The Baroque period saw a flourishing of keyboard music all across Europe. In France, influential composers included Louis Couperin, François Couperin, and Jean Philippe Rameau. The French style, deriving from the court of Louis XIV, was also closely tied to the court dance culture at Versailles. Another prevalent style came from Italy, where instrumental music was consciously developed apart from the traditional role of accompanying the human voice. The most often performed Italian harpsichord music comes from under the pens of Girolamo Frescobaldi, and Domenico Scarlatti. The musical style of French composers is decidedly different from that of their Italian contemporaries. Many musicians travel abroad and adopt national styles of the countries in which they work. This accounts for the fact that the music of Domenico Scarlatti and Luigi Boccherini, who worked in Portugal and Spain, bears similarities to the style of Spanish composers, such as Antonio Soler or Carlo Seixas. The German composers, J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel among them, created an unmistakable approach of their own, yet often borrowing from the popular French and Italian styles. The lecture presentation will include the discussion of the various styles in terms of similarities and differences in expression, articulation, dynamics, tempo, rhythm, ornamentation, and performance techniques. These points will be applied the to modern keyboard interpretation, using musical examples demonstrated on the harpsichord and the modern piano. Pianist and harpsichordist, Magdalena Baczewska of Columbia University opens the discussion.

MEA-NJ  was pleased to present a morning of original music composed by our own MEA-NJ members!  The audience heard a variety of pianistic styles including world-premiere selections.  Sheet music was available to purchase at a very reasonable price. 
Among the featured composers were:

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

Many thanks to Karen Sundquist who organized this lovely program!

Highlights will be featured on the website under For Members,  check back soon.

The 90th Anniversary Gala was enjoyed by all!  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. The Gala Committee of Marcia Maull, Lisa Gonzalez, Nancy Modell, Ruth Pasquariello and Charlene Step did an exceptional job.  Enjoy the Highlights from this event posted Here.

To view a video of the concert go to: Gala Concert

The Fourth Annual Original Composition Festival was a huge success! Held in the beautiful Alumni Hall at Caldwell University, the Festival showcased participants from the Eric Steiner Original Composition Competition along with additional young composers.  Dr. Stefan Young, one of the two adjudicators of the ESOCC, was able to attend the Festival.  He continues to be an enthusiastic supporter of the competition and festival and shared words of encouragement and praise.  

Congratulations to all our student composers! Highlights will be featured in the September Glissando and on the MEA website under "For Members".

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 Shuchi 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.