East Central Division - MTNA Division News - Music Teachers National Association - Brief Article

American Music Teacher, Dec, 2001 by Kathleen Murray

In the last issue, the East Central Division news highlighted a project undertaken by the Independent Music Teachers Forum of the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association. The Indiana Music Teachers Association has another exciting initiative underway--an effort to champion collaborative arts.

Indiana Immediate Past President Karen Thickstun, who believes efforts to make collaborative experiences available to students must begin at the grassroots state level, has successfully recruited interested volunteers to serve on a committee chaired by James Helton, NCTM, Indiana's new state chair for collaborative arts.

Indiana has a keyboard ensemble concert at the state convention, where 300 students using twenty-five Clavinovas perform and have a great deal of fun. Looking for ways to include non-keyboard students, they took advantage of the MTNA Composer Commissioning project and asked Jody Nagel of Ball State University to write an intermediate-level collaborative piece for no more than four instruments, one of which had to be piano. Asked to make his piece appealing and accessible to high school students, Nagel wrote "The Crossroads of America" Quartet for piano, alto saxophone, violin and cello. The premiere was part of a recital at the state convention, October 12-13, 2001, at Taylor University in Upland, which also featured collaborative performances by student competition winners.

--Kathleen Murray, NCTM, East Central
Division President, Neenah, Wisconsin