Elem-Gen Division President’s Column

Cliff HuckabeeAs I type this message, we are just weeks away from our tenth annual Elementary Music Festival and our annual fall workshop on October 9th & 10th in Birmingham. I am excited that so many of you are bringing your students to participate in this wonderful festival. We also welcome our new festival directors, Ben & Kristina Sisco. They have done a fabulous job organizing and promoting our festival. We have several new schools participating, and it is going to be a great weekend for our students and teachers. Our festival will include two great clinicians, Mrs. Tiffany English and Mrs. Andrea Coleman. I am excited to hear the two fabulous children’s choirs perform on Friday evening at beautiful Wright Center on the campus of Samford University. We thank Samford University for their support and generosity in making this festival possible. We also thank Dr. Moya Nordlund for her partnership with us. She has retired from Samford but has continued to work with us to coordinate this year’s festival. Mrs. Tiffany English will also present the following day at our Saturday Fall workshop at Gwin Elementary School in Hoover. It will be a fabulous weekend to celebrate elementary music education!

If I don’t get to see you at the fall workshop, I hope I will see you at our January Conference. The 2016 AMEA Conference will be held in Montgomery again this year, and this is a conference you will not want to miss. Pre-registration is now open at www.alabamamea.org and you can reserve your hotel room at the Renaissance or Embassy Suites as well. Our conference this year is going to have a wide range of sessions that will include something for everyone.

Denise BIO 2006 color copyWe welcome Denise Gagne from “Theme & Variations” to Alabama as one of our main clinicians. She will present several sessions on Thursday & Friday along with a special fun evening folk dance session on Thursday night. She was with us many years back in Tuscaloosa, and I use many of her resources in my own classroom. We also welcome Roger Sams from “Music is Elementary” as our second main clinician. He will be presenting throughout the conference and will also have an evening fun session on Friday night. Both Roger Sams and Denise Gagne will have booths in our exhibit hall bringing more elementary music resources to our exhibits.

We will also hear from several of our own elementary division teachers including Tiffani Stricklin, Kelly Hollingsworth, and Jeanette Shorey. We will have two elementary choral sessions following the two keynote presentations on Thursday and Friday mornings with the Boaz Intermediate Honor Choir, under the direction of Miriam Richey, performing for us on Thursday; and The Kitty Stone Elementary Singers, under the direction of Lisa Gillespie & Cheryl Wright, performing on Friday. Other sessions will be presented by Quaver Music, ChordBuddy, and many more. This will be one of our best conferences yet! I want you to be a part of the action so get pre-registered today!

If you are not receiving emails from the elementary division, I would love to add you to our email list. Just send me an email and I will add you to our email list:

elementaryamea@gmail.com

I look forward to seeing you and learning together at our upcoming events.

Respectfully Submitted,
Cliff Huckabee