October Newsletter

Dear MTAC South Coast Branch Teachers,

Greetings as we begin the exciting 2018-2019 MTAC year! I will be honored to serving as the Branch President and the CM Chair for one year, and together with the able support of my fellow board members.We look forward to another exhilarating year.

Anna Kim, First Vice President

Margaret Tseng, Second Vice President

Wendy Huang, Treasurer

Laura Chang McManus, Festival Director

Naoko Ono, Venue Director, and

Lee Ann Leung, Recording Secretary

The first branch meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 10 am, September 19 at Fields Piano located in Santa Ana (810 E Dyer Rd, Santa Ana, CA 92705). As in the past years, this September branch meeting is mandatory for all members who wish to participate 2019 CM (this is a must attend).

The member directory and associated calendar will be available for you at the branch meeting. Detailed festival locations, chairpersons and registration deadlines will be listed in the branch yearbook. Meanwhile, this is a brief list of upcoming events:

Sunday, September 30: CT Workshop I

Saturday, October 27: Masquerade Concert

Sunday, October 28: Masquerade Concert / MSSL

Saturday, November 17: Romantic Festival

I am here to serve the chapter members and will do my best to maintain the high standard set by our past president, Dr. Emily Hung, and continue the success of our music events. We look forward to seeing all and welcoming new members to our chapter on September 19th!
Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Warmly,

Sandely Miller

MTAC-South Coast

Branch President

Dear MTAC South Coast Branch Teachers,

Greetings as we begin the 2016-2017 MTAC year! I will serve as the branch
president for one year, and together with my fellow board members listed below, we look forward to an exciting year!

Anna Kim, First Vice President
Margaret Tseng, Second Vice President
Wendy Huang, Treasurer
Jennifer Puhl, Festival Director
Sandely Miller, CM Director
Naoko Ono, Venue Director, and
Lee Ann Leung, Recording Secretary

The first branch meeting is on Wednesday September 14 at 9:30 am. As in the past years, this September branch meeting is mandatory for all members. The meeting will be held in a new location in Irvine featuring a new and important CM online tutorial as well as a member social. Breakfast will be provided. Soon you will receive more details on the meeting location and tutorial from the CM Director, Sandely Miller.

The member directory with a complete calendar will be available for pick up at the branch meeting. Meanwhile, this is a brief list of upcoming events. All events below will take place at Fields Piano:

Saturday, October 15: Masquerade Concert
Saturday, October 29: Romantic Festival
Saturday, November 19: Classical Festival

I am here to serve you, and will do my best to ensure a high standard and the
success of our events. We look forward to seeing all of you and to welcoming new members on September 14th!

Warmly,
Emily Hung, DMA
President, MTAC South Coast Branch
Past MTAC Branch President
Faculty, Orange Coast College

Click below to see the latest President Message

President Message – May 2016

Click below to see the latest President Message

President Message – March / April 2016

Click below to see the latest President Message

President Message – February 2016

Click below to see the latest President Message

President Message – November / December 2015

Click below to see the latest President Message

President Message – October 2015

Click below to see the latest President Message

President Message – September 2015

Dear Members,                                                                                                                          March 1, 2015

It was great to see many of you at our last branch meeting. It was a wonderful master class given by Dr. Jonathan Mann, who just joined our branch this year. We heard performances from two talented students: Lyn Huang from Willie Chen’s studio and Halaine Zhao from Sally Liu’s studio. Jonathan gave the performers valuable and helpful tips, which also benefit the listeners. I also received many positive feedbacks from other members. Thank you, Jonathan, for providing us an insightful master class!

We had a successful Sound of Baroque and SCJBFestival this past Saturday, February 28^th. All three judges were very impressed by our students’ high performance level. Congratulations to all winners and the participating studios. The results are posted on our branch website.  My sincere gratitude to Chi Asada for organizing both events, and Dr. Andreas Eckstein for making the unique programs and setting up the venue. One beautiful addition to our program was the new logo of our branch, created by Dr. Andreas Eckstein. It was simply elegant!  I also want to thank the teachers who helped out with the check-in and announced the programs: Chi Asada, Marifel Bolanos, Debbie Brener, Andreas Eckstein, Wendy Huang, Dr. Emily Hung and Jennifer Puhl.

The winners of our branch’s VOCE competition are as follows:

• Intermediate Instrumental Ensemble:
  Thompson Wang/Sedong Hwang/Ethan Yoshioka – 1st place
  Teacher: Felix Chang
• Intermediate Solo Winds:
  Jieun Yae – 1st place
  Alison Huh – 1st place alternate
  Teacher: So Jung Anna Choi
• Senior Solo Winds:
  Jasmine Lee – 1st place
  Teacher: So Jung Anna Choi

Congratulations to these students and their teachers!  And a Big thank you to Junko Nojima for organizing this event!

March is also our CM month. Our CM committee is working hard to prepare and to get ready for this big event. Both check -in forms for theory and evaluation weekends can be obtained from our branch website. Please note that there are two different locations for the Keyboard evaluation. I will be seeing a lot of you during the CM weekends, and I want to thank everyone in advance. With your help and support, we will for sure provide a great CM experience for all students.

Our branch also offers an evaluation opportunity on April 18^th for piano students, Prep level to Advance level. The registration deadline is March 31^st. Please contact Vivian Field for any questions and requirement.

Lastly, I would like to share with you Chopin’s Wiosna from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQAENejVCE0 .  Happy Spring to you all!

Musically Yours,

Melody Lu  

Dear Members,

Our first branch meeting of the year is coming up on Wednesday, February 18^th, at Field’s Piano. We are having a masterclass with Jonathan Mann. He is a Steinway artist, and he has recently joined our branch.  If you are interested in having your students participate, please contact Chi Asada immediately. All instruments are welcome! Also, our branch event chairs will be at the meeting. It is the best time to meet them and to have your questions answered.

Please fill out the survey for the festival line-up. It will help our festival committee to organize the festivals efficiently. Your comments and opinions are valuable. Make sure to send in your survey by February 28^th. Please refer to the following link for the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1upx7diIo_9DCpoyj8oTu8S1tYok1cV_38bpY6WLt4GA/viewform

Our monthly MSSL recital provides great performing opportunities for the students. According to our MSSL advisor, Victoria Park, many advanced players gave wonderful and varied performances in the January recital. The next recital will be held on February 22^nd. The application is attached below:

There are three events happening in this month:

• VOCE, February 14^th, at Saddleback College
• Sound of Baroque, February 28^th, at Field’s Piano
• Bach Festival, February 28^th, at Field’s Piano

I want to thank these wonderful ladies who are chairing for these events: Chi Asada and Junko Nojima. All participating studios will be requested to help out on the event day.

