GPO Auditions for Concertmaster and Horn- 6/4

Rocky Ridge Music Center Summer Seminars - March 15 Application Deadline   

Applications are now being accepted for the residential summer music seminars at Rocky Ridge Music Center located in the heart of the Colorado Rockies.  A variety of camp sessions are available to music students, including Adult Piano Seminar (ages 18 and up, all levels), Young Artist Seminar (ages 15-24, by audition), and two Junior Student Sessions (ages 10-15, no audition required unless applying for Honors Chamber Ensembles).  Students receive two private lessons per week in addition to chamber music, orchestra, studio/performance classes, recitals, history lecture series, master classes, optional secondary instrument lessons, and concerto competition opportunity.  Students may choose from the following applied areas of study:  all orchestral instruments, piano, voice, and composition.

The mission of Rocky Ridge is to nurture the creative, musical, and personal development of youth and adults in an inspirational setting.  Apply by  March 15 to receive full consideration.  After that deadline, applications will be accepted on a space available basis.  For more information go to www.rockyridge.org or call (970) 443-3333.

2011 MHTP,  Denver, CO Module Dates beginning March 19 & 20
 

Are you interested in becoming a Certified Music Practitioner so that you will be trained and meet the certification requirements so that you can play by the bedside in hospitals, hospitals and other healthcare settings?  The Music for Healing and Transition Program has been offering its certification Program since 1995 and currently has 14 training sites nationwide. The Denver based series of Modules will begin the weekend of March 19, 2011. MHTP is accredited by the National Standards Board for Therapeutic Musicians.

For further information or to apply on line, please refer to www.mhtp.org 

Polling Evangelicals: Not Pro-Union, but Split Over Unions Versus Government

Tell Congress to Preserve Arts Funding!

The House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 1, the continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2011. The CR represents a reduction of $100 billion in spending compared to the President's FY2011 budget request. Many of the cuts adopted by the House would be harmful to musicians, including:

• Elimination of the Arts in Education program, which received $40 million in FY2010.
• A $124 million appropriation for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This represents a 26% cut from the FY2010 appropriation of $167.5 million.
• Rescission of any unobligated funds to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) for this year, a reduction of $86 million in CPB's appropriation for FY2012, and elimination of all public broadcasting funding for FY2013.
• A provision that blocks funding for the Federal Communications Commission to institute net neutrality rules.
• Nine amendments to defund various aspects of the health care reform law passed last year, effectively blocking the administration from carrying out the planned health system overhaul.

We expect the Senate and the President to hold the line on many of these issues, but significant cuts are still possible. Yesterday, Congress passed a short-term CR that will keep the federal government open until March 18^th, while negotiations on the full FY11 budget continue. This short-term funding bill, which contains $4 billion in cuts, will likely be the template for future decisions going forward.

Although most of the programs that impact musicians remained intact, the cuts in the short-term bill completely eliminate Arts in Education funding. Unless Congress restores the fund in the full-year FY11 spending bill, it will cause the shutdown of 52 multi-year programs in schools across the country.

AFM is working with other advocacy organizations to prevent these cuts from being enacted. We recently signed onto a letter with the Future of Music Coalition and other arts organizations, asking Congress to preserve funding for public broadcasting. The AFL-CIO, of which AFM is a member, is also lobbying against the dismantling of health care reform.

But we need your help! I ask you, as musicians and lovers of the arts, to advocate for Arts in Education and NEA funding. Click on the link below to send an email to your Representative and Senators urging them to oppose these cuts.

Follow this link to be taken to AFM's action page: http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/5873/c/777/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1626

Best,

Hal

Hal Ponder
Director of Government Relations
American Federation of Musicians