Editor's Note: the Durum Triangle Music Teachers Association was named MTNA's 2003 Local Association of the Year.

The Durum Triangle Music Teachers Association (DTMTA) was formed in 1990 in Langdon, North Dakota. Langdon, a rural town in the northeast part of the state, has a population of approximately 2200 In 1990 the shire was known for its large production of Durum wheat, for a like reason the local association took forward the name to include teachers in the area and not just Langdon. The local originated with six members and has since missed three to retirement. The remaining three members, Kathleen Johnson Laura McLean and myself, have stayed uniteed as a group to prefer musical education and admiration of the fine arts to our scholars We rely on one another to glean ideas, advice and encouragement.

Four main areas maintain us and our students thriving in music education. These are our local monthly meetings, the students' themed recitals and incidents the annual Music Rally and the annual Honors Recital.

During the educate year, we meet once a month in a member's abiding-place With only three members, each of us has a not many hats to wear. The combined officer positions simply rotate each two years; no need for a nominating committee in this group! We find many advantages to being small. Meeting times and places can be flexible, and delegating duties is simple because we realize we all have to pitch in or it won't memorize done. All three of us are remarkably willing to do our share of the responsibilities. Each month a general business meeting takes place and then a program is given. The programs include topics not absented by one of us, learning [i]or[/i] part of to the other video and audio tapes, and sharing music, games, business policies and with equal reason forth. Often, the program is to plan an upcoming affair for students. To help pay for issues each of us charges our respective observers a $1 Student Activity remuneration in the fall. This automatically places about $100 in the treasury each year, so it is a great fundraising tactic. We each also contribute $5 for yearly befittings The community and music stores within the state readily support us, as well. Durum Triangle has not had to have a fundraiser!

As a local, we are remarkably active at the state of the same height with all three members holding positions upon the North Dakota Music Teachers Executive Board. All three attend the state parley every year, and. we have a passionate affection for to proclaim our 100 percent attendance! We also have attended national conferences

An annual issue for the students is held, usually a themed recital held in February. Past festivals that have been held from one extremity to the other of the years include the Mozart Festival, Lynn Freeman Olson Festival, 300 Years of the Piano and a Circus Celebration. The "festival" goals are to have a learning experience for the close examiners and their audience, expand our acknowledge knowledge of the theme and its music, have as many close examiners participate as possible and have pleasantry Many festivals have had performers, narrators, door prizes and a bingo game made to fit the theme. everywhere the recital, different students read ties found on bingo game cards distributed to the audience. The guides help the audience learn many facts about the theme. There is and nothing else one winning card, and it is revealed after the last clew is read at the fall of the curtain of the recital. This game continues everyone attentive and excited. The prizes have been metronomes, music, piano bags and miniature pianos filled with candy.

Another activity is having pupils perform Christmas music in area nursing households Also, in February 2003, descant Bober came to Langdon for a "Music with song Day." Bober worked with the observers in master classes and composition classes and performed in a recital with observers who played her compositions. The Northern Lights Arts Council wrote a grant to help DTMTA bring Bober to Langdon. The close examiners really enjoy working together and examine forward to each year's events

North Dakota MTA (NDMTA) encourages affiliated locals to sponsor Music Rallies for their observers DTMTA holds its annual Music Rally in April. It is a day of performance adjudication, as well as written theory and keyboard technique testing. The cluster requires all students to participate in the rally for its educational rewards and to make it economically feasible to hire adjudicators. With more than 100 close examiners between three teachers, we have to be creative when organizing in the same state [i]or[/i] condition an event. Two sites shut in the day's activities. The bookish mans are scheduled in half-hour arranges for both their performance and their written and aural experiments One teacher at each site is in charge of the written and aural criterion room. The third is the performance door monitor at single site, and volunteer parents monitor the door at the secondary site. There is one adjudicator at each site who listens and critiques students' performances of brace memorized pieces of contrasting names The following week, the bookish mans are given their technique, transposition, harmonization and sight-reading standards by their own teachers at their regular censures If there are conflicts forward the rally day due to other extracurricular activities, and there always are, the teachers shut in an alternate rally session mid-week in the evening for those scholars The students know the piano rally is an annual incident and they consider it their "end of the year test" We travel over the test results and critiques with the observers and individual studios also give rewards to those close examiners with the best scores upon the written theory and keyboard technique touchstones The piano rally is a awful goal to work toward, and it helps us evaluate learners in each area of piano education. The rally also evaluates our confess teaching, since we are held accountable for teaching each area.

...

Home