SEPTEMBER GREETINGS

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

It is my great pleasure to welcome each of you to NEPTA's exciting 2016-2017 season! I hope the summer months have enabled you to

Donna Gross Javel

relax, refresh and renew yourselves so that you are beginning to feel ready to participate in the musical community that NEPTA members have been cultivating for so many years. It is a privilege to be part  

 of an organization that  provides so many opportunities for us to enrich not only our own lives, but the lives of our students and t heir families as well.   

Many many thanks to our devoted Program Committee Chair, Colleen Campbell,

	Colleen Campbell    Program Committee Chair,    Past President

and her committed committee members Janna Bruene, Miriam Gargarian, Irina Gelman, Barbara Jones, Lydia  Reed-Guertin, and Shann Wood, for arranging such an exciting season for us.  For those of you who are not aware of this, the Program Committee is comprised of the current and past presidents of NEPTA  As the chair of this committee Colleen has put an extraordinary amount of time into making this season come to fruition. Thank you Colleen for EVERYTHING you do!

By now, everyone who renewed their dues by the May 31st deadline should have received the 2016-2017 Program Booklet and Directory. If you have not received your copies, please contact Janna Bruene, chair of membership.  If you are interested in reading more about how I feel about these publications you can read the Donna's Apology section of this newsletter.

Please read the 2016-2017 program booklet carefully. There have been many changes to the recitals and competitions so I encourage  

you to read those sections very carefully. 

         

During the spring of 2016, the Recital and Competition Planning Committee voted to make some changes to the recitals.

Ranko Konishi-Houston Vice President

The meeting was led by Vice President Ranko Konishi-Houston and was attended by Niva Fried, Nina Grimaldi, Marianne Jensen, Elizabeth Landman, Kathryn Rosenbach, Victoria Suchodolski, Janice Zaganjori and myself.  Many thanks to everyone involved for the thoughtful consideration that took place during this meeting.  Special thanks to Ranko Konishi-Houston, our beloved Vice President, for organizing, leading and hosting this meeting.  

It was a busy spring.  Another special committee met to review the NEPTA Awards and Grants which led to a revision of the competition rulesand requirements.  This meeting was organized and hosted by   Cindy Null and attended by Lydia Reed-Guertin, Ranko Konishi-Houston, Diana Tetzlaff, Colleen Campbell and myself.

	Left to right: Cindy Null, Donna Gross Javel, Colleen Campbell, Lydia Reed-Guertin, Ranko Konishi-Houston.   Photo taken by Diana Tetzlaff

  I greatly appreciate the

thoughtful consideration and the attention to detail   that was demonstrated throughout this meeting.  Those present were treated to a wonderful lunch which was beautifully prepared by Cindy. Many thanks to Cindy for everything she did to get this meeting to take place and for making it such an enjoyable event.

 

New recital and competition guidelines, as well as changes to the Awards and Grants, were submitted to the Board.  After some discussion a few changes were made. Please read these sections carefully in the Program Booklet.  The information is also available on the NEPTA website.  Many thanks to Caroline Ly and Susan Demb for uploading all the new information to our website. 

Many thanks to my dear Board of Directors.  This is the wonderful Board that greeted me when I became President:  Ranko Konishi-Houston (VP), Cindy Null (Executive Secretary), Natacha Rist (Recording Secretary), Bert Yocom (Treasurer), and Board Members Tina Liu, Marguerite Samoorian, David Tobin, Catherine Costello-Hirata, Victoria Suchodolski, Shann Wood, Barbara Engel, Caroline Ly and Jan Spillane (Interim Treasurer).  A new rotation started in June and already, I have a lot to be thankful for from this new Board of Directors.  Many thanks to Ranko Konishi-Houston (VP), Caroline Ly (Executive Secretary), Natacha Rist (Recording Secretary) Jan Spillane (Treasurer), and Board Members Catherine Costello-Hirata, Victoria Suchodolski, Shann Wood, Barbara Engel, Marianne Jensen, Barbara Lierance, Irina Baghdasaryan, Tong Liu and Elleanor Perrone.
I have learned a lot from each of these committed volunteers and greatly appreciate the service they have provided, and continue to  provide, for NEPTA .  

  

National and international events continue to challenge my faith in humanity - and perhaps yours as well.  Fortunately, we have music as well as our connection to one another to help us navigate our journey.  Music is a wonderful gift and this gift of music becomes a powerful tool when we are interconnected. I believe that through our connections to one another and the sharing of this wonderful gift of music, we have the potential to change lives. We have an extraordinary opportunity before us. Let's get started! 

I look forward to seeing many of you at our first meeting of the season, September 26, 2016.  I'm looking forward to seeing who our raffle winners will be this year (more on that in the next section).  

