Dear NEPTA MEMBERS,

 

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our first meeting of the  year on September 24! Jane Magrath launched our Speaker Series with a comprehensive discussion and demonstration of her ten stages of early keyboard study. We have available for you expertly prepared notes written by Jean Alderman, along with Jane Magrath's handout from the meeting.

A memorial service for Elfrieda Hiebert, former president of NEPTA and distinguished musicologist, pianist, colleague and friend, will take place at 11:00 am on Saturday, November 10, 2012, at the Harvard University Memorial Chapel, One Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA. A reception will follow. All are welcome.

NEPTA members are invited to perform piano chamber works, solo and four-hand piano music in the All NEPTA Teachers' Recital on Saturday, February 2, 2013 at 6:30 pm at the Rivers School Conservatory, Weston, MA. The time limit per performer is 10 minutes. The concert will be followed by a festive wine and cheese reception. Suggested donations of $15 will raise money for the Susan B. Demb Teacher Enrichment Fund. If you are interested in playing, please send your name and the piece's composer, title, and duration to Irina Gelman at gelmanpiano@aol.com by October 31.

Please join us for an extraordinary masterclass featuring guest artist Mr. Hung-Kuan Chen on Monday November 19, 2012 at 9:30 am, First Parish Church, Watertown, MA. He will be joined by NEPTA pianists Ms. Diana Tetzlaff performing Franz Liszt's Transcendental Etude No. 11, Harmonies du Soir, Mr. Sivan Etedgee performing Alban Berg's Sonata, Op. 1, and Ms. Shaylor Lindsay performing Frederic Chopin's Ballade No. 4, Op. 52.

 

Pre-registration fees: Member: $15.00, Non-Member: $25.00, Students and Senior Citizens: $10.00. All on-site registration: as above plus $5.00. Payment should be made to NEPTA and checks can be sent to Robert Finley, 25 Tomahawk Drive, Northborough, MA 01532. For application form go to http://www.nepta.info/download/MasterClassFlier.pdf.   

 

Hung-Kuan Chen is a remarkably inspiring pedagogue. He has appeared in the music capitals of Asia, Europe and the Americas and was a soloist with orchestras in Houston, Baltimore, Israel, Montréal, Pittsburgh, the Tonhalle, San Francisco and Shanghai. He performed  with Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin and Roman Totenberg. He has served as Chair of the Piano Department of the Shanghai Conservatory, and is currently the Director of the International Piano Academy in Shanghai and a member of the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston. 

All NEPTA Student Recital and Competition Applications will go online on October 15! We have Sue Demb, our "retired" computer wizard and guiding spirit in all things technical, and Roger Weiss, of Boston Web Design, to thank for this monumental programming achievement. Thanks also to the team of dedicated NEPTA teachers who helped to test the new applications, including Lydia Reed-Guertin, Cindy Null, Irina Gelman, Diana Tetzlaff and Nancy Burstein.

The online forms are amazingly user-friendly and will allow teachers to send in multiple students' information, completely paper- and postage-free, receive instant records of each application, and pay with a credit card. They can then download a spreadsheet from the application page, near the top, with all the students they have entered.
Recital and Competition Chairs will receive an online record of each application just seconds after the teacher who is applying presses the "pay" button. The Chairs can download a spreadsheet with all the students entered for a recital or competition. The link for this is in the menu on the right side of the application page.

Please view the new forms on our website! You will be delighted with the ease of use and time saved. If you have any questions please contact the Chair of the event or our newly formed team of Computer Buddies, led by Nancy Burstein at impresaria@comcast.net.

The applications will also be available in downloadable paper form for this year only. We urge you to go green and embrace the new!

The Miriam Pizer Award, created in memory of Miriam Pizer, was established for students in Grades K-5 who are in need of assistance for lesson tuition or other essential expenses. Each teacher may submit one student's name to campbell.c2@gmail.com for a lottery drawing. The prize if $250 and the submission deadline is Oct. 15.

NEPTA's Fiscal Year 2012 Annual Report and Auditor's Report were submitted by Lindsey Robb, Treasurer, to NEPTA's Board of Directors' meeting on September 10, 2012. Many thanks to Lindsey for keeping our financial house in such superb order, and to Cindy Null for expertly performing the internal audit. Copies of the Annual Report are available to the membership upon request.

NEPTA's new website will feature quotes from students who have enjoyed participating in NEPTA and would like to express what NEPTA has meant to them. Here is a wonderful example from Michelle Chen, student of Nilly Shilo:

Please be aware that Watertown has restricted parking on the side streets immediately surrounding the First Parish church and thus eliminating any "free parking."

The good news is that the metered spots in the parking lot adjacent to the church can accept coins up to a maximum of 8 hours (blue meters only), thereby removing the need to go feed the meter during our meeting breaks, offering instead an opportunity to socialize with NEPTA friends and colleagues.