Music Educators Association of New Jersey

Serving teachers and students since 1927

Welcome to the Music Educators Association of New Jersey Website!

Celebrating 96 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 Danette Whelan, 2022-2025. 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.

Support MEA of NJ

The Music Educators Association of New Jersey is comprised of nearly 300 piano teachers across the state. MEA supports music opportunities through activities such as auditions, recitals, competitions, master classes, composition festivals and scholarship awards. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to these worthwhile efforts.

MEA Annual Auditions -

Registration 2023 Now Open!

March 1-March 31

 

It's that time of the year again for our Annual Auditions Registration. Online registration is about to start so please log in to the member portal and register through the auditions portal HERE.
 
Annual Auditions Registration
  • Opens March 1, 2023
  • Closes March 31, 2023
    • Please note, student registrations received after March 31st are subject to a $10 late fee. There is a $20 change fee for any schedule changes.
 
After the positive response last season, we will be continuing to have a hybrid model of in-person and online video submission for those who can't make it physically or if they need to reschedule.  It's a great option to have since technology is here to stay.  
We are looking forward to seeing more and more of our students in person again.
 
 
In-person adjudication
  • Sunday, May 21, 2022 at County College of Morris
  • Saturday, June 3, 2023 at County College of Morris
  • Sunday, June 4, 2023 at County College of Morris
  • Sunday, June 4, 2023 at Lindeblad Music School
  • Saturday, June 10, 2023 at County College of Morris
  • Sunday, June 11, 2023 at County College of Morris
  • Sunday, June 11, 2023 at Lindeblad Music School
  • Sunday, June 18, 2023 - Online Video Submission
    • For those who are opting to do Online Video Submissions, instructions and details will be emailed at a later date once registration closes. 
We're looking forward to seeing this year’s student performers! 

 MEA Theory Registration 

 March 1-21 2023

There are two periods to register students for theory; October 1-21 and March 1 - 21. You can receive the tests via email or hard copy via snail mail and administer them at your leisure. You can register students online using the interactive registration form listed under Member Documents on your Member Homepage or you can mail in a downloadable registration form which can be be found under the link Forms/Downloads from our MEA Homepage Here.

The registration fee is only $5 per test.  Feel free to register students for multiple level tests at once.

For more info contact Marcia Maull, MEA Theory Chair:  Theory@mea-nj.org

 

The MEA Glissando 

Newsletter

January 2023

The 2023 January issue of The Glissando has been published! You can download the PDF HERE.

Many thanks to Glissando Committee Chair, Marcia Maull, and her great committee for working so diligently to have this ready for our enjoyment!

The 53rd MEA Annual Piano Competition (APC) Syllabus is Here!

The theme is “Character Pieces”, and the APC committee has been working hard since last September to put together an exciting array of pieces for solos, duets, duos, and concertos. The Competition and Winners’ Recital will take place in Spring 2023, with dates and locations to be announced.

Check out the interactive syllabus here APC Syllabus 2023 and start planning to have your students explore this delightful music!

Barbara Landi Hause and Anna Katznelson, APC Co-Chairs

MEA General Meeting Online

February 16, 2023

Jed Distler -

Twenty Questions for Jed Distler

 

Jed Distler has garnered acclaim for more than four decades for his multi-faceted musical life as composer, pianist, CD reviewer and radio host. Mr. Distler’s talk will be presented in an unusual and non-linear format. Audience members are invited to submit questions in advance. Mr. Distler will pick questions one at a time during the meeting, and offer three minute responses to each submission. The process promises to yield stimulating, spontaneous and provocative results.

Jed Distler Website

 

MEA General Meeting

Online

January 19 2023

Danette Whelan,Laura Amoriello and Dr. Fernanda Nieto

From Heart To Hands: How Mindfulness Can Revitalize Your Teaching

Music and mindfulness are a powerful combination that inspires easeful and joyous music-making. In this interactive session, three certified meditation instructors shared mindfulness techniques for every music lesson, including breathing, self-kindness, and improvisation exercises. For a complete recap of the Zoom presentation, please click HERE.

2022 Honors Recital Highlights 

Congratulations to the 45 Honors Recital winners, their families and teachers.

