Georgia CMENC members attend the Con-Selmer Institute
By John Womack | June 19, 2008
Several members of the Georgia chapter of the CMENC attended the Con-Selmer Institute this summer, here is what they had to say:
The best thing about CSI was the ability to work personally with world-class clinicians. There is no other place where so many great professionals are present and want to educate the future of our profession. I think most valuable piece of information I learned while attending CSI is the fact that there is not one answer that will fix all the problems we will face as music educators. We have to learn to adjust and improvise to make the best decisions for our program. I was also reminded why we choose to become music educators. For the longest time I wanted to just teach high school because of the types of literature I could select from. However, this experience reminded me that we do not choose to teach music because of the literature, but because of the people we touch everyday. Music is a people business, it is the people that make it the most special profession out there.
~Mitch Roberts, Senior
Before I went to CSI, I couldn’t see why my friend raved about it so much. Now I know why he loved it! Awesome food, classes with the top music educators in the country, and a tour of the Conn-Selmer factory made it like Disney Land for Music Educators and Music Educators-to-be. (and Disney was there too!) This single event is definitely a mountaintop experience and I recommend it to anyone interested in teaching music!
James Smith, Junior
CSI was an amazing experience. Not only did we get to sit in lectures from hugely knowledgeable and talented music educators, and be inspired, moved to tears, and learn so much valuable, practical information, but we were able to develop personal relationships with them. We ate meals together, walked together, talked about dreams and goals together, told stories, asked questions, laughed, and pondered together. We sang together and enjoyed music together. We established professional relationships, that I hope will continue on for many years to come, for all of us.
The most beautiful moment of the week happened on Sunday afternoon in the first session. We had been evacuated from the auditorium to the basement because of a tornado. Dr. Tim Lautsenheizer had us sing “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.” He hummed a starting pitch and all 350+ voices in that small, hot, cramped basement began singing. Dr. Tim had his eyes closed as he conducted beautiful phrases. We were all singing in unison, but as we finished, ’sweet land of liberty,’ Dr. Tim said, “now, harmony!” and the room exploded. Soaring four-part harmony, on ‘of thee I sing,’ filled that tiny space and it was so exquisitely beautiful that words can’t accurately describe what I felt. Even thinking of it covers me with chill bumps. It was magical.
That is why we (music teachers) do what we do. Why we put in long hours and sweat and tears and hard work, because in the end, we get to experience the inexpressible loveliness of our art form. But it doesn’t end there. We get to experience those moments again and again and again, and it never decreases in value. It’s not just the music. It’s life lessons and laughter and love and struggle and triumph. And I can’t really explain it, except to use the words of a 10 year old boy with muscular dystrophy. His story was shared with us by Dr. Peter Boonshaft. The little boy played trumpet and as the disease slowly took his life, he fought with what little strength he had to continue playing trumpet. His grandfather built him a stand in which he could prop his arms that couldn’t hold the weight of the instrument, and he struggled to even put the instrument into the stand. He was in pain and tears streamed down his face and yet, when his band director asked him why he kept playing, when he was obviously in such pain, the wise little boy looked at him and said simply, “If you do not know, then I cannot tell you.”
Truly, we are in an amazing profession. As music educators we not only have the distinct privilege of sharing our love of music with students daily, but we have an obligation, I think, to pass on the love of learning and beauty that music brings to our lives.
Anna Ragan, Senior
Topics: Current Events | No Comments »
Cobb Symphony Youth Orchestra Fellowship
By John Womack | May 20, 2008
The Cobb Symphony Orchestra is offering a fellowship with their Youth Orchestra program. This is a great opportunity.
Click here for more information.
Topics: Current Events | No Comments »
What’s Happening at Reinhardt in 2008…
By John Womack | May 12, 2008
The Reinhardt CMENC chapter stayed very active during the 2008-2009 year. In the fall, they went out into the community to assist in music programs. They worked band carnivals at two local middle schools. At these carnivals, the college students worked to introduce instruments to incoming sixth graders to help kick-start the beginner band program. The CMENC chapter also participated in fund-raisers for these middle schools by helping chaperone all-night Rock-A-Thons and assisting with raffle-ticket concerts.
In the spring, the chapter hosted Large Group Performance Evaluations for Georgia District XI band, and their students gained first hand experience on what happens behind the scenes of a band festival. Perhaps the biggest achievement of the Reinhardt chapter was running the second annual Reinhardt Honor Winds Clinic Band. Reinhardt hosted high school students from all over the state of Georgia for a weekend band clinic—both advertising the quality of the Reinhardt College Music Education program and, more importantly, helping to further the music education of students by allowing the opportunity to rehears with other fine musicians and to be under the leadership of nationally acclaimed conductors.
