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.

General meeting: Thursday November 19, 2020 
Paul Roberts — Reading Liszt: Performing the Petrarch Sonnets

Join us in the November Zoom room online for the November MEA General Meeting. Check your email for the Zoom link.

Concert pianist, writer, lecturer and inspiring teacher Paul Roberts will perform the three Petrarch Sonnets from Liszt's Italian book of the Années de pèlerinage, with readings from the poems, and explore how an understanding of the literary context can aid interpretation. 

Paul Roberts Website

September 17, 2020
Beatrice Long Presented
A Musical Journey to Vienna
Read The Highlights Here.

In connection to the MEA Annual Piano Competition 2021, Beatrice Long presented a lecture on the music scenes in Vienna from 1750-1899, and the lives of nine Viennese composers whose works are featured in the 2021 competition’s syllabus:  Haydn, Mozart, Diabelli, Schubert, Beethoven, Czerny, Hummel, Johann Strauss II and Brahms.

This presentation was held via Zoom. Beatrice did a wonderful job with the technology and topic! All the guests fortunate enough to attend were inspired by the joy shared through the music, her live performances and the many interesting stories told. Be sure to read the highlights written by Bertha Mandel Here.

The Glissando
The September 2020 edition is amazing!

Many thanks to Richard Allaway, the new Editor of The Glissando, his graphic work is wonderful! His staff, comprised of Marcia Maull, Bertha Mandel and Beverly Shea,  worked together to bring you a most harmonious issue! The Glissando can always be found and downloaded from our website under Forms /Downloads. Click here for the latest copy: The Glissando

2020 HONORS RECITAL

DEADLINE EXTENDED!
 
Application Deadline: October 15
Video Submission Deadline:  November 1

 

The MEA Honors Recital provides a wonderful opportunity for qualified students to perform. This year, because of health concerns for all those who participate, MEA will conduct auditions via videos, similar to the format used in this year’s Annual Piano Competition. 

The Honors Recital allows students/teachers to select the repertoire they wish to present. For solos, two memorized pieces are required from two different musical periods. 

Ensembles are also encouraged and require only one piece with optional memorization.

The required repertoire levels correspond to the 2020 Annual Auditions Syllabus. For solo entries, each student will be required to submit two videos, one for each piece, to an unlisted YouTube link. From there, they will be forwarded to two judges for evaluation. If the student is awarded Honors, one piece will be selected as the performance piece. All students will receive written evaluations from the judges and certificates awarding Honorable Mention or Honors. Honors students will also receive trophies. A beautiful final video will be created with the Honors pieces and uploaded to an unlisted, private YouTube channel for viewing. Please watch the outstanding video presentations that were crafted for the Annual Piano Competition.

For complete Guidelines, repertoire requirements, appropriate dress, etc.,
please click Here.

Please address any questions or concerns to Charlene Step,
Honors Recital Chair: honorsrecital@mea-nj.org.

 
 
 

 

2021 Annual Piano Competition
The 2021 Interactive APC Syllabus Has Arrived!
Join us on “A Musical Journey to Vienna!”

Click Here for the Interactive Syllabus

The Annual Piano Competition Committee is proud to announce that the 2021 syllabus is now available in an interactive format.  Just click on any of the links to hear the selections. The theme is "A Musical Journey to Vienna" and features the music of Schubert, Mozart, Brahms, Haydn, Beethoven and more, in the categories of solos, concertos, duets, and duos.  The competition is tentatively scheduled to take place in May 2021. Please look the syllabus over, listen to some of this glorious music, and encourage your students to enter and begin their own musical journey! 

2020 COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED

The Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce that James Bally, student of Sondra
Tammam, has been awarded an MEA-MJN scholarship to William Paterson University for the fall 2020 semester. A jazz performance major, James enjoys composing and performed two of his original jazz compositions at recent Honors Recitals. In addition, he performed during the “virtual” jazz class conducted by Dan Crisci at the 9th Taubman Festival in June 2020. To read more about this talented student, please click
 
The MEA is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, and all donations to the MEA-MJN Scholarship Fund are fully tax-deductible. The scholarship fund relies solely on generous individual donations, matching contributions from employers, and music sales at the monthly MEA General Meetings (when they are held in person). Making a contribution to this fund is a meaningful way to honor a person with congratulations (birthday, anniversary, graduation, etc.), get well wishes, or in memoriam. An announcement of your tribute, including your personal message, will be sent to the honoree. Please donate generously so that MEA can maintain and expand this supportive program!
Charlene Step & Sondra Tammam
Scholarship Committee Co-chairs

JUNE 11th GENERAL MEETING: A Historic Event!
Via Zoom, MEA Presented
Concert Pianist,Composer, Teacher and Author of
"The Russian Technical Regimen For The Piano"