 For Highlights of this outstanding event, please click HERE

MEA Hybrid General Meeting

November 17 2022

Daniel Epstein - A Different Approach To Memorizing At The Keyboard

 

Thou who wouldst in terror tremble Digits a-quiver, brow a-drip, Bowel which jell-o doth resemble, From the dreaded MEMORY SLIP…
This bank approach with strong resolve. Thy fears discard; thy crutch ignore. Harmonic analysis will not solve What my ELIXIR shall restore!
Tarry not, but venture close. No further agonies to endure. The price is cheap; with but one dose, Shall ye begin to feel the cure.
So pianists all, tho mem'ry blighted, Buy my Oil; forget no more -- Hand and brain for e'er united In simple knowing of the score.
Daniel Epstein Manhattan School Website

MEA General Meeting

October 20 2022

Magdalena Baczewska - A Progressive Journey Through Bach's Pedagogy

Read Meeting Highlights HERE

 

Pianist, harpsichordist, and educator Magdalena Baczewska will share her Tonebase lecture highlights. Discussing the progression of Bach's repertoire and the documents the composer left behind, Baczewska seeks to recreate Bach's own pedagogical style.

MEA Young Artist Master Class

 June 9, 2022 Hybrid Meeting  🎹

Young Artist Master Class with Douglas Humphreys

June Meeting Highlights Here

A special MEA Young Artist Master Class is held each year at our June General Meeting. It is quite an honor for a student to be chosen to perform at this class!

 Auditions were held Sunday June 4th, and the students listed below were chosen to play for Master Teacher Douglas Humphreys at our June 9th General Meeting. Congratulations Esther and Wesley! Join us in person or online Thursday June 9th to hear these Young Artists perform the following program:

Sonata in C, K.330

Mozart

 Allegro moderato & Andante cantabile

Esther Lee, pupil of Ruth Kotik‘

Impressoes Seresteiras’ de Ciclo Brasileiro 

Villa-Lobos Ballade 

 No. 1 in  G minor, Op. 23  

Chopin

 Wesley Liu, pupil of Beatrice Long

Douglas Humphreys Eastman School of Music Website

 

2022 MEA College Scholarship

Awarded To

Rebecca Hsiao 🎵

The Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce that Rebecca Hsiao, student of Florence Liu, has been awarded an MEA-MJN College Scholarship. A versatile musician who plays piano and flute, Rebecca was selected to perform in the Young Artist Master Class in 2021 with Joseph Kalichstein, his last MEA Master Class before his untimely death. In addition to MEA Honors Recitals, she has performed in her high school wind ensemble, the NJ All-State Wind Ensemble, and at Carnegie Hall in the AAFAA Young Artist Music Competition. Rebecca will be studying classical piano performance at Manhattan School of Music in the fall. To read more about this talented student, please click here.

Charlene Step & Sondra Tammam

Scholarship Committee Co-chairs

The 2022 Original Composition Festival May 1st 2022-

First In-Person Since 2019! 

The Original Composition Festival was held May 1, 2022 at 3:00 pm at The Performing Arts Center of The Music Den, 1030 Route 10 West, Randolph, NJ.  Elizabeth Burnett hosted the recital, Danette Whelan introduced and presented awards to the Eric Steiner Composition Competition winners, and Nancy Modell took photographs.  There were twenty student composer performers, representing seven teachers, including eleven ESOCC winners.  Trophies were given to the first-place winners and certificates to all the ESOCC participants.  The Festival, live again after three years, was a celebratory event with proud students, families, and teachers.  Congratulations to all the students composers!  Stay tuned for information about this event in the coming season - you will not want to miss it!

MEA

Hybrid

General Meeting

May 19, 2022  🌼

Adam Kent - Mozart in Vienna:

The Fantasy and Sonata in C Minor, K. 475/457 🎹

May Meeting Highlights

"Mozart in Vienna" explores unifying elements between the Fantasy and Sonata in C Minor, ornamentation in the music of Mozart, the history behind the work's composition, and the musical features which make it unique in the composer's output.

