Dear Educators,

Welcome back to what I hope will be an exciting and successful year! The Alabama Orchestra Association is looking forward to serving the needs of our division’s teachers and students throughout the 2018-2019 school year. I would like to start by thanking Dr. Samuel Nordlund for his leadership and vision during his recent tenure as President of AOA. Since my arrival in Alabama only five short years ago I have observed first-hand the continued rise in talent, performance level and growth of traditional programs such as the Orchestra All-State Festival and the implementation of new ventures such as a dedicated Orchestra Music Performance Assessment event. It is because of the leadership of dedicated professionals such as Sam that the Alabama Orchestra Association is able to provide quality opportunities not only for string players in Alabama but for any instrumentalist that wants to experience the excitement and musical satisfaction that comes from performing in a symphonic setting.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to you the members of the AOA’s new executive board – President-elect Dr. Daniel Stevens (UNA), Secretary Rachel Christmas (George W. Carver HS), and Treasurer Jacob Frank (Decatur Youth Symphony). Along with myself (Auburn University) and past-President Dr. Samuel Nordlund (Samford), the new AOA board consists of a diverse group of educators and music professionals covering orchestral and string education from elementary through higher education and from school-based to community-based programs. Our mission continues to be to support and strengthen existing string and orchestra programs within the state as well as working to help establish new programs throughout Alabama to help meet the needs of underserved students.

Research shows us that Alabama, as well as some of our bordering states, continues to lag behind other regions of the country with regards to school-based string and/or orchestra programs. Currently, many of the students who participate in our programs must seek out and join one of the various community ensembles in order to participate in their desired musical ensemble as they are not able to participate in a school-based string/orchestra program at their local school. Many of these community-based ensembles meet once or twice a week during evenings or on weekends which can have a considerable impact on student’s schedules. As such, it is always with great excitement that we celebrate the news of a newly established school-based string or orchestra program, recognizing those school systems that are committed to providing their students with a comprehensive, well-rounded music program.

On a different note, as we begin a new school year I would love to hear from those of you currently teaching in a school-based or community-based string and/or orchestra program here in Alabama. We would like to publish a series of feature articles throughout the year on current teachers and programs via our social media pages and other available outlets. Stay tuned for more information!

The fall is an especially busy time for the AOA. The beginning of August will see excerpts posted for the upcoming Orchestra All-State Festival auditions. More information about audition dates, times and locations can be found on our website – www.alabamaorchestraassociation.org. As in previous years, students can take advantage of being able to audition in any district to help avoid scheduling conflicts brought about by football games or marching competitions. If you are a band director, we sincerely hope that you will encourage your students to audition for our All-State Festival. For wind, brass, and percussion students, the experience of performing with strings as well as the challenge of playing one to a part is second to none.

I am excited to announce that we have a stellar line up of conductors for our 2019 Orchestra All-State Festival which will be held from Feb 7-10, 2019 at the University of Alabama. Our Festival Orchestra will be under the leadership of Dr. Raphael Jimenez (Oberlin College), with Mr. Bryan Buffaloe from Clear Lake HS (TX) conducting our Sinfonia Orchestra, and Dr. Gail Barnes (USC) conducting our Consort String ensemble. Music being performed includes Manuel de Falla’s Three Cornered Hat Suite No. 2, Prelude & Mazurka from Coppelia by Delibes, Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave, Op. 31, Carmen Suite No. 1 by Bizet, and of course the winning entry from the AOA’s Annual Composition Contest.

The Alabama Orchestra Association always strives to find quality clinicians for the AMEA Professional Development Conference. We look for clinicians who will inform, educate, and inspire not only our state’s string teachers but music educators across all the divisions. The 2019 AMEA Conference (Jan. 17-19) will be no exception with a lineup of distinguished clinicians headlined by Bob Phillips who will present three sessions including a general session titled The Art & Science of Motivation. Bob, who currently serves as the Director of String Publications for Alfred Publishing, is renowned as an innovator in string education and brings a wealth of knowledge to his clinics drawn from his 27 years as a public-school educator.

We also expect to have several string vendors at the 2019 AMEA conference. As we finalize our vendors we will let you know who they are via our Facebook page so you can contact them with any specific needs you might have while you are attending the conference. Hopefully we won’t have any of the weather issues that forced several of our string-specific vendors to abandon their travel plans last year.