ALEXANDER PESKANOV
Read the Highlights written by Bertha Mandel Here
 
 The June 11th meeting was held via the Zoom platform. This was the first time in MEA history that a general meeting was held virtually, online!  It took place at the usual 10:00 a.m. and featured Concert Pianist, Composer, Teacher and Author of "The Russian Technical Regimen for the piano", ALEXANDER PESKANOV.  Our President, Yudit Terry, had everything in place for a smooth maiden voyage.  Many teachers joined this online event, it was very exciting and successful! It paved the way for future on-line presentations.  Many thanks go to Sophia Agranovich for using her extensive contacts to engage Mr. Peskanov at such short notice.  Be sure to read the highlights, click on the  link posted in the title section. 

2020 Annual Piano Auditions
Online worked out just fine!
BIG SUCCESS!

The  2020 Annual Piano Auditions were held remotely due to the closing of all rental facilities during the Corona Virus Pandemic. Ninety teachers enrolled students in the auditions, a really impressive number! And a total of 753 students participated. Fifty-six students received 7-year awards, and seven students received 10-year awards!  Lisa Gonzalez, Gloria Weisberg, Lisa Cassia and Joan Bujacich collected and recorded the grades and mailed out certificates and 3 and 5-year awards. Gloria Weisberg also sent out the 7 and 10-year monetary awards! Many thanks to this great team for doing such a wonderful job. All of the teachers submitted their grades by the July 15th deadline which was really wonderful.

Bravo to all of the teachers and their students for taking on this challenge and participating in this Historical event. You all deserve a big round of applause! We did it!

You can read more about it in the September Glissando!
Joan Bujacich, Audition Program Director

Auditions@mea-nj.org

 

2020 Eric Steiner Recognition of Merit in Composition

Composition Committee Chair, Kathy Knittel reports that there were fifteen students representing seven teachers entered in the Eric Steiner Original Composition Competition this year.  The judge for the Senior Level was Dr. Stefan Young and the judge for the Junior and Elementary levels was Amir Mortezai. There were five students enrolled in each category.

Congratulations to all the students and teachers for a job well done!  The awards are as follows:

Senior Division:

First Place Winner a  student of Eric Olsen
Nighttime Prowl for viola/piano by Kedhar Narayan

Second Place Winner a student of Kay Tsuji
Dancing Raindrops by Shuchi Patel

Third Place Winner a student of Kay Tsuji
Bell (Spring is Coming) for voice/piano by Yutong Lin

Honorable Mention a student of Bo Eun Kim:
Suite for the Piano 4 hands, Lost in a Dream by Anyah Kumar  

Honorable Mention a student of Danette Whelan 
Dimitri the Spooky Domovoi, by Rhea Kapur 

 Junior Division:

First Place Winner a student of Nancy Modell
Rocky Mountain Suite by Joseph Uglialoro

Second Place Winner a student of Nancy Modell
Space Escape by Jayden Adams

Third Place Winner a student of Nancy Modell
Endless Frontier by Charles Love

Honorable Mention a student of Nancy Modell
Double Space by Nathan Crisci

Honorable Mention a student of Lisa Casia
Trips by Vinayak Sinha 

 Elementary Division

First Place Winner a student of Sondra Tammam
Wind Chimes by Emi Simonds

Second Place Winner a student of Nancy Modell
The Astronaut's First Vacation by Ella Zhang

Third Place Winner a student of Nancy Modell
Far Away and Back Again by Chloe She

Honorable Mention a student of Lisa Casia
Skating for the First Time by Ira Sinha,

Honorable Mention a student of Kay Tsuji 
Singing Birds by Nitya Suresh 

 The ESOCC 2020 Booklet will become available in the near future for all current MEA members to view.  It will posted under downloadable documents.

 

THE ANNUAL PIANO COMPETITION 2020
WINNERS' RECITAL
THE BEST OF YESTERYEAR
APPLAUSE!!!!

We are pleased to present the MEA-NJ Annual Piano Competition Winners' Recital in video this year! A special thanks to Youn-Hee Kim, a competition committee member, for  taking on this huge project. The recital is presented in three separate video clips from Youtube. To start enjoying these wonderful performances, click on one of the following links. We hope you of course watch all three segments!
 
 
 
 Congratulations to Barbara Landi Hause and Anna Katznelson, Co-chairs, and their entire committee for holding the competition under such challenging circumstances. BRAVO!!!

2019-20  MEA MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY 

The 2019-20 Membership Directory can be found on your Member Homepage. Log on and take a look. It is listed under Downloadable Documents. You can view or Download. 

The new 2020-21 Directory should be ready by early November.