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Illinois Chapter Newsletter |
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December 2008
THIS MONTH’S TOPICS: President’s Message – An Important Month for ILPAS IMEA Assistants and Clinic 2009 Day of Percussion School Outreach Program PASIC 2009 New literature session Upcoming Events
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE - An Important Month for ILPAS Happy Holidays everyone! Between snow blowing and fending off flood waters I hope you’ve had some time to rest and enjoy some time off. As we close out 2008 I wanted to remind everyone that the beginning of 2009 is going to be very important for ILPAS. The IMEA All-State Music Convention and the annual Day of Percussion are both in January and are our highest profile events of the year. Whether or not you feel you can benefit from either or both events, I hope you will be able to attend and support the chapter’s activities. The percussion refresher clinic at IMEA and providing volunteers for the instrumental ensembles are excellent ways to help broaden percussion skills and knowledge among students and teachers from throughout Illinois. Both of these areas will help show how PAS can help improve the quality of musicianship among the state’s educators and student percussionists and are an excellent way to advertise the benefit of PAS membership. The Day of Percussion at Northern Illinois University continues our revitalization of the DoP’s. There is an excellent array of scheduled performers that will entertain and educate throughout the day. It is a rare opportunity to see and here this much musical talent in one place and it would be worth your time to make the trip to DeKalb on the 24th. The top half of Illinois is within a three hour drive of DeKalb. So why don’t you make the drive, spend the day listening to outstanding musicians and maybe stay the night in DeKalb. It will be an exciting way to spend a Saturday. I realize that schedules and proximity will keep many of you from IMEA or the Day of Percussion. If you can’t attend I’d like to ask you to inform a non-PAS member about these two events and invite them to attend. Copy the information from this newsletter and pass it along to students and teachers in your area. Those of you in the college ranks can notify students in the percussion tech classes or your school’s student IMEA chapter. The clinic and the DoP will be beneficial to PAS and non-PAS members alike and the more people we can reach the better it will be for all involved. However you observe this time of year, I hope your celebration is peaceful and relaxing and I wish all of you happy times and good fortune in 2009.
See you in January,
Genaro
2009 ILLINOIS MUSIC EDUCATOR’S ASSOCIATION (IMEA) ALL-STATE MUSIC CONFERENCE, JANUARY 28 - 31
IMEA Ensemble Assistants We are again coordinating with IMEA to organize volunteers to help with the student ensembles at the All-State Music Conference. Any music educator or college music major with a percussion emphasis can volunteer to work with an ensemble on Thursday night, Friday morning and afternoon and/or Saturday morning. Ideally we would like to have a percussion educator paired with a college student assigned to each ensemble. It would also be beneficial if the team can be available the whole weekend, but because of the time commitment we understand this may not be possible. If you are interested in being an assistant for all or part of the conference please contact me at ilpaspres@att.net and let me know what time or times you would be available. The high school students attending the convention are some of the finest players in the state, but can still use advice on mallet selection, set-up, playing techniques, etc. and we would like to have experienced players there to help them out. Jaimie Abney of Streamwood High School is the Assistant Percussion Coordinator for IMEA and is in charge of organizing the assistants. If you would like more information about IMEA or All-State visit their website at www.ilmea.org.
ILPAS Clinic at All-State We are again sponsoring a clinic at the upcoming convention. “Percussion Refresher Course for Ensemble Directors”, will be on Friday January 30th from 3:30 – 4:45 pm in rooms 135/136 in the Peoria Civic Center. This year’s clinicians and topics will be SSgt Jarrett Robinett of the USAF Band of Mid-America (mallets) and Kevin Nichols of Western Illinois University (membranophones and miscellaneous auxiliary instruments). Please help spread the word by telling current and future instrumental music educators about this clinic and encouraging them to attend. We hope to see you there as well.
2009 DAY OF PERCUSSION JANUARY 24TH AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
From DoP host Dr. Gregory Beyer Dear ILPAS Chapter Members, I'm delighted to report a growing interest in this year's DoP and particularly in the morning Uncontest for middle school and high school percussionists. For those of you wishing to involve yourselves or your students in the Uncontest, please contact me at gbeyer@niu.edu with the following information:
1. student name 2. student email address 3. teacher name 4. teacher email address 5. title of work to be performed 6. timing of work to be performed 7. instrumentation required for work to be performed
This will help expedite the organization and efficiency of the Uncontest itself, and make certain that everyone who wishes to be involved has a positive experience. Looking forward to seeing you in January! Kindest regards,
Greg
With most middle and high school solo and ensembles contests being in March the Uncontest is an excellent opportunity for students to receive valuable suggestions on preparing their music. After the Uncontest be sure to stick around for the afternoon clinics and performances featuring Vadim Karpinos, Aiyun Huang, She-e and So Percussion. There will also be a summit concert featuring students from several Illinois universities. Each university will perform a work of their own and then combine for a mass performance directed by William Moersch from the University of Illinois More information and a schedule can be found on the chapter website go to www.pas.org/Chapters/Illinois/index.htm.
SCHOOL OUTREACH PROGRAM This year we plan on contacting the state’s instrumental ensemble directors to make them aware of PAS and to present ILPAS members as professional percussionists. We want to create a database of chapter members who would like to assist school percussion programs in the following areas: * Percussion clinicians * Percussion adjudicators (Solo and ensemble, marching band, etc.) * Private instructors * General Assistance (Equipment repairs and/or recommendations, drum tuning, etc.)
The database will be posted on the chapter website. The chapter itself will only serve as a conduit between the membership and any interested party. All details including, fees (if any) and time involved would be handled between you and the person contacting you. We are also looking volunteers to be part of “Ask the Percussion Expert”. The volunteer experts will be sent question asked by students or teachers and the questions and responses will be posted on the website and sent out in any school mailing. If any of these areas interest you, or you have an idea for another area, please contact me at ipaspres@att.net and I will send you more information. The School Outreach Program doesn’t have a chance on succeeding without our membership. We hope you can find time to participate.
NEW LITERATURE SESSION AT PASIC 2009
Needed: A director and percussion ensemble to present the New Literature for Percussion Ensemble Session at PASIC 2009 in Indianapolis, IN on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 at 4:00 p.m.
UPCOMING EVENTS Check out the events calendar on the chapter webpage for percussion performances in your area. If you’d like to have a percussion related posted on the website contact me at ilpaspres@att.net. For uniformity of appearance on the website please make submissions by copying and pasting the following template in an email and filling in the relevant information:
PERFORMER(S): DATE: TIME: LOCATION: FEE (if any): CONTACT INFO: WEBLINK (if any): |