Lastly, I would like to share one of my favorite songs from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOXS_Giojgc

Hope you all have a sweet February and Happy Lunar New Year!

Musically,

Melody

Dear Members,

Happy New Year! Hope you all had a relaxing and joyous holiday season.

We have several important deadlines approaching in this month:

• January 14^th — VOCE competition application due
• January 15^th — CM Panel students to enter repertoire online
• January 31^th — CM students’ online evaluation/repertoire information due
• January 31^th — Sound of Baroque/ Bach Festival online application deadline

 
Orange Coast Cities and Long Beach branches will be joining the VOCE recital on February 14th, 2015. To access the online application, login to www.mtac.org  and find the VOCE tab. Please contact Junko Nojima , our VOCE chair, for any questions.

CM online base is now opened for repertoire entry, Branch Honors (for level 5 and up), and Convention Recital Applications. This year, we have two different locations for Keyboard evaluation on March 22^nd. Please be very careful when you request “Carpool” for siblings and ensembles. Also, please follow the guidelines for repertoire entry. Visit MTAC website for helpful tips: https://www.mtac.org/cgi-bin/mtac/mtac_documents.php?mtac_documents=1

Sound of Baroque and Bach Festival will be held on February 28th, 2015. You may enroll students on our branch website mtacsouthcoast.org, under festival.  An email announcement will be sent out soon once the online registration is open. For any questions, please contact Chi Asada.

You will soon be receiving a survey from our Festival committee. In order to increase and to balance the enrollment for our four festivals, we would like to hear your opinions about the order of festivals. Your comments and suggestions are valuable and important to us!

Our next branch meeting is coming up on February 18^th. We are pleased to have one of our new members, Dr. Jonathan E. Mann, for conducting a masterclass. All instruments are welcome! Please contact Chi Asada if you or your students are interested. You can find more about Jonathan on http://mannhands.blogspot.com/

We cannot get away from computers in our daily lives. Please enjoy this short video from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGKwx-BFO0E

Let us waltz into a successful 2015!

Musically,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

First, let me share with you some of the photos which were taken at our Masquerade concert:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/edti5pchdton4gb/AAAa9Cc_uwAxkh3lCVy1skmNa?dl=0

It was such a fun event in a relaxing environment. Thank you to everyone who made it happened!

The participating studios were Baik, Brener, Edgar, Field, Kao,X. Li, Ling, Y. Liu, Lu, Chang-McManus, Nojima, Tasi and Tseng.  Bravo to our Co-chairs: Kevin Kao and Victoria Park! Even though it was their first year chairing for this event, it was well organized and all the programs ran smoothly. Masquerade concert provides good experience for the younger students, and it is good stage practice for the older ones. Hopefully, we will see higher enrollment next year.

Our other branch events are in full swing. We just had our Romantic Showcase on November 1^st.  Seventy-eight contestants from the following studios:  Allen, Asada, Baik, Bedelian, Brener, F. Chang, Chang-McManus, W. Chen, Eckstein, Field, W. Huang, Hung, M. Lee, S. Lee, X. Li, Ling, Y. Liu, Lu, Ono, Oh, Puhl, Su, and Tsang. Congratulations to all these teachers! The judges gave very high remarks on our students’ performances. Here is a short message from one of the judges and I quoted” Festival was well organized and all teachers are working with enthusiasm. Students’ performance level was high. I think these three things are essential quality of successful competition. Your branch has all of these.” I have to give the credit to our hard- working festival chairs: Naoko Ono and Willie Chen.  They spent long hours of planning/scheduling, staying at the site for the entire day and compiling the result, etc.  I also want to thank you to teachers who helped with check-in and announcing: Midori Allen, Chi Asada, Debbie Brener, Vivian Field, Felix Chang, Sijie Ling, Naoko Ono, Jennifer Puhl, Sheve- Hwa Su, and myself.

Classical Showcase will be held on November 15^th.  Naoko Ono is working closely with Nan Won Baik to get this event ready. Thank you ladies!

Here are a couple of concerts performed by our own members:

• Chi Asada (Piano) and Kayako Adachi (Violin) performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on November 8, 2014. For info., Please visit  http://hoson-house.ticketleap.com/hoson-classical-four-seasons/
• Harotune Bedelian (violin) and Lorna Griffitt (Piano) on December 6, 2014; Program includes works by J.S.Bach, Mozart, Schumann, Debussy and Hymen

Please visit http://hoson-house.ticketleap.com/bedelian/for more details.

Thank you to those who had submitted their Member Interest Forms to Anna Kim. Our board will review them carefully. Also be sure to check on the weekly CM tips Sandely Miller sent out. Repertoire selection can be tricky. Please refer to the CM syllabus to avoid any confusion.

Lastly, I want to share this video from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ha2JvqBdI

Hope this video clip brings you lots of laughter in the winter celebration.

I want to wish everyone an early happy Gobble day and a wonderful holiday season!

Sincerely,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

Happy October! It was so nice to see most of you at our September branch meeting, and it was great to have the chance to talk to some of our new members. Welcome to our branch:  Kerri Arakawa, Adam Gravelle, Hye Seong Kim, Danielle Ann Cook, Marko Njego and Jonathan Mann. I want to thank all teachers who chair for our various branch events, for their brief introduction during the meeting.  Sandely Miller and her CM committee have been diligently working on educating our new members about the CM program in the meeting, plus the extra session held at Sandely’s home. Thank you, Sandely, Margaret Tseng (CM Theory), Willie Chen (Information) and Anna Kim (Strings), for making this year’s CM meeting successful! Please remember to register for CM before the October 31th deadline. We don’t want you to spend Halloween on the computer.

I am so grateful to be working with all of you, who are professional and enthusiastic. There is always a sense of accomplishment when an event runs smoothly and successfully. Our branch is growing bigger and we need a lot more involvement from everyone. Please send or email your Member Interest Form to Anna Kim by October 18^th. We want to hear from you!

You still have time to register for our annual fundraiser, Masquerade concert. This is a two-day event and it offers good incentive for the participants. We are still far from our goal so please encourage your students to perform.  I want to thank in advance to our co-chairs of this event: Kevin Kao and Victoria Park.  They have been working hard to organize this fun event. I look forward to hear some spooky tunes and hope to see you there!

We had eleven performers for the September MSSL recital. It was a good turnout considering most of the students just returned from summer vacation. The MSSL team had donated $400 from their last year’s proceeds to our branch. This amount will be used to support other branch events. Thank you, Victoria Park and her MSSL team!

