From the President – November 2019

Colleagues:

I hope the first marking period of the school year was as a positive and productive one.    Whether you were giving an elementary student their first lesson, teaching how to match pitch with their peers, or cleaning that last set of your marching band show for what may seem like the fiftieth time, remember that you ARE making a difference and impact on your students!

Bob Morrison, D12 Inservice Keynote Speaker, with Justin McAdams (D12 President), Bret Mascaro (Zeswitz Director of Education), and Randy Shayler (Zeswitz Music CEO)

Advocacy Updates:

Advocacy can exist in many ways – and we are here to help.  Don’t wait until the last minute.  If you sense that there might be an issue in your district that you need help with, we have many resources available NOW to assist you.

Contact George Weaver  and let us know how we can assist you.

The Modern Band Movement:

We are very fortunate to have two teachers in D12 who have spent some extensive time with the Modern Band program this summer.   At first glance, some of this might look different than “traditional” music making, but when you start to look at the pedagogical sequencing, it can be VERY valuable!   

This is a great way to reach out to the students in your school who want to pursue music making, but aren’t in your choir, band, or orchestra!

Want to know more?  Contact Scott Cullen or Henry Pearlberg!

Awards & Citations Excellence Deadline – DECEMBER 2nd

The window for the various awards and nominations is now open, and will close in just a few weeks.   

This includes the Outstanding Superintendent Award, Citation of Excellence, and the 25 Years of Teaching Recognition Awards.

 

A question for all of you – especially those that are in the elementary and middle school grades.

HOW CAN PMEA HELP YOU?  In a perfect world, what would you like PMEA to be able to do for you as a member?   We are only as strong as the membership, and I fully believe that there is a concerted effort starting across the state for PMEA to do more than just “run the All-State Festival”.

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However, in order for that to happen, we do need to know what YOU need.   Send me an email, and let’s set up a time to chat!

 

-Justin McAdams

District 12 President

MISOM Performances

Congratulations to the following ensembles who will be performing at the state capital during the month of March!

  • Interboro HS Chorus (Hannah Knauss)
  • All Stars Archdiocesan MS Jazz Band & All Catholic HS Jazz Band (Sister Lauretta Linsalata)
  • Tredyffrin/Easttown MS Choir & Orchestra (Christine Gyza)
  • Phoenixville Area MS Chamber Strings (Shawn Lee)

District 12 Students at NAfME!

The NAfME All-National Honor Ensembles were held this past weekend in Orlando Florida.  Congratulations to the following students and schools who were represented!

Mixed Choir:

  • Zoe Bennett, PALCS
  • Miranda Nilan, Oxford Area HS
  • Bennet Resnick Great Valley HS
  • Tyler-Minseok Kim, Church Farm School
  • John Schadl, Great Valley HS

Orchestra:

  • Anna Devine, Kimberton Waldorf
  • Helen Hu, Radnor HS
  • Isaac Kim, Conestoga HS

 

Instrumental & Choral Auditions this Saturday November 23rd

Over 750 high school musicians will pass through the halls of West Chester Rustin HS this Saturday for our instrumental and choral audition day!

  • 7:30am: Student Registration Begins
  • 8:00am: Director’s Meeting
  • 9:00am: Auditions Begin

PMEA Elementary or Middle School teachers: If you are available on Saturday and are able to assist us with auditions, we would greatly appreciate your time!    Please contact Mike Shoremount (audition host) if you have some time to volunteer.

District 12 Inservice Wrapup

PMEA members attending a session on the modern band program presented by Henry Pearlberg (Past State President) and Scott Cullen (D12 Curriculum & Instruction Chair)
Bob Morrison giving the keynote speech at the D12 In-service at Great Valley MS.

Thank you to the entire PD committee for their work and efforts in putting together a spectacular in-service conference on November 5th.   Many of you were in attendance for Bob Morrison’s keynote speech.

Mr. Morrison announced at the inservice that his arts education data research project will be extending into Pennsylvania in the upcoming school year.   For more information on this project, please view his company’s website.

