Our 3rd annual East Portland Honors Festival will be Saturday, November 8th at Classic Pianos. This Festival is a unique opportunity for teachers to honor students at any level or age with exceptional dedication. In addition, students get to hear musicians from other studios performing a variety of repertoire, including movie scores and arrangements. These recitals will include all acoustic instruments, voice, duets and small chamber groups and conclude with celebratory receptions. Adult students are encouraged to participate and will have a separate recital with memory being optional.   

To register, login to the OMTA website.  Once logged in, click My Teacher Dashboard under Teacher Resources on the main page.  From here you can add students into the system as well as start registration for the festival by choosing East Portland underneath the Festivals tab.  Registration will remain open until Friday October 17. 

Program: Syllabus from a Teacher’s Point of View - Syllabus from an Adjudicator’s Point of View

Speaker: Heidi Evans, NCTM

Location: TBA

Heidi shares tips on preparing students for Syllabus exams at all levels and tiers, combining the perspective of a teacher of average students and the perspective of a Syllabus adjudicator to make the most of each student’s and teacher’s Syllabus experience.

Performance Group will meet at Rebecca Rice's studio: 6309 NE Broadway, Portland Oregon.

Program: Holiday Social

Location: Lauren Buck Fraley’s home

Program: Revisiting Roots: Reviving Folk Songs

Speaker: Dr. Lark Powers

Location: TBA

Folk songs have much to offer the developing student: accessible and pleasing melodies, limited harmony, balanced phrases, and great variety in character, as well offering an opportunity to connect with past generations and to explore a student’s cultural background. However, a common lament is that many children no longer know many folk songs. This presentation will explore strategies in which teachers can bring folk songs into their student’s lives, including ideas to use them as a vehicle to develop music theory, harmonization ability, singing and playing, and other musicianship skills. In addition, resources will be shared for finding folk songs which show multicultural awareness and which can be chosen to support the cultural identity of one’s students. Discussion will be included about equity of representation and avoiding a lack of contextualization, as well as more information about evaluating the historical context of problematic folk songs.

Program: Improvisation as Teaching Tool: How to Integrate Structured and Free Improvisation into Piano Teaching

Speaker: Dr. Stephen Lewis, NCTM

Location: TBA

Improvisation is an amazing mode of music making that can engage student’s creativity while also helping them learn crucial musical and technical skills. In this talk, we will look at a variety of specific techniques and prompts for both structured and free improvisation that can be taught at any ability level, including guided improvisation, free improvisation, and duet improvisations.

Music by BIPOC, Women, and Nonbinary Composers (for Piano or Voice)

Program: Teaching Jazz Skills to Piano Students

Speaker: Rory Cowal

Program: Befriending the Dragon: Contemporary Chinese Piano Repertoire for Teaching and Performing

Speaker: Dr. Susan Chan, NCTM

Location: TBA

This multimedia lecture-recital provides comprehensive insight and practical strategies for learning, performing and teaching the music of major, living Chinese and Chinese-American composers. Pianist Susan Chan will introduce, contextualize, and demonstrate intermediate-level arrangements of traditional Chinese folk songs before moving to more advanced selections by internationally renowned composers Tan Dun, Chen Yi, Zhang Zhao, and Pulitzer Prize winner Zhou Long. The presentation features inspiring artwork and photographs of scenery pertaining to the music and includes an enlightening discussion of pedagogical and performance issues. Imaginative, colorful and powerful, these pieces represent an important branch of the modern piano repertoire, and their increasing popularity marks an important shift towards greater understanding and appreciation across cultures.

East/West Portland Districts Social (location TBA)