Conference

EXPAND YOUR MUSICAL HORIZONS
KMTA Annual Conference
June 5-6, 2009
Wichita, Kansas

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FOR MEMBERS AND INVITED BUDDIES

	Postmarked by May 16th	Postmarked after May 16th
Friday only (includes all sessions, awards banquet and artist concert)	$55	$65
Saturday only (includes all sessions and IMTF luncheon)	$50	$60
Friday & Saturday (includes all sessions, awards banquet, artist concert, & IMTF luncheon)	$70	$80
Student Friday (includes all sessions, awards banquet and artist concert)	$20
Student Saturday (includes all sessions and IMTF luncheon)	$10

Dear KMTA Members,

Senseney Music is pleased to be hosting the 2009 KMTA Conference here in Wichita. We have a wonderful program planned for you with excellent clinicians and presenters, and plenty of social time. You won't want to miss it!

Whenever I attend a convention, I hope to come away with one or two ideas that will really make a difference in my business. At this year's Conference you'll have a chance to come away with not just one or two, but many ideas, courtesy of this year's new "Best Ideas" session. Join your fellow KMTA members for this sharing session where you can participate and learn from each other. Be thinking about an idea you can bring that you'd like to share. It can be your best studio management tip, your best motivational trick, literature suggestions, whatever has worked for you! You'll have 2 minutes to present your best idea. The audience votes on the winner. We think this will be great ending to your Conference and maybe something you'll want to repeat in the future.
The staff and I are very much looking forward to welcoming you to Wichita and to our store. See you in Wichita!!

Lori Supinie, President
Senseney Music, Inc.
Business Liaison, KMTA

Conference Overview

Friday, June 5, 2009

9:00 a.m.	KMTA Board Meeting, Senseney Music conference room
12:00 noon	Registration, Senseney Music lower level
1:00 p.m.	Recreational Music Making for Adults, Brenda Dillon - Countless adults yearn to play the piano. RMM stress-free classes are “dream-fulfillment opportunities” as adults learn there’s no expiration date on dreams. In addition to giving a summary of data collected on RMM classes, this session will illustrate how to teach group classes with two pianos, which materials are preferred by RMM students and effective recruitment and retention strategies.
2:30 p.m.	Break
3:00 p.m.	Master Class, Dr. Robert Weirich - We have invited Dr. Robert Weirich to join us as a master clinician and recital artist. Dr. Weirich has held the Jack Strandberg Missouri Endowed Chair at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory since 1998, serving as head of the keyboard division from 2004-08, and as associate dean for performance studies from 2005-07.
5:30 p.m.	Banquet & Presentation of Awards
7:30 p.m.	Recital & Lecture, Dr. Robert Weirich - "Aaron Copland’s America: Cultural Identity Explored through his Piano Music." Join Robert Weirich as he discusses and performs nine of the celebrated American composer's "teaching" pieces. Dr. Weirich will also perform Copland's Piano Variations.
9:00 p.m.	Afterglow - co-sponsored by WMMTA and Senseney Music. Join Dr. Weirich and your fellow KMTA members for a glass of wine, coffee and dessert!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

8:30 a.m.	Registration
8:45 a.m.	A Practical Guide to Creative Composition, Wendy Stevens - Have you ever wondered how to teach a student to compose? Do you have a student who already composes, but you feel unequipped to direct them? Do your creative students have any of these frequent problems in composition: too much material, too little material, too much form, too little form, too much variety, or too little variety? If so, then join Wendy for this learning session on composition at the KMTA Conference. She will be discussing the composition process, principles of a good composition, how to teach composition, and how to encourage students in these areas. If you are new to the art of composition or already an established composer, you won't want to miss this session.
9:45 a.m.	Break
10:00 a.m.	Jazzy Students, Tony Caramia - Sponsored by Hal Leonard Corp., Give your students the versatility they need to be active musicians in the 21st century! Learn about the hidden treasures of technique found in jazz, pop, rags, and blues and how to effectively coordinate these techniques with standard classical literature.
12:00 noon	Luncheon
1:30 p.m.	Teens & Tweeners, Tony Caramia - Sponsored by Hal Leonard Corp., Keep your "teens and tweeners" playing for a lifetime with motivational music, teaching tips and time management strategies designed for the intermediate-level student.
3:15 p.m.	Break
3:30 p.m.	Best Ideas - Join your fellow KMTA members for a sharing session called Best Ideas. Bring your best studio management tip, your best motivational trick, whatever has worked for you! You'll have 2 minutes to present your best idea. All the audience will vote on the winner, who will receive a nice prize. You'll all be winners though, because you can take home all those great ideas.
4:45 p.m.	Conference Ends

