November President’s Message
Dear Members,
We had a good turnout for the October 21 & 22 Masquerade Concert: 75 students representing 14 studios and total revenue of $1,580.00. There were some original and festive costumes, the performances were most enjoyable and the kids had a fabulous time! Ana Maria and Andreas Eckstein worked their usual magic with a stunning written program, seating with color photo paper place names, lighting, and cute goody bags. Once again they donated their time and all materials for the event. We would also like to thank our energetic new member, Kevin Kao, our own Alice Tsai’s son, for helping the Ecksteins with the concert’s set up and over all management; Kevin, you were a huge help! Chi Asada’s student and new MSSL South Coast’s president, Theresa Yu for helping with the check-in and overall facility of the programs.
I want to thank our members for bearing with us when our website experienced some technical difficulties the week of the Festival registration deadline. I realize some of you experienced frustration but we appreciated your patience and understanding. Thanks to our webmaster Andy Huynh’s tireless efforts, the problem was soon solved and our Festival registration ran smoothly. Special thanks to Melody Lu and Chi Asada for assisting Andy with the specific needs of our registration process!
I would like to give a hearty thanks in advance to Chi Asada, South Coast Festival Chair, Naoko Ono, Classical Festival Chair and Junko Nojima, Romantic Festival Chair for their hard work in organizing the upcoming Festival weekend of November 10th and 11th. Both events are very well planned and schedules sent out – ladies, we greatly appreciate everything you are doing to guarantee their success! The Classical Festival program fits comfortably within Fields Piano’s new store hours. However, the Romantic Festival, with 54 participants is a tight fit and will have to maintain a rigid schedule; teachers please inform your students of the absolute necessity of arriving punctually. Performance time will be kept to a strict 5 minutes for larger works; the time keeper will be instructed to cut off at precisely 5 minutes no matter where the student is in their piece. Pieces over 4 min will not have the scheduled 1 min adjudicator comment time immediately following the performance rather, judges will be asked to write during the performance. These stringent measures will allow us to stay on time and avoid any complication with Fields’ management. Thank you in advance for your consideration!
The first MSSL recital will occur on Saturday, November 17, 2:00 p.m. at the Park Plaza in Orange. This is a lovely facility and we will have recitals here every 3rd Saturday in January, February, April and May. There is a 12 student limit (first come first serve),$5 non-refundable registration fee; funds generated by these recitals will be used towards the purchase of prizes for seniors, all part of the new South Coast MSSL program. I understand that four students attended our first official MSSl meeting and they are excited to serve on its board. I would like to especially thank Victoria Park and Sandely Miller for making MSSL South Coast a reality – it will provide a valuable service to the Seniors at Park Plaza Orange and to our branch students! If you have any questions please contact Victoria at victoria_park@yahoo.com. Please check the South Coast website for further details and registration instruction.
The Adult Workshop will be held on Saturday, December 1 at Charla Edgar’s lovely and inviting home in Newport Beach; the registration deadline is Saturday, November 17. Charla does not use e-mail so those of you who want to enter students will need to contact her by phone: 949-723-1803. Please consider registering your adult students in this fun and student-friendly event!
We have a brand new Festival for Strings, Winds and Voice. Anna Kim is our chair for this event. It will be held Saturday, February 23 and will offer a judge from each instrument category listed above. Chi Asada graciously offers her services as accompanist for a minimal fee of $25 which includes one 30 minute rehearsal and festival performance. The accompanist fees will go to our branch. This is not only an excellent opportunity for instrumental students to try out their pieces before the C.M. evaluations but also a great $$ investment and value so take advantage of it!
Remember that the November 15 MTAC state CM registration deadline is fast approaching. Teachers’ worksheets and registration fees are due on November 16 – this is NOT a postmarked deadline.
There will be no President’s Message in December; please check the website regularly for updates. The MTAC South Coast board wishes you all a blessed Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas and joyous New Year!
Musically yours,
Vivian Lee R. Field