The 2018-2019 school year will also feature the 4th annual Orchestra Music Performance Assessment event to be held at Gadsden High School in the Spring of 2019. We are working on dates in April and should have those finalized and available to teachers soon. Please check our Facebook page and/or the AOA website for updates. We encourage all string teachers including those that teach guitar and non-traditional string ensembles from both school-based and community-based programs to plan on participating.

Lastly, the AOA is here to serve you. If we can be of any assistance to you or your program please reach out to us. We hope you have a successful and rewarding school year and look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events.

Guy Harrison, AOA President

Greetings, Music Educators!  As we all look forward to summer, we will also hopefully be able to look on the progress we have made this year, with pride.  Since the 2018 AMEA Professional Development Conference, the AOA has presented the 2018 All-State Orchestra Festival, and the 2018 statewide OMPA.  With record numbers of auditions and accepted students, All-State Orchestra was again a splendid success.  We welcomed three esteemed conductors to Tuscaloosa, including Oregon Symphony Orchestra Associate Conductor and UA Music Ed alumni, Norman Huynh.  Incoming AMEA President, Gregory Gumina, even made a cameo as guest conductor with the Festival Orchestra, leading his arrangement of “Alabama” in honor of the Bicentennial celebrations.  Our biggest concern for the festival was the flu epidemic that was so prevalent this year, but thankfully, the large majority of our students and clinicians were able to stay happy and healthy.

This past April 6th, school and youth orchestras from across the state converged on Samford University in Birmingham for our third annual OMPA.  The Auburn University Youth Orchestra Sinfonia and the Orchestra at Ramsay High School both earned “straight ones,” and several other ensembles earned overall Superiors.  Congratulations to all the outstanding performers and directors!  The AOA is already in the process of planning the 2019 OMPA, and we anticipate continued growth in numbers and quality of programs around our state.

During the All-State Festival in February, AOA held elections for Executive Board positions coming open on June 1.  On that date, Dr. Guy Harrison will officially take over as President.  The AOA Board is excited to announce that Dr. Daniel Stevens will move from Secretary to Vice-President/Pres.-elect, Jacob Frank will remain on as Treasurer, and Rachel Christmas, orchestra director at Carver High School in Birmingham, will assume duties as AOA Treasurer.  I am extremely proud to pass AOA leadership on to such capable individuals, whether new to AOA, or just in a new position!  Julie Hornstein, our constant steadying force, continues to serve as AOA Executive Director.

As I sign off on my final article as AOA President, I want to thank you for your support of Music Education in Alabama, and for reading my articles.  I hope I have been able to share my passion for growing orchestra and string programs in Alabama.  All that has been accomplished in my two-year tenure would not have been possible without the expertise and teamwork from the entire AOA family.  I am looking forward to a bright future for orchestra students, teachers, and programs across Alabama, as our new leadership continues moving forward!

Right now it doesn’t really feel like it, but Spring is right around the corner.  What better way to launch us toward warmer weather than a fantastic AMEA Professional Development Conference in the middle of a polar vortex!  Despite typical first-year obstacles presented by the move to Birmingham, AOA’s clinicians and performers were first-rate.  Although we missed the intimacy of Montgomery, the Birmingham Sheraton and BJCC offer the potential for our division to grow significantly.

Dr. Bob Gillespie, our headline clinician, presented three outstanding sessions.  As a co-author of the Essential Elements method books, his introduction into the new technology options was extremely informative.  Likewise, his demonstration of teaching bowing, from the basics to more advanced techniques, was spot-on, and demonstrated his decades of experience as a leading pedagogue.

What was most exciting to me, though, was his session on motivating students.  Unfortunately, I didn’t hear a word of it, because our session room became so packed that I was unable to even crane my neck through the door.  But I could hear the excited response from the standing room only crowd.  I heard from AOA members who have been involved much longer than me that this was by far the highest attendance at an AOA specific session.  The reason we drew so many from across the other divisions (especially collegiate) is that the session title was not string or orchestra specific.  It didn’t hurt that we had a world-class clinician who has been a keynote speaker at conferences around the world.