There are two important deadlines coming up: October 11th for Romantic Showcase, and October 18th for Classical Showcase. For those who are new to our online festival registration, please go to http://mtacsouthcoast.org/festivals/ . As part of South Coast branch, you should have a member -only login name.  Please contact the website administrator on the home page or myself if you have problem logging in. For any festival related questions, please contact Naoko Ono, our festival chair.

Lastly, I’ve a great piece of music to share with you from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/XlyCLbt3Thk?rel=0

Hope you enjoy the little performance by a “Spider Instrument”!

Melody

Dear Members,

Welcome to 2014-15 of MTAC South Coast year! The entire board and I sincerely hope you had a relaxing summer and are reinvigorated to start teaching again. First, I would like to welcome the new members who joined us this year:  Wenny Chandra, Elizabeth Lee and Monica Lee.  Although our branch is small, it still offers many exciting events and plenty of performing opportunities for everyone to explore.

Please plan to attend our first branch meeting of the year. It will be held at 10am on September 17^th at Field’s Piano. It is a mandatory meeting in which you’ll receive the branch directory and CM package.  Come and mingle with our old friends and meet new friends! If you are interested in performing at our branch meeting, please contact our vice president, Chi Asada, who is in charge of the programs.

The MTAC State convention in Los Angeles was quite amazing. The presenters were fun and informative. I want to thank the following members who represented our branch at the convention: Sally Liu, Naoko Ono and Alice Tasi as the branch delegates; Willie Chen, Sally Liu and Sandely Miller helped in the page room.  The next year’s convention will be held in San Jose. Please plan ahead.

A big Thank you to teachers who chaired our last year’s activities; all events went smoothly and successfully! I am very grateful that these teachers will help out this coming year once again. I do realize how busy everyone is, but we truly need your participation to provide opportunities for our students, and to keep our branch productive. You will soon receive a member interest form. Let our board know in what way and how you can help!

Our first event of year is Masquerade Fundraiser concert on Oct. 18^th and Oct. 19^th. Two of our enthusiastic teachers, Kevin Kao and Victoria Park, will host this event. The amount we raise from this concert will benefit other branch events. It is essential to the branch that you encourage your students to perform. Stay tune for more details.

I’ve received an invitation from our sister branch, MTAC-OCC, who will celebrate for their 40th Anniversary on September 21^st at Mission Viejo Country Club. Please go to the following link to RSVP: http://mtacocc40thanniversary.rsvpify.com/ . The early bird deadline is September 11^th.

Lastly, I would like to share with you this funny video from You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psP0XgTI2VE What a good work out by the end!

Best wishes for a fulfilling year of teaching and music making!

Melody

Dear Members,

Hope you all had a nice, relaxing spring break!

On April 6th, our own Branch piano evaluation was held at Laura Chang McManus’ studio. Sixteen students from the following studios participated: Deborah Brener, Sheve Hwa Su, Sandely Miller, and Marifel Bolanos. Liz Lucus from Orange County North branch was our evaluator this year.  Her comments were positive and encouraging. Thank you so much Laura for inviting her and providing this important evaluation for the students!

We have a month packed with performances ahead of us. Kick off the month of May with a joint concert for both Composers’ Today and Senior recital. This concert will take place in Hoson House at 3PM on May 4^th. Thank you to our CT chair, Jennifer Puhl and Senior recital chair, Dr. Xiaole Li, for creating the beautiful programs, organizing and hosting for this event. You may view both programs on our website, in the announcement column. Each high school senior who performs will receive a $50 scholarship. The participating studios are Chi Asada, Nanwon Baik, Vivian Field, Si-Jie Ling, Soo Lee, Xiaole Li, and Jennifer Puhl. Light refreshment will be provided following the program. It will surely be a memorable and special concert for everyone who attends!

The SWV competition, which is dedicated for instrumental students only, will be held on May 10^th at 11am at Fields’ Piano. Anna Kim, the SWVC chair, worked very hard to invite students to participate. We have sixteen students enrolled this year; it is almost double that of last year’s enrollment. Thank you for your dedication and effort, Anna! We have three judges for three different instrument groups: Strings, Winds and Voice. Thank you to Anna Choi, Anna Kim and Stephanie Puhl, for securing the judges. Big applause to the teachers who signed up students for the competition: Esther Chen, Anna Choi, Anna Kim, David Pan and Stephanie Puhl.

Also on May 10^th at Fields’ Piano, the Branch honor recital is scheduled for 2pm to 5pm, with fifty student performances. I want to thank Dr. Debbie Brener for hosting this event; Sandely Miller for online registration and scheduling.

Last festival of the year, Contemporary Flare, will be held on May 17^th at Fields’ Piano. There are Sixty- six students enrolled in this event, which is featuring works solely for the contemporary composers. Laura Chang McManus is working hard on the students’ performing schedule and it will be sent out shortly.

The 2014 SCJBF Region V Festival will take place on Sunday, May 18th, 2014 at Saddleback College. There are 5 students from our branch that advanced to the regional competition. Good luck to them all!

Please plan to attend our last branch meeting of the year on May 21^st at Fields’ Piano. The results of the Contemporary Flare will be distributed on that day.   We are in the process of inviting fascinating guest artists to perform a recital for us.  The details will follow shortly.

Lastly, I want to share a video my friend sent me from You Tube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKezUd_xw20

Hope this humorous video helps you to stay cool!

Cordially,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

Happy spring! Hope you’re all well rested after the March madness.

We had another year of successful Certificate of Merit. You may now view the result on the state website:

Go to www.mtac.org–>login–>CM students–>Student evaluation information and results.

I received many positive comments from the evaluators and parents regarding the level of our students’ evaluations as well as how smoothly the CM ran. These made me very honored to be part of our branch. My sincere appreciation to everyone who was involved:

• CM committee–CM chair: Sandely Miller; Theory chair: Margaret Tseng; String chair: Anna Kim; Wind chair: Ana Choi , Registration chair: Si-Jie Lin, and  Door Monitor chair: Naoko (Nancy) Ono. Thank you for the well planning and the solid management throughout the exam weekends.
• Securing Venue: Mr. Andreas Eckstein for securing UCI facility, Dr. Emily Hung for checking on the evaluating rooms, Margaret Tseng for Northwood High School, and Doris Shin for Chinese Baptist Church of Central Orange County.
• Hospitality: Alice Tsai and Sheve-Hwa Su.
• Set-up and Clean-up: Mr. Eckstein, Si-Jie Ling, Mr. Robert McManus, Margaret Tseng, Junko Nojima, Cecilia Tsang, Wendy Huang and Naoko Ono.
• Online result entering: Phoebe Wu

There were 12 high school volunteers who provided great help from these studios: Willie Chen, Soo Lee, Xiaole Li, Naoko Ono, Jennifer Puhl and Sheve-Hwa Su.

