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.

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

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 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

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

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

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.

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 9^th General Meeting. Congratulations Esther and Wesley! Join us in person or online Thursday June 9^th 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

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 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!

"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 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).

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.