From the President’s Desk: James Douthit, President

We’ve all seen it, perhaps on our own report cards from elementary school or on those of our children, a category of assessment located far below the academic areas of math, reading, and science. Somewhere in the conduct and personal deportment evaluation area lie the words: “Plays well with others.” What is “playing well with others?” Does this mean leading the group in playground activities or blindly following the dictates of other colleagues who enumerate the rules of the game? How much control do we actually have on our on behavior relative to playing with others? Why is this category relegated to such a small part of the report card? While knowledge and academic skill are important objectives, an inability to collaborate makes these skills, at the very least, ineffective and diminishes their value.

At the MTNA National Conference last year, Jody Graves (a former classmate of mine from Eastman) delivered an interesting presentation titled, “You say tomato, I say tomato, let’s call the whole thing off.” Often discussing the humorous aspects of musical communication through collaboration, one poignant comment remained with me. As the war in Iraq was in full force, Jody posed a question to the audience, “If President Bush and the leaders of foreign countries were able to meet together to play chamber music, do you think we would still have problems maintaining world peace?” The audience fell silent. A chord of truth resounded in each person as they contemplated the answer to this question.

As musicians we recognize the importance of collaboration. We value time spent with colleagues making beautiful music and look forward to opportunities to share the stage with partners in order to present sublime musical moments that we cannot create by ourselves. Whether the performers are a duo of singer and accompanist, or larger group such as a woodwind quintet, composers throughout history have been intrigued by the musical expressions of both large and small groups of musicians. Rising to the challenge, they have created unique interactions which blend the expressions of multiple performers. Consider Schubert’s song, “Die Erlkonig.” The pianist sets the stage for the drama, which is about to unfold, as a repeated octave g in the right hand is accompanied by a scalar passage in the left hand. The singer enters to begin the narrative of the father riding swiftly on a horse in an attempt to seek medical care for his son. Were either of these two parts to be presented singly, the musical effect on the listener would be diminished and the story rendered much less dramatic.

As we plan for our state conference in the fall (November 11-13 at Penn State University), Nanette Kaplan Solomon (PMTA Vice President for Conferences) and Steven Smith (Conference Site Coordinator) have begun the introduction for an intriguing conference built around the theme of musical collaboration.

Within this Newsletter, you will find exciting information about our conference artists and clinicians. Workshops will be focused on various aspects of musical collaboration. I hope that every member will begin making plans to attend. We typically have around 14% of our membership participating in our state conference. Our officers and leaders work diligently each year to present the competitions and other activities associated with our state conference, yet only a small portion of our membership is in attendance. At the close of each conference, members returning to their home are buzzing with excitement with all of the new ideas they have added to their teaching tools. Our artists and clinicians have both national and international stature and our workshop clinicians are skilled, knowledgeable, and eager to share information they have gleaned from years of study.

Though it may seem far away, as musicians we have crowded teaching and performing schedules. If we are to maintain even a small chance of attending the conference, we need to begin the planning stages now. I hope that the topic of this year’s conference will excite you as much as those of us who are in the planning stages. We look forward to receiving proposals for workshops, competition entry forms, and finally, conference registration forms. Let’s collaborate to make our conference another memorable experience this year with the ultimate goal of enriching our instruction, and opening doors for our students that will forever remain closed if we do not provide the key!