In addition, it was great to see many of you during the exam weekends. I thank you all for making this CM a great experience for our students.

The BBEs will be available to be picked up at Sandely’s house from April 7^th to April 11^th. Branch honor recital is scheduled on May 10, 2014. You may now register eligible students on our branch website: mtacsouthcoast.orgàProgram/FestivalàFestival registration. The registration deadline is April 20^th.

Our branch also offers a great opportunity to those who couldn’t participate during the CM weekends. The Branch Performance Evaluations (piano evaluations ONLY) will be held on the morning of Sunday, April 6th at Laura Chang‘s Studio. Please email her on how to enter the students.

A special event, the SWV (Strings/Winds/Voice) competition, which is dedicated to our non-piano students, will be held on May 10^th at 11am. The online registration for this event is available on our branch website. Please encourage your students to participate.

We have a combined concert for Composers’ Today and Senior recital on May 4^th at Hoson House, Tustin. Dr. Xiaole Li and Jennifer Puhl will be hosting this event. Please go to our branch website for more information.

A reminder that our Contemporary Flare Festival will be held on May 17 at Fields Piano. You will receive an email notification when the online registration is available. Be sure to sign students up for this fun event!

Lastly, I want to share this video clip “Bach in the woods” from You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_CDLBTJD4M

Wish you all have a great spring break!

Sincerely,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

There is an important change to our branch website.  It has been relocated to http://mtacsouthcoast.org/

All the login names and passwords remain the same. The most current information is posted on this website. Please update your bookmark.

It was so nice to see many of you at our branch meeting this past Wednesday. Our guest speaker, Craig Richey from Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, gave a fun and informative demonstration on “How to Practice”. Thank you to the following performers who volunteered for the demonstration: Halaine Zhao from Sally Liu’s studio, Nina Fukuma from Chi Asada’s studio, and Willie Chen. Also, thank you to our vice president, Chi , for planning  this meeting and preparing the refreshments at the serene Hoson House.

We had a successful Sound of Baroque and SCJBFestival  on February 22^nd. All three judges were very impressed by our students’ high performance level. Congratulations to all winners and the participating studios:  Asada, Baik, Bedelian, Brener, F. Chang, W. Chen, Eckstein, Hung, Leung, Lu, Ono, Puhl,Tsang and Tseng. My sincere gratitude to Chi Asada for organizing both events, and Andreas Eckstein for making the unique programs and setting up the venue.  I also want to thank the teachers who helped out with the check-in and announced the programs: Felix Chang, Willie Chen, Emily Hung, Margaret Tseng and Naoko Ono.

March is also our CM month. Our CM committee is working hard to prepare and to get ready for this big event. Both check -in forms for theory and evaluation weekends can be obtained from our branch website. I will be seeing a lot of you during the CM weekends, and I want to thank everyone in advance. With your help and support, we will for sure provide a great CM experience for all students.

I would like to congratulate our recording secretary, Laura Chang, who will be a beautiful March bride. In addition, William Rone, who just joined our branch, is getting married soon.

Lastly, I want to share this video (Idea and Composition by Mindaugas Piecaitis) on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeoT66v4EHg

Hope you all have a great month!

Sincerely,

Melody Lu

Dear members,

As we wrap up the first month of the year and head into February, I want to provide you with a couple of reminders:

• Update contact information-To ensure you are receiving all the important messages and to keep smooth communication, please update your contact information on both MTAC website (www.mtac.org) and our branch website (http://southcoastmtac.org/).  You can also add a personal touch by editing the profile page on our branch website.
• First branch meeting-Our branch meeting is coming up on Wednesday, February 26^th at 10am. The location is not at our usual meeting place. It will be held at Hoson House, (1961 Irvine Blvd., Tustin, CA 92780), a beautiful concert venue with a serene Japanese garden. Our first vice president, Chi Asada, has invited Craig Richey from Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSULB, to discuss “How to Practice”. This is sure to be an interesting and helpful program, and we hope all of you can attend.
• Baroque festival and SCJB festival-Best of luck to all teachers with students participating in the Baroque and SCJB festival on Saturday, February 22^nd, at Fields’ Piano. I want to thank Chi Asada, for organizing and chairing these two events, and also to the teachers who will be helping out with various event duties.
• VOCE –The branch recital was held on Feb. 1^st at Saddleback College. The winners will compete at the state final in April. Thank you to Junko Nojima, for organizing this event with the Orange Coast Cities branch and the Long Beach branch.

Our devoted Composers Today chair, Jennifer Puhl, has informed me of the following:

“Bravo to those students who sent in their applications early. These compositions will be evaluated, and the students will have the opportunity to make changes to their work based on the judges’ suggestions. They will send their corrected scores to the State CT Contest giving them an advantage to a possible win and thus a spot on the convention recital.”

Thank you Jennifer! For additional CT information, please visit MTAC website or the branch website.

We had another successful MSSL recital on January 26th.  A sincere gratitude and thanks to Victoria Park and her MSSL team for providing great performing opportunities on a monthly basis. Due to the high enrollment, please send in your application early.  You may obtain a copy of the application from http://southcoastmtac.org/forms-documents/

Also, one of our members shared a website and I thought it might be of interest to our branch teachers. Here is the link: http://musicedconnect.com/ .  Our member, Deborah Brener, is also a renowned lecturer. Congratulations Debbie!

Wishing everyone a Happy Lunar New Year!

Melody Lu

Dear members,

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a joyful and restful holiday!

Another year filled with many exciting events is off and running. As many of us are preparing to finalize students’ repertoires, CM Database is now open for repertoire entry, Branch Honors, and Convention Recital applications. Please check all necessary requirements and rules before entering the information online.  The deadline is January 31, 2014. Please do not wait until the last day. If you encounter any problem at the last minute, help may not be immediately available. This year, we have another strong CM committee:

CM chair: Sandely Miller

Theory chair: Margaret Tseng

Wind Chair: Ana Choi

String Chair: Anna Kim

Please contact them if you have any CM related questions. And thank you to all our CM chairs for handling the biggest event of the year!

This year we will again be combining with both the Orange Coast Cities and Long Beach Branches for our VOCE Recital.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to hear many other excellent students from other branches.  An information email was sent back in Nov., 2013, and the deadline is January 8, 2014. A big thank you to Junko Nojima, our new VOCE chair, for organizing this event with the other branches.