The Reinhardt CMENC chapter went to the fall CMENC conference at Columbus State. They also attended the GMEA in-service conference in Savannah. Reinhardt seeks not only to be a help in the community but to provide continuing career education for the aspiring music educators.
Topics: Current Events | No Comments »
Page Updates
By John Womack | April 27, 2008
Just to let you know - the “Current Events” page has been changed to the “Dates” page.
The Current Events page is now designed to showcase the work that our local chapters are accomplishing. If you have any information - please let our president know.
More updates will be happening soon,
JW
Topics: Site Updates | No Comments »
What’s Happening at Augusta State University in 2008…
By John Womack | April 27, 2008
The CMENC chapter at Augusta State University went to Westmont Elementary School during Music In Our Schools Month and did an interactive program with the kids based on the theme “Music Touches Lives”. The program involved three activities showing how music affected the lives of Americans through out history. The students sang and helped us act out the story of the book Follow the Drinking Gourd. They identified th music and instruments of various jazz artists through movenment (each artist was assigned a movement such as jumping or twisting). Finally, they identified different tunes that are popular today.
Topics: Current Events | No Comments »
What’s Happening at Valdosta State University in 2008…
By John Womack | April 27, 2008
Valdosta State University held a fundraiser to support CMENC members attendance at GMEA in January. Members raised enough money so that each attendee only had to pay $45 for the two nights in the hotel and transportation.
Valdosta State University hosted a state-wide conference for CMENC and GMEA members in March. We had several notable clinicians: Raymond Hughes, recently retired chorusmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Bentley Shellahammer, recently retired associated director of the Florida State University School of Music and current director of the Tallahassee Winds ensemble. We had a representatives of the Citizens for the Arts, local band directors, and VSU faculty present sessions on various topics of interest. We offered PLC credit. We also had several performances by VSU students during breaks and registration. Attendance was deemed successful for the first effort.
Topics: Current Events | No Comments »
A Message From The President
By Stephen | April 11, 2008
Georgia CMENC members,
I would like to start by thanking John Womack publicly for his great design for the CMENC website. Next I would like to send out a request for any information reguarding local CMENC chapter activities. If you or your chapter has taught lessons/sectionals at a local school, participated in fund raising activities, or maybe you have hosted a GMEA LGPE, I would like to know how it went. You can email me at cmencgeorgia@gmail.com. I am just looking for a paragraph summary and maybe a picture if you have it. I will be attending the GMEA Board of Directors’ meeting in may, and I would like to include some information about local chapters in my report.
Aside from this request, please spread the word about this website to others around the state, and let myself or John know what you think about the existing site. This site is here for you as a resource, so to do that we need to know what you are looking for.
Please continue to check the site as new information will be added regularly. My best wishes to all in finishing out another semester of class.
Musically,
Stephen Long
CMENC State President 07-08, 08-09
Topics: CMENC Updates | No Comments »
Web Site Update
By John Womack | April 9, 2008
The site has gone through a software update from Wordpress 2.3.3(Stable) to Wordpress 2.5.0(Stable). If you encounter any issues it could be compatibility issues with the new version. Please e-mail me at webmaster@cmencgeorgia.com to let me know.
I also added an “ASK THE PRESIDENT” link on the side so that you can quickly and efficiently get in contact with our CMENC State President, Stephen Long. You can contact him via his e-mail: cmencgeorgia@gmail.com.
Thanks,
JW
Topics: Site Updates | No Comments »
Posting Information
By John Womack | April 7, 2008
This front page is intended to show off the activities of all the local chapters of Georgia. If you have information, PLEASE send us:
- A Brief Paragraph about what you did and how it benefited the members and/or the community at large.
- 1-5 pictures as deemed appropriate for the activity
We want to make this web site and our CMENC chapters a success.
If you have information please e-mail it to: news@cmencgeorgia.com
Also, if you have any information for other parts of the web site such as the upcoming events calendar or if there are errors on the web site - please let me know at webmaster@cmencgeorgia.com.
Thanks so much for your help and your participation!
JW
Topics: CMENC Updates | No Comments »
Information Up
By John Womack | March 21, 2008
cmencgeorgia.com is now up and running. Every web site has been updated with as much information as I currently have.
If you have information to add to this web site, please e-mail me and we can collaborate to get that information added quickly.
Thanks so much,
JW
Topics: Site Updates | No Comments »