I should not neglect the other AOA clinicians, as Joe Brennan, Travis Baird, and Anne Witt all presented fascinating sessions.  Besides his session on technology in the classroom, Brennan also gave a public masterclass with performers from the Alabama School of Fine Arts.  The involvement of performing groups from ASFA was a welcome addition, and the AOA will involve more student groups at future conferences, both as chamber groups and orchestras.  Speaking of orchestras, I was thrilled to present the outstanding performance of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.  As the only premier, full-time orchestras in the state, they really do represent us well, and give inspiration to students all over Alabama.

The first four months of the calendar year are incredibly eventful for AOA.  By the time this is published, we will have (hopefully) wrapped up another highly successful All-State Orchestra Festival at UA, February 8-11.  We had the largest number of auditions ever, and the largest number of accepted students.  All-State Orchestra is consistently improving in not only quantity, but quality, thanks to music educators all over Alabama.

On April 6, AOA will hold our 3rd annual Orchestra MPA at Samford University in Birmingham.  Registration forms and information are available at www.alabamaorchestraassociation.org.  We hope to grow this event, supporting the visibility and viability of orchestra programs across our state.  After this busy Spring, I will hand off the Presidency of our organization to Dr. Guy Harrison on June 1.  His vision and experience will lead to continued growth, and take the AOA to even greater heights.  Orchestra in Alabama is trending upward, and I like it!

Paraphrased from AOA’s bylaws, this title exemplifies the message that our organization attempts to spread throughout our musical, and non-musical community.  Despite the state of our country and politics, AOA seeks to be an inclusive organization striving to support Alabama’s existing string and orchestra programs, teachers, and students, and helping nurture new ones into existence.  There is no room for discrimination.  In our state, we are the musical minority, the red-headed step-child, if you will.  Therefore, we are constantly seeking to gain equal recognition in the public eye.

Paraphrasing further in our bylaws, the AOA seeks to stimulate professional growth and advance standards of achievement in the string and orchestra communities.  I believe we have had remarkable success in raising the standard of string and orchestral playing in the state.  Alabama All-State Orchestra now has three highly competitive orchestras, where twenty years ago, we only had one.  AOA will host our third MPA in April 2018, a tradition we hope to continue and expand upon.  New school programs have sprung up in Tuscaloosa in the past fifteen years thanks to Dr. Anne Witt and Birmingham city programs are starting to make a come-back.  Just this year, Norwood Elementary in Birmingham started a new program, feeding into the middle and high school programs that already exist.  In time, this system will be musically strengthened.

Despite the positive news and trends, I am very frustrated by the refusal of administrators in the wealthy “Over-the-Mountain” area south of Birmingham, my own home base, to support string and orchestra programs.  I’m also frustrated by accounts from parents of band directors refusing to sponsor students to All-State Orchestra when the schools do not have an orchestra program or director to sponsor them.  Another complaint is against administrators who view All-State Orchestra as akin to a “baseball travel-team,” and not an excused absence.  Attitudes like this are what our community deals with frequently in Alabama, if you were unaware.  In other states, school orchestra is viewed as an essential and beneficial offering.

With the mixture of public and private programs (youth orchestras, string projects, and programs that serve the economically disadvantaged), Alabama is on a positive trajectory, however slight.  Bringing in top notch clinicians and conductors is one way the AOA strives to foster growth and excitement in our state.  At the 2018 AMEA conference in January, our headline clinician will be world-renowned pedagogue and educator, Dr. Robert Gillespie, Professor of Music at The Ohio State University.  At the conference, we will have the opportunity to learn teaching methods and techniques to improve ensembles and students in both the classroom and studio settings.  We will also have the opportunity to learn about physical and mental wellness, and how it can affect our performing and teaching.  A new addition in 2018 will be chamber music performances and masterclasses, an element that will show off our top students, and increase AOA’s presence at the conference.  Besides these sessions, there will be many other topics discussed, and professional opportunities that I hope you will be as excited as I am to experience, including the outstanding Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

We are honored to have Norman Huynh direct the 2018 All-State Festival Orchestra.  Norman is Associate Director of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra.  Leading the Sinfonia will be Dr. Perry Holbrook, Director of Orchestras at Walton High School north of Atlanta, and the Consort String Orchestra will be conducted by Dr. Andrew Dabczynski, Professor Emeritus at Brigham Young University.  I hope to see you in Birmingham at the conference, and again in February at UA for All-State Orchestra!