Our next big festival will be Sound of Baroque and SCJBach Festival.  Please note that SCJBach Festival has a separate website for registration: http://www.scjbf.org/.  You will find all necessary information on it. As for Sound of Baroque, Registration is on our branch website: southcoastmtac.org. A notification will be sent out via email once the online registration is open. We are grateful to have Chi Asada, our first vice president, chairing for both events. Please contact her for any additional questions. Also, there is a change in the venue this year. Both festivals will be held in Field’s Piano on February 22.

If you are looking for performing opportunities for your students in a relaxing environment, please sign up for our MSSL recital. It will be held on January 26, 2014 at 2pm. The application form can be downloaded on our branch website.

As always, all of our branch events would not be happening without each of our members’ participation and support.  I greatly appreciate all teachers who helped in various events last year and look forward to seeing you in the upcoming events!

Have a wonderful 2014!

Sincerely,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

Happy November! The CM registration is now closed. If you found any mistakes in the registration, please contact Sandely Miller before November 15. It is the deadline for making any corrections. With the first step of CM done, we can now focus on preparing the students with their repertoire.

Our first and the only Fundraiser event of the year, Masquerade concert, received a revenue of $1260. Thank you to the following studios for participating: Baik, Brener, L. Chang, Choi, Eckstein, Edgar, Field, Li, Ling, Lu, Miller, Nojima, Ono, and Tseng. A special thank you to Ana Marie and Andreas Eckstein for all the preparation, from the venue setting to the cute goody bags; it really marked an unforgettable event for the students. In addition, we would like to thank our venue chair, Kevin Kao, for helping Andreas the day before the concert and staying through the entire event. Also, I’d like to extend our appreciation to our MSSL students: Christina Tran and Erin Kliewer, from Laura Chang’s studio, for helping at the Check-In table. Despite all the careful planning, the enrollment for this year’s Masquerade Concert declined. It is disappointing because it also means that we are short of our fund raising goal.  Our branch may be forced to cancel some of our events next year. The board welcomes any suggestions on how to increase the enrollment; please help keeping our branch events going.

A very successful Romantic Showcase occurred over the weekend. We had a strong festival team: Naoko Ono for contacting judges and overseeing the whole event; Willie Chen for scheduling and running the event; Felix Chang for certificate and medals; Andreas Eckstein for program and venue set-up; Kevin Kao for venue set-up. The judges were pleased with the organization by our festival team and they also gave high remarks to our students’ performances. We appreciated the teachers who helped with Check-In and announcing the event programs: Nan Wan Baik, Laura Chang, Charla Edgar and Emily Hung. The result will be announced and posted on our website shortly.

The Classical Festival is coming up in a week and I would like to give a hearty thanks in advance to Laura Chang, for her hard work in organizing this event. Please note that according to the Festival guideline, teachers are obligated to help at the festival. The work assignment is based on the numbers of students you enroll. 1-3 performance entries =1 recital, 4-6 entries=2 recitals, and 7-10 entries=3 recitals. I’d like to remind you that there is a non-involvement fee of $50 for each recital if a teacher cannot work when they’re asked.

The Second MSSL recital will be held on November 17^th at 2pm at Inn at the Park ( 10 Marquette, Irvine, Ca 92612). The registration deadline is Saturday, November 9^th. Please send the application to Victoria Park, South Coast branch MSSL advisor.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone! You’ll be hearing from me in January, 2014. Until then, the MTAC South Coast board wishes you all a blessed and fulfilled holiday season!

Sincerely,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

It was great to see many familiar faces and to meet new members at our September branch meeting. Thank you Sandely Miller, our CM chair, for giving an informative CM presentation! The CM database is Now Open for registration. Please be cautious with the new deadline for the online registration, which ends on October 31 (Halloween). From the past experience, the online registration gets heavy traffic right before the deadline. Enroll your students early and enjoy treat or tricking!

While we enjoy the convenience of technology in today’s society, music teachers have been targeted by email scams. There have been some MTAC members from other branch who received emails involving foreign students coming to the states and wanting to take lessons. In order for them to send checks, they ask for music teachers’ personal information.  If you receive those bogus emails, do not reply and delete them immediately. Please note that teachers can choose which information to show on both MTAC State website and our own branch website. General public can only access zip codes and instruments on “Find a Teacher” option.

We had a great turn out for the first MSSL recital. There were 13 students that performed.  It was held at Inn At the Park on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I would like to thank Victoria Park, our MSSL chair, for arranging this new location in Irvine. There are several MSSL recitals throughout the year. You may find the application on our branch website: southcoastmtac.org.

Also, both Romantic and Classical Showcases are open to registration on our branch website. Teacher participation is a major key for making these festivals successful. Please remember that if for any reason a teacher can’t work, the teacher must pay a non-involvement fee of $50 for each recital.

The Fund-raiser event, Masquerade recital will be held on October 19 at Fields’ Piano. The deadline is October 6. Application forms are available on our website. Students’ families and friends are also invited!

As always, be sure to check our website for updates.

Happy Autumn!

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

Welcome back! Your new board hopes you all had a fun-filled and relaxing summer.

There are many exciting events planned for the upcoming year with different new chairs. Thank you to all the members who are willing to devote their time, and to get involved with our branch events!

Our first branch meeting of the new scholastic year will be held on Wednesday, September 18 at 10 AM at Fields’ Piano. It is a required CM information, general branch announcement meeting.  Teachers who do not attend the meeting may not be able to register their students in CM via the online registration system, and may risk having student registrations dropped automatically. This is not a South Coast directive but reflects the new 2013 MTAC state decision:”In early September, CM Council will announce procedures for locking teachers out of the Database, for those who did not attend the CM Meeting.” Also new this year: CM Registration: October 1-October 31, 2013. Please contact Sandely Millier, sandely@cox.net  for approved alternatives if you cannot attend the meeting.  We look forward to seeing all of our esteemed members at this special meeting!

We have a new location for our MSSL recital this year. The first recital is September 29^th at Inn at the Park (10 Marquette Irvine 92612). You may obtain a copy of the application form on our website. Please contact Victoria Park, victoria_park@yahoo.com for any further questions.

Also, a very important event in the fall, our annual Masquerade Concert fundraiser is coming up on October 19 & 20. The proceeds from this concert support our branch events. Please encourage all your students to participate. I really appreciate Ana Marie and Andreas Eckstein for their dedication to this event. They generously provide hearty treats, beautiful programs and name tags for every student and host the concert for the entire day. All participants will also receive 1 point towards our Trophy Exchange program and a “Festival Voucher” worth $10 credit can be applied toward any of the branch festival events.

Finally, I would like to thank Vivian Field for her invaluable service she has rendered on behalf of our branch for the past three years. Her strong leadership has certainly set a high bar for me.

