kuo, and Yuka Yanagi.

We are very grateful to the County College of Morris for hosting the competition in their beautiful Music Technology building, and to Montclair State University for the use of the lovely Leshowitz Recital Hall.

Special Note:  Be on the lookout for the new syllabus, to be posted on the MEA website by June 1.  The year 2020 marks the 50th year of the APC, and the theme will be “50th Anniversary: Best of Yesteryear”.   Tell your students to look forward to playing some of the greatest hits from the past 50 years! 

EXCITING NEW CHANGES TO THE AUDITION SYLLABUS for 2019!

The Audition Committee is happy to share some exciting changes that were made to the syllabus. Be sure to go to your Member Homepage to view or download the revised syllabus. We have been listening to your concerns!

• Student arrangements are now an acceptable option for required repertoire.
An original composition or a student arrangement may be performed as one of the required pieces providing it is comparable to the level of difficulty for that particular grade and category and is notated. Note: As of 2017 this applied only to Original Compositions.

  • The requirement limiting repertoire to only one piece from a given method book has been removed. This applies to the Introductory through Junior B categories.

  • A NEW LEVEL HAS BEEN ADDED! A Pre-Senior D has been added to the previous three  Pre-Senior levels. This level will help smooth the transition to the Senior level. It has only three categories and requires only one piece by memory. The pieces required are more difficult than on the Intermediate level but students will be able to progress to the next level without having to prepare a fourth piece and additional memorization.

  • Please remember that pop and jazz pieces have always been an option for the choice selection. It seems that many teacher are unaware of this, so we wrote it out more clearly where applicable. The choice selection can be a comparable piece from any period including pop, jazz, and notated originals and arrangements. Applies to Junior A through YA.

    If you have not renewed your membership, you will not be able to access your Member Homepage and download the Syllabus, so it may be a good time to do so now. If you have renewed and cannot access your  Member Homepage, contact Joan Bujacich: auditions@mea- nj.org.
     

MEA-MJN 2018 Scholarship Awards

The Scholarship Committee awarded Camp Scholarships to three outstanding students:

Gordon Li.   A student of Julia Lam, Gordon is an 8th grader at William Annin Middle School and attended the one-week Westminster Choir College Piano Camp in July. 

Kelsey Lee.  Kelsey, who studies with Beatrice Long, is a student at Summit High School and attended the two-week Interharmony International Music Festival in Germany in August.

Eliza Tagle.  Another student of Beatrice Long, Eliza also attended the two-week Interharmony International Music Festival in Germany in August. She is a student at Millburn High School.

All three students have impressive music credentials and experience, including awards, recitals, second instrument proficiency, and  ensemble performance.  The Board awarded a total of $1,100. Click here to see the write-ups of their life-changing summer experiences.

 Congratulations to these outstanding, deserving young musicians!

The MEA-MJN (Mary Jean Nelson) Scholarship Fund relies solely on the generosity of our donors, matching contributions from employers, and music sales at the monthly MEA general meetings. MEA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) and all donations are tax-deductible. Making a contribution to the scholarship fund is a wonderful way to support aspiring musicians and perpetuate the beauty inherent in the arts. With your donation, you can also honor a person with congratulations (birthday, anniversary, graduation, etc.), get-well wishes, or in memoriam. Please help us continue our scholarship efforts!

 The MEA Scholarship Committee:  Sondra Tammam and Charlene Step, Co-chairs and Sal Mallimo

 For more information on the scholarship program click Here.