 

Bob Morrison with his son Andrew (a student at WCU) and some of Andrew’s student colleagues.

Thank you again to Great Valley Middle School for hosting us and to Zeswitz Music for subsidizing Mr. Morrison’s appearance!

 

District 12 Band, Orchestra, Chorus Audition Registration

Directors:

We are now accepting registrations for your students to audition for the 2020 PMEA District 12 Band, Orchestra, and Chorus Festivals.

Information is posted here.

Auditions will be held on November 23rd at West Chester Rustin HS.

*Students must be registered by the director of the ensemble they are in at their school.   Directors must be current members of PMEA and are expected to attend the audition day to serve as a member of one of the audition panels.*

 

 

MPA Dates Announced

District 12 will be sponsoring THREE instrumental MPA’s this year, as well as ONE choral MPA.

These are great opportunities for your large ensemble to be adjudicated and evaluated against a rubric that is consistent across the state.

It is my hope that everyone with a large ensemble at the secondary level considers attending one of these.    For more information, please contact our MPA chair, Kyle Risch.   

(Registration links for these events will be available soon)

President’s Message – August 2019

Welcome to the new school year!

I am honored to serve all of you as the District 12 President for the next two years.

For those of you that do not know me, I am the Band Director and Performing Arts Coordinator for the Phoenixville Area School District in Chester County.   Beyond running the band program, I also teach AP Music Theory, Recording Technology, and beginning guitar.  This is my 17th year teaching overall.   I have a master’s degree in Wind Band Conducting from West Chester University, and am one of the lead clinicians for the George N. Parks Drum Major Academy.   Music – and helping grow teachers of music – are two important aspects of my life.    I am a resident in the Owen J Roberts school district, and my wife Sarah is a middle school band director in Berks County.

The life cycle of the president’s role is a 6 year term – 2 as vice president, 2 as current, and 2 as past president.   I had a short turn around with just 1 year as vice president due to some personnel changes.  Dr. Erin Kauppila has done an AMAZING job in helping me prepare for this role – thank you Erin!

I’d also like to take a second and welcome our new vice-president, Dr. Steve Selfridge.  Steve is the band director at Garnet Valley High School, and we are all excited to bring him on board so that he gets his “turn” in two years.

 

DISTRICT AUDITIONS: Save the Date: November 23rd, 2019.  

This year, we are utilizing a set of new excerpts for instrumental auditions.  (Vocal auditions will remain the same as in years past).  We have posted a few updates over the summer to these as there were bound to be a few errors in the engraving process.    Please check these out here:  (The password is PMEAD12).

Teachers: Per the audition guidelines, you must be in attendance and be a part of the audition panels if you have students auditioning.  

D12 Calendar of Events: 

All D12-sponsored events are now available here:    More info will be available as we get closer.

D12 In-Service: Save the Date: November 5th, 2019

Presenters have been notified – thank you to all who applied!   More information on registration and the schedule of events will be published in the coming weeks.  In the meantime – as you are starting your beginning of year inservice days, please connect with your curriculum point person in your school district about attending.  It’s a great day of professional development geared EXACTLY for music teachers!

Renew your PMEA Membership!

You should have received an email from PMEA over the summer with the new system in place.   This is a *NEW* system – and everyone will have to register in it.  You can print invoices out through the system if you need to do so for your district.   You also will no longer be getting ID cards in the mail – it’s all electronic.

New Teachers in your District? Forward this to them!

This is going out to last year’s email list, as well as being published on the website.    If you have new teachers in your district, please forward this onto them – as well as direct them to the PMEA D12 website!

 

Welcome new D12 Board Members

  • Shawn Lee (Phoenixville) will be moving from the Elementary PD chair to co-chairing the HS PD chair with Mike Shoremount (West Chester SD)
  • Dr. Danielle Cullen (Downingtown) will be moving into the Elementary PD chair position.
  • Kyle Risch (West Chester SD) will be moving into the  MPA (Music Performance Assessment) Chair position.

 

PMEA District 12 – both myself and the entire board – are made up of teachers just like you.  We are here to assist and help you out in whatever way we can.    Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions at all!