Please remember to check our website: southcoastmtac.org for constant updates and announcements.

The entire South Coast board and I look forward to seeing all of you at the September meeting!

Musically Yours,

Melody Lu

Dear Members,

Our final branch meeting for 2012-2013 academic year was graced with a delightful duo performance by our own Kevin Kao and his partner (and girlfriend) Clare Chiang featuring the Arensky Suite Op. 15, second movement: Valse, for two pianos. They gave a musical and artistic performance of this work and we thank them for responding with such alacrity to Melody Lu’s invitation to play on such short notice! Thank you Melody for arranging it!

Before the performance we had the investiture of the new board:

Melody Lu, President;
Chi Asada – 1st Vice President
Anna Kim – 2nd Vice President/Membership Secretary
Margaret Tseng – Treasurer
Sandely Miller – CM Chair
Naoko Ono– Festival Chair
Kevin Kao– Venue Chair
Laura Chang– Recording Secretary

Twenty-two members participated in our on-line voting – thank you! Under the leadership of Melody Lu the new, vibrant and very able South Coast board will continue providing excellent programs and assistance to our members. Melody presented me with a beautiful crystal commemorative memorial etched in a dedication from the board; I was deeply touched and it is proudly on display in my studio. Thank you board members!

Sunday, May 5 at 3:00 p.m. the Senior Recital took place at Chi Asada’s beautiful new performance hall and gardens, Hoson House in Tustin. Dr. Xiaole Li worked very hard at organizing and creating a beautiful program and providing the refreshments for the reception immediately following the recital. There were four performers featuring flute and piano, and it was about 45 minutes in length with a nice variety of compositions. Ladies, thank you very much in advance for your hospitality and efforts in making this recital a memorable and special event!

On May 11 MSSL gave a special Mother’s Day Recital for Park Plaza residents. Each female audience member received a small gift from the performers. I would like to thank Victoria Park for arranging this lovely event and for her dedication and excellence in running and overseeing all of the South Coast MSSL 2012-2013 recitals! I would also like to thank the management at Park Plaza for opening their doors to our students thus providing them with the opportunity to give of themselves to the senior community through the beauty and greatness of classical music!

On May 18 Laura Chang and her assistant, Dr. Felix Tao Chang chaired a smooth running Contemporary Flare festival. Andréas Eckstein created a stunning printed program and efficient and aesthetically pleasing set-up. As per our usual the judges were impressed by the high level of performance exhibited at this fun event.  Laura, Felix and Andréas we appreciate your hard work and dedication and many thanks to all of the teacher helpers too!

A quick reminder to teachers to renew your membership: so far there are 32 teachers who have not yet paid their dues. Deadline is July 31^st.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the following people for their dedication and service to our branch:

Student Events & Program Chairs:

Charla Edgar:Adult Workshop Chair and Branch Historian; Chi Asada: SC Jr. Bach and Sounds of Baroque Chair; Sandely Miller: CM Chair; Margaret Tseng: CM Theory Chair; Anna Kim: CM Strings Chair; Anna Choi: CM Woodwinds Chair; Jennifer Puhl: CM Branch Honors Recital Chair; Laura Chang: Branch Piano Evaluation Chair; Naoko Ono: Classical Showcase Chair; Junko Nojima: Romantic Showcase Chair; Dr. Emily Hung: Composers Today Chair; Laura Chang, & Dr. Felix Tao Chang: Contemporary Flare Chair and Co-Chair; Ana Maria and Andréas Eckstein: Masquerade Recital Fundraiser Chairs and Benefactors; Victoria Park: MSSL Chair; Dr. Xiaole Li: Senior Graduates Recital Chair; Anna Kim: Strings, Voice and Winds Festival Chair; Lisa Honea: VOCE Chair; Kevin Kao: Masquerade Recital set-up helper.

South Coast Board of Directors and Committees Chairs:

Melody Lu, 1^st VP and Branch Meeting Program Chair; Sijie Ling, 2^nd VP/Membership Secretary& Website Coordinator; Margaret Tseng, Treasurer; Laura Chang, Recording Secretary and Handbook; Sandely Miller, Certificate of Merit Chair; Chizuko Asada, Festival Chair; Jennifer Puhl, Venue Chair; Andréas Eckstein, Honorary Managing Director; Esther Chen, Directory; Andy Huynh,Webmaster.

It has been three years now since the inception of MTAC South Coast branch. This is thanks to the excellent efforts of Melody Lu, Sandely Miller and Ting Hsu-Maruya who, at the suggestion of the state CM Council, pioneered our branch. I was invited on board as your president and I can say in all sincerity that it has truly been an honor and a pleasure to serve you in this capacity. We have an amazing group of talented, helpful and amicable members. Let’s continue in this spirit of camaraderie and always strive to uphold the level of excellence that our small and privileged branch embodies!

In sincere gratitude,

Vivian Lee R. Field, M.M.

Dear Members,

On Saturday, April 13 our own Branch evaluations were held at Laura Chang’s studio; Yukiko Nobles of the Long Beach branch was the evaluator. Fifteen students participated and from all accounts, they really enjoyed themselves. Ms. Nobles’ comments were instructive, helpful and supportive. Thank you so much Laura for your dedication and diligence in organizing and hosting these important and fun evaluations!

The Branch Honors and Composers Today joint recital took place this past Saturday, April 27 at Fields’ Piano. Many thanks to Jennifer Puhl and Emily Hung who did a wonderful job in organizing this lovely event. There were 46 participants showcasing a nice variety of piano, voice and instrumental works. Jennifer did a really outstanding job on the written program!

This coming Sunday, May 5, 3:00 p.m. is the Senior Recital. This event is being held at Chi Asada’s beautiful new performance hall, Hoson House in Tustin. Dr. Xiaole Li has worked very hard at organizing and creating the program and providing the refreshments for the reception immediately following the recital. Ladies, thank you very much in advance for your hospitality and efforts in making this recital a memorable and special event!

Laura Chang is working away at our upcoming Contemporary Flare festival with her assistant, Dr. Felix Tao Chang. This is always a highly enjoyable and well-attended event. Laura and Felix, we appreciate your hard work and dedication!

If you still have not voted, please go to our website ( http://southcoastmtac.org/ ) to cast your vote today! The registration will close on Sunday, May 12 at midnight. As a devoted MTAC South Coast member it is not only your privilege but your duty to select your next Board of Directors. This on-line ballot is simple, very user friendly, quick and completely anonymous.
Thank you for your consideration and cooperation.

Please be sure to attend our final branch meeting of the 2012-2013 academic year. Melody Lu has a wonderful musical program planned which will feature performance by our new member, Kevin Kao. We will also have the investiture of our new MTAC South Coast Board of Directors. Teachers will be able to pick up the Contemporary Flare results at the meeting. You won’t want to miss this!