Conference Speaker Bios

Tony Caramia	*Tony Caramia* is Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music, where he is Director of Piano Pedagogy Studies and Coordinator of the Class Piano Program. He has been a guest on Marian McPartland's "Piano Jazz" on NPR, served as a judge at the 6th American Jazz Piano Competition for the American Pianists Association, and as adjudicator in the Crescendo Music Awards. He was also privileged to participate in the dedication concert on the new "Sorel" Steinway at SUNY Fredonia, in honor of his former teacher, Miss Claudette Sorel. Mr. Caramia is featured in the Yamaha Clavinova on Campus series. He has contributed articles for Clavier Companion Magazine and the web site The Piano Pedagogy Forum. His latest solo piano compositions-Suite Dreams and Jazz Moods-have been published by the Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, for whom he is also a Keyboard Clinician. He has conducted numerous workshops in jazz piano, and has lectured and performed in London, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland. Tony has been a featured performer at the prestigious Rochester International Jazz Festival, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago. His solo jazz piano CD, called Tribute, which features the music of Ellington, McPartland, Brubeck, as well as original compositions. Tribute is available on www.cdbaby.com.
Brenda Dillon	*Brenda Dillon*, Project Director for the National Piano Foundation, serves as an advisory board member to the Frances Clark Center, and is an education consultant for Roland U.S. In addition to being a former associate editor of Keyboard Companion (now Clavier Companion), she also is editor of PianoNotes, the NPF newsletter. A former college professor in Dallas, TX, Brenda now teaches RMM classes at a senior center. In addition to writing articles and developing materials for RMM classes, she does extensive teacher training throughout the U.S. In addition to co-presenting an RMM session at the 2008 International Society of Music Education (ISME) in Bologna, Italy, she was also a presenter at Pedagogy Saturday for MTNA's 2009 conference in Atlanta. She will also give a teaching demonstration at the 2009 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy.
Wendy Stevens	*Wendy Stevens* maintains an independent piano studio in Kansas where she has taught all ages and levels since 1993. Wendy received her Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy and her Masters of Music in Theory and Composition from Wichita State University where she studied with Pulitzer Prize Nominee Walter Mays. Wendy graduated summa cum laude and was a recipient of the MTNA stAR award (Student Achievement Recognition Award) and a finalist for the MTNA Studio Fellowship Award. She has also taught theory at Wichita State University and adjudicates for music events in the area. In addition to her studio teaching, she has served as a church musician for more than seventeen years, playing both piano and organ. Wendy is a member of MTNA, KMTA, and her local association WMMTA. She is immediate past-president of WMMTA, and has also served on the board for KMTA. She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM), and is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). Wendy enjoys composing and giving presentations on creativity, composition, and technology. Her students have won various prizes for their compositions at a local and national level. Wendy's own compositions are published with Concordia Publishing House, Augsburg Fortress, and Hal Leonard. She recently started a blog on composing, and content from her previous website, www.wendyspianostudio.com, can now be found at www.composecreate.com.
Robert Weirich	*Robert Weirich* has performed in musical centers throughout the United States, including Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, and at such summer festivals as Tanglewood, Ravinia and Marlboro. During the 2009-2010 season, he will perform and teach in China and Argentina, and serve as convention artist for the state MTAs of Kansas, Wisconsin and South Carolina. Recent concerto performances include the Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Winds, Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, Bartok's Second Piano Concerto, and the Berg Kammerkonzert for piano, violin and thirteen winds. Robert has been the convention artist for numerous state music teachers associations. Chamber performances include a tour of Thailand and Hong Kong with UMKC colleague Carter Enyeart, a presentation on four-hand piano with wife and colleague Karen Kushner, and a boundary-breaking lecture-recital with several UMKC colleagues on Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. His first solo CD, Piano Music of Aaron Copland, was released in 2008; the New York Times called his performances "brilliant, probing and austerely beautiful." He has held the Jack Strandberg Missouri Endowed Chair at the UMKC Conservatory since 1998, serving as head of the keyboard division from 2004-08, and as associate dean for performance studies from 2005-07. He is justifiably proud of his students, who regularly win major competitions, hold university positions throughout the country, and challenge him on a daily basis in the studio.

Conference Schedule

Click here to download a pdf version of the schedule.

Hotel Information

Hotel at Oldtown
830 E. 1st
Wichita, KS 67202
877-265-3869

Courtyard by Marriott
820 E. 2nd
Wichita, KS 67202
316-264-5300

Hampton Inn
5300 W. Kellogg
Wichita, KS 67213
316-945-4100

Hilton Garden Inn Wichita
2041 N. Bradley Fair Parkway
Wichita, KS 67206
316-219-4444

Directions and Map

View Larger Map

Directions to Senseney Music
2300 E. Lincoln
Wichita, KS 67211
316-262-1487 or 800-362-1060

If you haven't been to Senseney Music before, our store is located at the northwest corner of Lincoln and George Washington Blvd. Head to Wichita your favorite way and then:

From the north or south: Use I-135 and exit at Lincoln Street. Go east to the first light and turn left on George Washington Blvd. You'll see us slightly north of the intersection. Turn left on Morris, then use the frontage road to travel around to the front of the building for parking.

From the west: Use Kellogg (US 54/400) east to I-135 south. Take the Lincoln Street exit. Go east to the first light and turn left on George Washington Blvd. You'll see us slightly north of the intersection. Turn left on Morris, then use the frontage road to travel around to the front of the building for parking.

From the east: Use Kellogg (US54/400), but exit at Grove and go south. You'll see us off to the right. Turn right on Morris, then use the frontage road to travel around to the front of the building for parking.

Buddy Plan

KMTA welcomes non-member to attend the conference as an invited "buddy" of a member teacher. As an invited buddy, non-member conference fees are waived and registration is the same as for members. Each buddy is encouraged to send their registration information along with his/her inviting KMTA member's registration.