 

Warmly,
Donna Gross Javel

NEPTA President

Clockwise: Donna Gross Javel, Irina Gelman, Miriam Gargarian, Colleen Campbell, Janna Bruene, Jean Stackhouse, Ranko Konishi-Houston, Barbara Jones, Shann Wood, Lydia Reed-Guertin

Many thanks to NEPTA Vice President, Ranko Konishi-Houston for organizing the Presidential Luncheon which took place in June at The Cottage Chestnut Hill restuarant. All present had a wonderful time. I enjoyed the opportunity to connect with these wise and wonderful women: Irina Gelman (2013-2015), Colleen Campbell (2011-2013), Lydia Reed (2009-2011), Barbara Jones (2005-2007), Shann Wood (2003-2005), Miriam Gargarian (2001-2003), Janna Bruene (1999-2001), Jean Stackhouse (1983-1985) and our soon-to-be next President, Ranko Konishi-Houston. 

I was particularly pleased that Jean Stackhouse, who lives and teaches in the Berkshires, was able to attend the luncheon this year. For those of you who don't know Jean, she is an extraordinary woman, musician and teacher. You will have an opportunity to learn more about Jean Stackhouse (and 'from' her) at the Spring Teachers' Exchange where she will be presenting with two other extraordinary members: A Ram ón Rivera and Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee. 

Many thanks to all the past presidents (including those of you who were unable to attend this time) for your support and words of encouragement!

I will be using this section of the newsletter to introduce you to some of our wonderful volunteers.  

This month I'd like to introduce you to Nina Grimaldi who has provided many years of devoted service to NEPTA: luncheon chair (2011-present), ensemble recital chair (current), ensemble recital co-chair (2015-2016), ensemble recital committee member (2014-2015), advertising chair (2011-2013).

	Nina Grimaldi

Nina Grimaldi began her piano career as a student of NEPTA members, the late B. Garber and the late Ida Fine. She frequently performed in NEPTA recitals and student master classes from the age of 10. In 1983 she received her B.A. from Amherst College with honors in piano performance.

Returning to Boston, she studied piano with Seth Kimmelman and Lily Dumont, and began to give solo recitals both locally and abroad. Highlights of  her performing career were solo appearances on WGBH Radio and at Little Hall in Moscow. She  also performed in Kagyo Hall in Tokyo as accompanist to singer/painter Kaji Aso.

But performing wasn't really her cup of tea, and teaching became her passion. She found that teaching even beginners never tired her as long as she focused on the deep relationships that grew between her and her students. Helping students master technical and musical problems, leading them to hear the music more sensitively, and appreciate it more passionately, is now her life's work.

In addition to teaching private piano to children and adults, Nina formerly taught Dalcroze Eurhythmcis for many years, (see below), as well as group piano to adults at the Cambridge Center and the Senior Center in Belmont. She also co-founded and ran a summer music camp at Powers Music School for two decades, (where she also taught private lessons and mom and me classes to babies as young as 18 months.)

She is eager to share her Dalcroze training with NEPTA teachers, and occasionally leads Eurhythmics workshops at her Belmont studio. This past summer, she led workshops to train teachers in her step by step approach for piano improvisation for students.

Nina is always on the search for new and better training for herself and others, and recently discovered the Asher Zlotnik ear training method. This method was enhanced and finally published, (after 60 years of laying fallow,) by Jospeh Reiser, one of Asher's former students. It happens to be the method that trained many of the Big Band leaders. Nina plans to teach this method to interested NEPTA members and to the music community at large.

Currently, Nina runs a large and busy studio in Belmont which includes offerings such as numerous mini recitals, larger more formal performances, regular workshops, two yearly sing a longs (students play piano for families to sing), and carefully leveled theory, ear training, improvisation and composition units.
She loves entering her most talented and hardworking students in NEPTA recitals so they can be enriched by the finest young players in the area. She does not generally believe in competitions as a means to promote musical talent, and has never entered a young child in a competition.

DALCROZE BACKGROUND
Nina's piano teaching career took a major detour when she decided to retrain as a Dalcroze Eurhythmics teacher in 1998 at Longy School of Music. She subsequently taught Eurhythmics at
NEC, Powers Music School, Winchester Community Music School and Concord Conservatory. She took nearly 11 years off from teaching piano to teach general music, PreK-4, at the Fayerweather Street School (FSS) in Cambridge. There she developed a passion for folk music and also a specialty in Brazilian song, drumming, and dance. Nina's decade at FSS also had a profound impact on her teaching style. Because the school is famed for it's child-centered approach, Nina learned to trust her student's instincts and to work with their talents in a more wholistic way.

GRATITUDE
Nina is indebted to many fine NEPTA teachers. In particular, Dianne Rahbee has inspired Nina to compose for her own students, and to teach with great passion. Elizabeth Reed has been a very generous colleague who mentored Nina on teaching practice and best materials and also on how to fine tune her studio organization. Ida Fine (who passed away in 2008,) gave Nina her early and thorough ear training and became a second mother. Without these three teachers as friends and colleagues, plus the many other generous and inspiring NEPTA friends she has made, Nina's teaching and musicianship would not be where it is today.

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