Upcoming deadline and event dates:

MAY 5    Senior Graduation Concert, 3:00 p.m. at Chi Asada’s new performance studio, Hoson House in Tustin (venue directions will be given)

May 7 is the due date for the MSSL May 11 Mother’s Day recital, 2:00 p.m. at Park Plaza in Orange.(you can download our application form from our website (http://msslsc.weebly.com/documents-and-links.html)

May 11  MSSL Mother’s Day Recital recital for Park Plaza residents.

May 15   Deadline for completion of CM Make-Up Evaluations

May 18   Contemporary Flare Festival at Fields’ Piano

May 22   Branch Meeting at 10:00 AM at Fields’ Piano

Please remember to periodically check our website, southcoastmtac.org, for further updates and information.

Although I will be sending out a final June newsletter I would like to say that it has truly been an honor and a pleasure to serve you as your president. We have a wonderful, vibrant branch and Melody Lu will make an excellent and strong president being well assisted in her job by our new and excellent 2013- 2016 Board of Directors; let’s continue the good work!!

Musically yours,

Dear Members,

Our annual CM evaluations are now behind us; Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus is likely ringing in our members’ ears – it certainly is in mine! Many, many thanks to the following CM chairs par excellence:  Margaret Tseng CM theory chair and all the teacher helpers (Sandely was so pleased that all the theory tests were graded that same day!); Anna Kim strings and voice  chair; Sandely Miller piano chair; Anna Choi flute chair; Andréas  Eckstein worked his usual magic with CM theory and playing evaluation precision set up (those signs were so helpful making the sites look professional and well ordered!); Alice Tsai and Sheve-Hwa Su provided an absolutely delicious and nicely varied hospitality service; and the participating teacher and high school student  helpers were indispensable in making our annual CM evaluations smooth running. Finally, an extra special THANK YOU to our fearless, hard working CM chair, Sandely Miller, for making these evaluations yet another big success! She always puts an immense amount of time and effort into these evaluations and I can tell you that it is a labor of love for our branch. We have a truly a unique and wonderful branch; I cannot thank you all enough for everything you put into making it run efficiently and amicably!

Upcoming deadline and event dates:

April 8 CM Theory test materials released

April 13 Branch piano evaluations at Laura Chang’s studio

April 13 application deadline for April MSSL recital. (you can download our application form from our website (http://msslsc.weebly.com/documents-and-links.html)

April 15 Branch Honors Recital Applications Deadline ($10 per student) to Jennifer Puhl

• Convention Applications Deadline ($20 per student);
• Deadline to apply for CM Make-Up Evaluations (high school students only)

April 20 MSSL recital at Park Plaza in Orange

April 20 Senior Graduation Concert Deadline w/Bios to Dr. Xiao Li

April 25 Contemporary Flare Deadline to Laura Chang

April 27 CM Branch Honors Recital and Composer Today Recital at Fields’ Piano

MAY 5    Senior Graduation Concert at Chi Asada’s new performance studio, Hoson House in Tustin (venue directions will be given)

May 11  MSSL Mother’s Day Recital recital for Park Plaza residents.

May 15   Deadline for completion of CM Make-Up Evaluations

May 18   Contemporary Flare Festival at Fields’ Piano

May 22   Branch Meeting at 10:00 AM at Fields’ Piano

Please remember to periodically check our website, southcoastmtac.org, for further updates and information.

Our 2013-2016 term of MTAC South Coast Board of Directors on-line voting will be made available on April 8 and will close 2 weeks later on the April 22. Members will be sent an e-mail notification so please be watching for this.

Musically yours,

Vivian Lee R. Field

Dear Members,
Our branch meeting on Wednesday, February 20, 10:00 a.m. at Fields’ Piano was given by Dr. Monica Lee. She gave an interesting business lecture focusing on the issue of keeping classical music relevant for students and also on taxes. I would like to thank Dr. Lee for making time in her busy schedule to come and present it to us and to our first vice president, Melody Lu for arranging the presentation!

This past Saturday, February 23, the new Festival for Strings, Winds and Voice, Jr. Bach Festival and Sounds of Baroque Festival was held at the Geneva Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods. A total of 63 students from 22 studios participated on this day, playing various instruments such as violin, viola, cello, voice, organ and piano. I would like to thank the hard working chairs of these three events, Anna Kim and Chi Asada for running them so smoothly and also for the beautiful programs! Ladies, we all really appreciate everything you did to make these events such a resounding success! And a big thank you to all the teacher helpers – we couldn’t do it without you! We are always interested in feedback on our branch events; if you have any comments please send them to our festival chairs Chi Asada and Ana Kim.

I would like to thank Lisa Honea for organizing and running our branch VOCE recital with OCC. Once again she did a lovely job and the program looked wonderful. Here is her report:

VOCE Recital and Competition
Thank you to all who participated in this year’s VOCE Recital and Competition. We had a very successful program with thirty-two students from eleven studios participating. The standard of performance was excellent. I would like to thank Shelley Johnson and the Orange Coast Cities Branch for hosting the festival this year. I would also like to thank Janice Luna and the Long Beach Branch who partnered with us.

Congratulations to the following teachers:
Ana Marie Eckstein – first place, Senior Instrumental Ensemble division
Anna So Jung Choi – first and second place, Intermediate Solo Wind division
Stephanie Puhl Young – third place, Intermediate Solo Voice division
Best wishes to you and your students as they participate in the state finals on April 21, at Chapman College.

I would like to especially thank Charla Edgar for compiling our South Coast branch history for the MTAC state office. Charla did an absolutely beautiful job thus ensuring that our branch is now well documented and our special events especially highlighted, such as the Masquerade Concert, Master Classes, Concerto Competition, Senior, Branch Honors, Composers Today and MSSL recitals. We thank you, Charla for an important job well done!

Upcoming deadline and event dates:
March 31 Branch Piano Eval. form/fee Deadline to Laura Chang
APRIL 8 CM Theory test materials released
April 13 Branch piano evaluations at Laura Chang’s studio
April 15 Branch Honors Recital Applications Deadline ($10 per student) to Jennifer Puhl

• Convention Applications Deadline ($20 per student);
• Deadline to apply for CM Make-Up Evaluations (high school students only)

April 20 Senior Graduation Concert Deadline w/Bios to Dr. Xiao Li
April 25 Contemporary Flare Deadline to Laura Chang
April 27 CM Branch Honors Recital and Composer Today Recital at Fields’ Piano
MAY 5 Senior Graduation Concert at Chi Asada’s new performance studio, Hoson House in Tustin (venue directions will be given)
May 15 Deadline for completion of CM Make-Up Evaluations
May 18 Contemporary Flare Festival at Fields’ Piano
May 22 Branch Meeting at 10:00 AM at Fields’ Piano
Please remember to periodically check our website, southcoastmtac.org, for further updates and information.