Now that I’ve grabbed the attention of someone who would normally just flip past the orchestra page, I want to thank you for taking the time to read my column.  If you are a band director, I sincerely hope you’ll encourage your students to audition for All-State Orchestra.  Our auditions will run from late September into early October – visit www.alabamaorchestraassociation.org for specific District audition times and location times.  Right now, you are considering turning the page, because surely you will have a football game or marching competition that conflicts.  WRONG!  Each District schedules multiple days for auditions, and students are even allowed to audition outside of their district.  For instance, the Central District will most likely hold auditions October 6-8, Friday through Sunday.  Even with a football game on Friday and a competition on Saturday, your students could still choose Sunday audition times.

Now that you know how feasible it will be for your students to audition, I encourage you to also think of the benefits that your students will gain.  Over the past few years, I have heard from band students (or through their directors) who became involved in All-State Orchestra for the first time, sentiments such as “I had a solo part the entire concert!” and “It was amazing playing with strings!”  Your students who participate in All-State Orchestra will return to band the next week as new and improved musicians.  They may even be inspired to pursue a career in orchestral performance or even conducting.

Nowhere is this better illustrated than by our 2018 Festival Orchestra conductor, Norman Huynh.  A young man in his early 30s, Norman is the Associate Conductor of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra, a coveted position for any conductor, not to mention one of his youthful age.  Norman is also a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he was a euphonium-playing Music Education major, and marched in the MILLION DOLLAR BAND!!!  I am extremely excited that he accepted my invitation to lead our 2018 Festival Orchestra, and the homecoming that he will receive.

Alabama has such a tremendous wind band culture and when a large number of these great players don’t audition for All-State Orchestra, we orchestra people scratch our heads.  It is partly a cultural phenomenon, but I also believe Band Nerds and Orch Dorks are truly cut from the same cloth, and that there is simply a lack of understanding between our communities.  I challenge you to play Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8 or Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 for your band.  Better yet, play them Shostakovich’s Festive Overture, performed by last year’s Festival Orchestra, or the Finale movements from Sibelius’ Symphony No. 5 and Dvorak’s New World Symphony, Barber’s School for Scandal Overture or Stravinsky’s Firebird to get an idea of what’s in store for the 2018 All-State Orchestras.  Believe me – your students will thank you.

Admit it, teachers are just as excited about summer as students. The end of Spring is a time to reflect on the year, and plan some much deserved rest and relaxation for the summer. Reflecting back on the 2016-2017 academic year, the AOA has much to be proud of. Terrific sessions at the state convention in January were followed by a tremendous All-State Orchestra Festival. I may be biased, but it seems to me that the level of all three orchestra improves every year. And all the students had a blast, whether they were orchestra regulars or first-timers. Finally, thirteen string and orchestra groups from across the state performed at MPAs at Auburn University and UNA. For our second annual MPA, we were very pleased with turnout and performances. Congratulations to the Auburn Youth Orchestra Sinfonia for straight superiors, and all the other performing groups for their hard work and terrific improvement!

Besides the rest that we all deserve, the AOA is actively planning for the future. The 2017-18 academic year will be another exciting time for orchestras in Alabama. We hope to expand our presence at the AMEA Convention in Birmingham, specifically by adding chamber music sessions and masterclasses, and recruiting string vendors to offer products and services that are more suited to string and orchestra teachers and performers.

The 2018 All-State Orchestra Festival, February 8-11 at UA, will be another highlight of the year. I think the most inspiring storyline will be the return of Norman Huynh to lead the festival orchestra. Norman received his BM in euphonium at the University of Alabama, studying with Demondrae Thurman in the early and mid-2000s. Since then, he has received his MM in conducting at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and has been conducting and guest conducting around the world ever since, to great acclaim.

His most recent appointment has been Music Director of the Portland (OR) Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra with an annual budget of $15 million. Although I have never met Norman, I am beyond excited for his “homecoming,” and the energy that this young but experienced musician will bring to our orchestra students. I also hope it especially motivates many of our wind and brass students to not only audition for All-State Orchestra, but to realize the performing, conducting, and teaching opportunities that are possible through orchestra.

If you do not know of a school or youth orchestra in your community, please contact the AOA to let us help you find one, or plant the seeds for creating one. Band teachers, encourage your students to attend summer festivals such as FSU, Sewanee, Brevard, Eastern, Interlochen and more, to experience high level orchestra, band, and chamber music. You will help open doors for their future success in any musical field. Happy summer!