Adam Kent Website

The 52nd Annual Piano Competition

DISCOVERING WOMEN COMPOSERS

Winners Recital May 15th 2022 Montclair State University

The 52 nd Annual Piano Competition (APC) was a wonderful success. The theme was “Discovering Women Composers” - you can find the syllabus link here APC Syllabus 2022.
First-Place winners will be performing in-person at the Winners Recital. Everyone is welcome to attend this exciting, free concert.
 
Date and Time: APC Winners Recital Sunday, May 15 at 2:00 p.m.
 
Location: Leshowitz Hall (inside the Chapin Hall building) at Montclair State University, 1 Normal Ave., Montclair, NJ

The APC will be taking place as an in-person event this year, with Covid protocols in place.  These protocols will include everyone being masked at all times and the use of hand sanitizers before performing (the hand sanitizer will be provided).

 

MEA GENERAL MEETING 

April 21, 2022 Hybrid 🌸

Victor Rosenbaum - What It Takes to Make Music and the Role of Inspiration 

April Meeting Highlights

Much of piano performance and teaching is visually based: we play what we see. To interpret the works of the masters much more is needed.  How do we keep the ear, heart and mind involved in order to deepen our interpretations and make our performances more truthful and compelling?

Victor Rosenbaum New England Conservatory Website

MEA March 17, 2022 Hybrid General Meeting ☘️

Teachers’ Master Class with Eduardus Halim

March Meeting Highlights

We welcome back pianist Eduardus Halim to lead the Teachers' Masterclass this year. MEA teachers will be playing Chopin's Nocturne in D-flat major, Op.27, No. 2; Robert Schumann's Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26  Mardi Gras Scenes from Vienna), the first movement; and Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Schumann, Op. 9, the Theme and several variations. Join us Thursday in person or online for this annual event.

 

February 17th GENERAL MEETING 2022

Kathleen Supove- Pandemic Postdate:

Return to Romanticism and the Eclectic

February Meeting Highlights

As we come out of isolation and grief, we seek the open hearts of others and long to share our own inner moods. We've rediscovered music as a vehicle for this, infusing it with comforting sounds and ingredients from all parts of our lives and cultures. The works presented will explore and represent that shift in thinking and our current musical preoccupations

Kathleen Supove Website

January 20 2022 General Meeting

Peter Takács  

Rhythm: The Heartbeat of Music.

January Meeting Highlights

 

Peter will explore various aspects of musical time, such as tempo, meter. pulse, and phrasing, with musical examples from our great piano repertoire.

Peter Takacs Website

2021 HONORS RECITAL HIGHLIGHTS AVAILABLE

 

Two Honors Recitals showcased about 40 outstanding performers at the Randolph Performing Arts Center on Sunday, November 14, 2021. It was sheer joy to listen -  in person - to these wonderful, aspiring musicians. Congratulations to the students, their teachers and parents! To see the Highlights and the complete programs, please click  HERE.
 
 
 
 

November 18th  GENERAL MEETING:

Claudia Knafo - Piano Gems from the Southern Hemisphere 

November Meeting Highlights

Latin America boasts a rich catalogue of music informed by a colorful mix of indigenous, folkloric and classical traditions. This program will focus primarily on the piano music of Ecuador with a few “guest composers” from this hemisphere. Pieces range from beginning piano to   advanced; some of these works are pedagogic gems.

October 21st General Meeting: The Annual Piano Competition Committee Presented Music, She Wrote.

 October Meeting Highlights

 

Women have been composing music for centuries, much of it ignored, underestimated, or simply undiscovered. Five outstanding composers were featured at the October 21st MEA General Meeting - Margaret Bonds, Lili Boulanger, Florence Price, Germaine Tailleferre, and Maria Szymanowska.  Highly regarded in their own lifetimes but mostly overlooked today, it is time to give their music the attention it deserves.  Brief biographies will be given, and selections of their music will be featured to show the diversity and depth of these talented women.

This fascinating topic was presented by MEA members Rebecca Eng, Victoria Griswold, Youn-Hee Kim, Barbara Landi Hause and Anna Katznelson.  Also featured will be Beatrice Long, performing “Troubled Waters” by Margaret Bonds.