CM theory exams, March 16 and the playing evaluations of March 23 & 24 are fast approaching. Thank you in advance to all participating teachers for your valuable assistance in helping our hard working chair, Sandely Miller, make these evaluations a big success! Best wishes for a successful CM to all teachers!

Musically yours,
Vivian Lee R. Field

February President’s Message

Dear Members,

Our branch meeting is coming up on Wednesday, February 20, 10:00 a.m. at Fields’ Piano. Melody Lu has arranged a very interesting and helpful program to be given by Dr. Monica Lee. She will be giving a business lecture that will focus on tax and advertisement (ways to reduce student drops/maintaining student enrollment). This is sure to be an information packed lecture and we hope all of you can attend!

Our MSSL chair, Victoria Park has already sent out information on the second MSSL recital of 2013 which will occur on Saturday, February 16th! If you are interested in signing up students for the recital, you can download the application form from our website (http://msslsc.weebly.com/documents-and-links.html). The due date for the form is February 9th. Please ignore the earlier deadline on the application. The recital is at 2:00 PM and will be held at Park Plaza in Orange (620 South Glassell Street, Orange, CA 92866). All performances, including piano, dance, strings, vocals, etc. are encouraged. The registration fee is only $5 and it will be a great opportunity for students to practice for CM.

Best of luck to all teachers with students entered in the new Festival for Strings, Winds and Voice, Jr. Bach Festival and Sounds of Baroque Festival Saturday, February 23 at the Geneva Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods. Our enrollment in the new Festival for Strings, Winds and Voice is small (11) but we hope that satisfied students will tell their friends and we will have a larger participation next year! We are always interested in feed back on our branch events; if you have any comments please send them to our hard working and excellent festival chairs Chi Asada and Ana Kim.

Musically yours,
Vivian Lee R. Field

January President’s Message

Dear Members,

Vivian Lee R. Field

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 10^th and 11^th. 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 3^rd 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

Dear Members,

Welcome back to another event-packed year with MTAC South Coast! Your board hopes that you have all had an enjoyable and hopefully, relaxing summer and are ready for the new scholastic year.

I would like to remind members of the upcoming Wednesday, September 19, 10:00 AM branch meeting at Fields’ Piano. This is our only required meeting and is a very important CM information, general branch event and business meeting. The meeting will include performance of the concerto competition winners: First place winner Jake Clayton, student of Carol Stewart, will perform the third movement from W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 23, K. 488 in A Major; second place winner Kenichi Kiyama, student of Yang Bartolotti, will perform Eduard Lalo’s “Symphonie Espagnole” op. 21 in D Minor, first movement; third place winner Yoko Nagafuchi, student of Chizuko Asada, will perform the first movement from W.A. Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 26, K. 537 in D Major. The Honorable Mention winner, Annie Chang (student of Dana Freeman) will not perform.

The other half of the meeting will include general announcements as well as specifics regarding the 2013 CM evaluations. If you cannot attend the Branch CM Information Meeting, please contact your CM Branch Chair Sandely Miller, sandely@cox.net, as soon as possible for approved alternatives. Teachers who do not attend the meeting may not be able to register their students in CM via the online registration system, and may risk having student registrations dropped automatically. We look forward to seeing all of our esteemed members at this special meeting!

Our first Vice President, Melody Lu has been working closely with Andy Huynh our Website and On-Line Event Designer and Master, on our on-line event registration. I encourage all of you to visit our website often for general up dates and our event calendar; by so doing everyone will be well-informed and up to date. Our new and improved on-line registration will be up and running for our fast approaching November 10 & 11 Classical & Romantic Festival. We think that you will be pleased with the overall efficacy of this program.

A very important event, our annual Masquerade Concert fundraiser is coming up on October 20 & 21. I encourage ALL of our members to enter students in this fun event. This year we hope for a high participation. Participants will automatically earn 1 point toward a personalized trophy in our Trophy Exchange program! Ana Marie and Andréas Eckstein will work their magic on the beautiful printed programs and treat sachets. Our branch funds our events with proceeds from this fund raiser hence its importance!

Our festival chair, Chi Asada will brief teachers on the new festival scoring system. We will be using this system for all of our branch festivals this year. If it proves satisfactory we will continue using it in years to come.

Melody and Andy are planning to add a photo gallery to our website. Before we can do this we will have to begin taking some pictures and that will start at the September 19^th meeting; be prepared to “mug” for the camera!

Finally, at our branch meeting we will be taking a vote on the preferred emphasis for our performance master class:

2012/2013 Masterclass:

Option 1. All Chopin with Dr.Wojciech Kocyan

Option 2. Contemporary with Dr.Mikhail Korzhev

Or both 2012/2013.

I and the South Coast board look forward to seeing all of you at the meeting!

Musically yours,

Vivian Lee R. Field

Vivian Lee R. Field, M.M.

Vivian Lee R. Field, M.M.

Lisa Honea

Vivian Lee R. Field, M.M.

President’s Message

February 2012

Dear MTAC South Coast Members,

Our February 15 branch meeting, 10:00 a.m. at Fields’ Piano will feature one of our own branch members, Dr. Deborah Brener. Her presentation will be “Around The World At the Piano: Becoming Multicultural In Today’s Piano Studio.” The April 2011 edition of The American Music Teacher featured her article by the same title. You will not want to miss this fun and motivating presentation. I look forward to seeing you there!

At the February branch meeting we will take a survey as to the date for our 2012 performance master class: Sunday, November 11, 1-5:00 p.m. or combine it with our February 2013 meeting, Wednesday, 10:00 AM, 2-20-13. Please give this some thought between now and our meeting.

I would remind our members that the registration for our June 9 Concerto Competition is open; the deadline is Saturday, March 31. This event is open to ALL instruments. As mentioned in my September 2011 message, Chi Asada has graciously offered her services as branch accompanist, all proceeds going to the branch treasury. Winners will have a special winners’ concert with orchestral reduction for 2^nd piano. This competition will be an essay to gauge if we will be able to offer a winners’ concert with orchestra in 2013.

Our on-line registration for the Baroque Festival is now open. The deadline is Tuesday, February 7. The SCJBach Festival deadline has also been extended to February 7.

CM evaluation dates and locations are given below.

Musically yours,

Vivian Lee R. Field, M.M.