MEA-NJ is pleased to present a morning of original music composed by our own MEA-NJ member composers!  You are invited to come and hear a variety of pianistic styles including world-premiere selections.  Sheet music will be available to purchase at a very reasonable amount for your students.
Among the featured composers are:

JOHN BLASDALE
DAN CRISCI
CINDER LeDELL
CLARINDA LIN
NANCY MODELL
KAREN DANN SUNDQUIST
KATSUKO TSUJI
DANETTE WHELAN

Highlights from the Gala will be posted very soon!  A concert given by MEA members Dan Crisci, Michelle & Christopher Kuo, Beatrice Long, Sojung Lee and Luba Vasilyeva  was held at the Theater at Drew University in Madison, followed by a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception across the path at Mead Hall Mansion where Ingrid Clarfied, Maxine Giannini, Anita Gordon, Sallie Lloyd and Gloria Weisberg were honored.  Marcia Maull and her special committee did a wonderful job!

The Festival will be held at Caldwell University on  April 22^nd at 2 P.M. in Alumni Hall.
Please come and hear these great young composers. Many of the students enrolled in the Eric Steiner Original Composition Festival are also performing! Bring your students and they may  be inspired to share their creative contributions next year!
Admission is FREE!

The Competition Committee is happy to report that there were 24 students who participated in the 2018 competition representing 10 teachers.  This sets a  new record of student composers who entered into the competition!  Ten students entered in the Elementary Division, 4 students in the Junior Division, and 10 students  in the Senior Division!  Congratulations to all!

Here are the lists of winners and honorable mentions: 

Senior Division:  Dr. Stefan Young, judge
First Place Winner
Expedition by Kedhar Narayan, student of Eric Olsen

Second Place Winner
Jump Down by Rhea Kapur,  student of Danette Whelan

Third Place Winners (tie)
Alea Iacta Est by Valerie Chen, Student of Danette Whelan
Experimentation in A Minor, Student of Danette Whelan

Honorable Mention:  April by Olivia Escousse, Once in a Dream by Sonia Parmar, On Avance(piano/violin) by Jacklyn Zhu,  students of Danette Whelan; My Existential House by Tayfun Zaidi, student of Amanda Harberg; A Tedious Summer(flute/piano) by Suchi Patel and I Left My Heart in China(violin/piano) by Yutong Lin, students of Kay Tsuji

Junior Division:  George Rothman , judge,

First Place Winner
Lucidity by Terry Luongo,  student of Barbara Landi-Hause

Second Place Winner
Frozen Spring by Kailyn Williams,  student of Danette Whelan

Third Place Winner
Rose Heaven by Nathan Crisci,  student of Nancy Modell

Honorable Mention:
Majestic Cake by Tarun Kalynaraman, A student of Kay Tsuji

 Elementary Division: George Rothman, judge, 

 First Place Winner
Winter Breeze by Shivali Pandya,  student of Nancy Rosen

Second Place Winner
Mosquito By My Window, by Celia Arrazcaeta, A student of Joan Bujacich

Third Place Winner
Cave of Halloween by Vinayak Sinh,  student of Melissa Casia

Honorable Mention:
Morning Snowfall by Catherine Arrazcaeta, A Happy Walk by Cameron Wapner, students of Joan Bujacich; River of Tears by Kate O'Rourke, student of Lisa Gonzalez; Melting Away by Jayden Adams, student of Nancy Modell

Katherine Knittel
Chairperson

Paul Roberts will perform Debussy's piano suite Children's Corner and demonstrate how the composer's psychological understanding of childhood, and his delight in his daughter's toys and picture books, gave rise to one of the best loved works of French Impressionism.  To read more about Paul Roberts click Here. 

You can read the Highlights from this great Master Class Here. 

Members really enjoyed this hands on presentation!  Mr. Kageyama explored the two main components of performance anxiety and worked on several strategies designed to help us perform up to our full abilities when it counts.  Beverly Shea did a great job writing the highlights from this meeting and Nancy Modell's graphics and layout make for a very attractive read! Click HERE for a direct route to the Highlights from this meeting.

Go to Noa Kageyama's website for more information:
https://bulletproofmusician.com.

Read the latest message from our president, Nancy Modell Here.

In celebration of our 90^th Anniversary the MEA-NJ presented ~
Our event for Students of MEA members

The MEA Board of Directors awarded $4,200 in scholarships in 2017 to the following recipients:

COLLEGE
Elizabeth Amels, student of Diane Battersby 
Bryanne Makus, student of Dr. Lorraine Butterfield 

 CAMP
Student of Linda Petrocchi: Luke Surretsky  
Students of Gloria Chu: Jenna Cooley, Vincent Jiang, Meghan Jin 
Students of Beatrice Long: Rachel Chen, Eric Guo, Yulia Kuzniar 

 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.

Even though the MEA website appears to look the same, it actually has been totally recoded. This was a huge undertaking for our website committee and developer! Because of this major upgrade, it now works more efficiently in today’s multi platform world.  What does this mean?  This means that when you view the MEA website from a mobile phone or iPad you will not need to resize the page. If you do a lot of online work from your phone, you may notice that on many websites the text is too small or the page does not fit on your screen which then means you need to resize.  When viewing our new website from a smart phone,  you can easily view with no need to resize. You will also notice that on a smartphone,  the Homepage comes up in one column compared to four columns when viewing from a computer. You then scroll  up or down to view additional content.  On a smart phone, the main menu  will be in the form of a drop box compared to a horizontal listing when viewed from a computer. 

In addition to these new functions, there are many other exciting new features.  All interactive forms that involve online payments now have an auto calculate feature! And for our Committee Chairs: several committees now have a way of obtaining their exported  data which will then help them in using this information in many creative ways.  You may also notice a cleaner look and a new font.  Some content like the Forms/Downloads PDF’s are now listed with a fresh design. Also,  our membership directory now lists the teachers’ names alphabetically!!

This completes the second phase of our website development.  There are some additional items that will be done over the next few months that will  mainly streamline the jobs of our committee chairs and website committee. Much of this work was designed to save the MEA money from future website maintenance fees. Our President and the MEA Board have been very dedicated to investing in our Website which has become the major hub of serving our membership.   Marty Brasington from the company CodeMonkey Design has been our website developer and being a musician himself, he goes the extra mile for the MEA! 

Tip: On many interactive forms it appears that there is limited space to fill in required information.  However as you type you are actually not limited in space though you cannot see all the content. To view the hidden content place the cursor into the text and then use your right or left arrow key to scroll through the hidden content.

 If you have any questions or concerns please contact me, Joan Bujacich: website@mea-nj.org

Congratulations Students!
The Honors Recital Auditions were so successful that a 3rd recital 
was added!
 Look at the Highlights from this wonderful event Here.

Take a look at the highlights from this fantastic event Here. 

If you missed this wonderful concert you can still view it Here.
You can read the highlights from this event  Here.