MTNA leaders attend international music conferences

MTNA President Paul Stewart, along with other MTNA leaders, represented MTNA at the 27th International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 16-21, and Executive Director Gary Ingle and President-elect Gall Berenson represented MTNA at the European Piano Teachers Association (EPTA) Conference in Portugal, July 26-30.

Stewart presented a session called "The History and Current Practice of Group Piano for Beginning to Early Intermediate Students in Colleges and Universities" at the ISME World Conference. MTNA Certification Chair Sylvia Coats also presented at the ISME conference. Her presentation, "Thinking as You Play: Teaching Piano in Individual and Group Lessons" shared from her book piano lesson strategies to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills An audience participation activity involving memorization and improvisation demonstrated to teachers how they can help students learn to make educated guesses and to trust their intuition.

Other MTNA members also presented at the conference. Aiming to build and maintain a worldwide community of music educators, the theme of the event was Sentuhan, explaining the crucial role that music plays in human life and the importance of music education, in a Malaysian way.

President-elect, Gall Berenson and Executive Director Gary Ingle both had the privilege of presenting sessions at the 28th European Piano Teachers Association Conference, held on the island of Madeira, Portugal. At the conclusion of the conference, a special certificate was presented to EPTA-Portugal's honorary member and long-time MTNA member Fernando Laires.

COPYRIGHT 2006 Music Teachers National Association, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning