Two named endowment funds established - Foundation News - Brief Article

American Music Teacher, August-Sept, 2002

Friends and colleagues of Natalie Matovinovic of Ann Arbor, Michigan, bestowed the Fellow designation on her at the FOUNDATION Gala during the MTNA National Conference in Cincinnati in March. Subsequently, she joined the FOUNDATION Legacy Society by establishing the Natalie Matovinovic Endowment Fund.

A teacher since September 1945, Matovinovic values leaving a legacy for future teachers and students. Earnings from named endowment investments often are used toward grants for teachers seeking funding for continuing education projects, but can be used for other FOUNDATION programs and awards as well.

Natalie was born in Zagreb, Croatia, and she graduated from the Croatian State Academy of Music with an Academic Musician and Concert Artist Diploma. She was a tenured piano faculty member of the Croatian Academy of Music. She combined teaching with an active concert career, as recitalist and soloist with all the major orchestras in the former Yugoslavia.

Upon her U.S. arrival in 1956, Natalie lived in Boston with her husband and continued to perform in New England, becoming a soloist with the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra. She moved to Ann Arbor in 1959. She has been an active piano teacher, adjudicator, piano pedagogy lecturer, coach and teacher of master classes, and she was on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp from 1977-1995. She is a founding member of the Ann Arbor Bach Association and active in MTNA on local, state and national levels, twice adjudicating the national finals of the MTNA Performance Competitions. She served four years as East Central Division chair of the MTNA Junior High School Piano Performance Competitions, and she chaired the division composition competition for two years. Natalie's students have won MTNA competitions at all levels.

Funds donated in memory of Mary Veverka, an MTNA FOUNDATION Fellow, have been collected into an endowment in her name. Veverka, from LaGrange, Illinois, died March 22, 2002, shortly after being named a Fellow at the MTNA FOUNDATION Gala on March 18. Educated at Mankato University in Minnesota and Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, she also studied at the Stanford University Classical Music Institute. Mary taught on the piano faculties of Concordia, Dominican and Roosevelt universities and taught for many years at a Wisconsin summer music camp. A soloist with many orchestras, she also was an accomplished chamber musician, performing throughout the Midwest and on the West Coast with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Illinois State MTA awarded her the Salt Creek Chapter Teacher of the Year. Locally, she was an active adjudicator, and she led adjudicator workshops at state and national levels.

Memorial contributions may be directed to the MTNA FOUNDATION, 441 Vine St., Ste. 505, Cincinnati, OH 45202-2811. Please indicate in the memo line of the check that it is for the Mary Veverka Endowment Fund.