Annual Fall Conference 2021
Minutes
Texas Federation of Music Clubs District VIFall Conference by ZoomOctober 2, 2021The meeting was called to order by District President Marcia Edwards at 9:03 a.m. welcoming all who were attending. Connie Randall, Texas Federation of Music Clubs President, was introduced and welcomed.
The opening ceremonies followed with the Pledge to the Texas Flag led by Mike Gorrell; the NFMC Collect led by Mary Wittrup; “Texas our Texas” was sung to a recorded original accompaniment by Brett Bachus; and we were officially welcomed by Arpeggio Music Club President Judy Gorrell.
The roll call was conducted to include pet stories and pictures of District VI members attending.
Wednesday Morning Music Club: Virginia Kniesner, Marcia Edwards, and Felicity Coltman.
Opus 64 Music Club: Sue Bachus and Brett Bachus.
Gonzales Music Study Club: Vida Burnett and Gina Alford.
New Braunfels Music Study Club: John and Karen Ackerman, Johnana Clark, Mary Wittrup, and Barbara Houde.
Arpeggio Music Club: Judy Gorrell, Mike Gorrell, Deanna Badgett, Jenny Yang and Elizabeth Gutierrez.
Crownridge Music Club: Mary Thomason and John Isaacks.
Etude Music Club of San Antonio: Lois Armor, Lovena Miller and Marque McKay.
Connie Randall, TFMC President, was also in attendance.
TFMC President Connie Randall spoke about her theme “Next Steps” and the need for all club members to step up and take the opportunity to participate in TFMC by becoming a chair of one of the many committees of the State. She thanked Judy Gorrell for taking the Chair of the Arts Division as well as the Music Service in the Community and Music Outreach Committees. There are still many committees needing chairs. Connie concluded her comments with a special “thank you” to Marcia Edwards and Virginia Kniesner for their assistance in the TFMC Convention in Dallas in August 2021.
Marque McKay recited the poem “Undivided Attention” by Taylor Mali.
Judy Gorrell introduced guest speaker Elizabeth Gutierrez, author, composer, teacher and performer. Ms. Gutierrez gave a very interesting talk on “The Comfort of Exploring Music at the Piano.”
A drawing for the Marvin Blickenstaff’s $57 course “Performance Practice” was won by Vida Burnett from Gonzales Music Study Club.
“State of the District” Club Reports were given as follows: (These reports have been consolidated and attached to these minutes.)
Crownridge Music Club – Marcia read report prepared by Anna Keifer
New Braunfels Music Study Club – Barbara Houde
Gonzales Music Study Club – Vida Burnett (report not available for inclusion)
Arpeggio Music Club – Judy Gorrell
Etude Music Club – Lois Armor
Wednesday Morning Music Club – Virginia Kniesner for Sarah Harriman
Entering into the business portion of the meeting the Minutes of the October 3, 2020 Fall Conference were approved as corrected and distributed.
Reports were given by District VI Officers as follows:
President Marcia Edwards (copy attached)
2nd Vice President Judy Gorrell (copy attached)
Treasurer John Isaacks submitted a proposed budget for the 2021-2022 year to be considered (copy attached). This proposed budget has been approved by the Executive Committee and Board and now requires approval of the members. The members attending voted to approve the proposed budget for 2021-2022.
A Credentials Report is attached.
There being no further business a Memorial Service was held for members who had passed away since our last meeting.
Marcia Edwards began the service by reading the poem “Our Memories Build a Special Bridge.”
Those remembered were
Nan Hampton (WMMC Austin) – whose life was remembered by Virginia Kniesner
Marion "Jack" Borchers (New Braunfels) – remembered by Johnana Clark
Carol DeBose (Gonzales) – remembered by Vida Burnett
Marcia closed the service with the reading of “As Long as Hearts Remember.”
Judy Gorrell introduced Arpeggio Music Club member Deanna Badgett. Deanna’s violin students, Anna Benson and Benjamen Keller, performed a short musical interlude as follows:
Anna Benson played "Nina" by GB Pergolesi.
Benjamin Keller played "Courant" by JS Bach and the first two movements of the Sonata No. 11 in G Minor by H. Eccles (Largo and Corrente).
Judy Gorrell announced that she had received word that guest performer Jose Ortiz would not be able to play as planned due to a family emergency.
The meeting closed at 11:08 a.m. with the singing of the NFMC Benediction “The Gift of Song” with recorded accompaniment by Brett Bachus.
Lois Armor, Acting Secretary
DISTRICT VI CLUB PRESIDENT REPORTS
WEDNESDAY MORNING MUSIC CLUB
Wednesday Morning Music Club is moving ahead with in person gatherings beginning with our fall luncheon on October 6. Already we have had to reschedule our October monthly meeting, but we will return to our regular venue as soon as they are open.
Performers are ready to perform and audience members are ready to applaud. We ask that everyone who attends is fully vaccinated and wear a mask over their nose and mouth. Yes, we’re still trying to figure it all out, doubt that we will, but try to enjoy the journey.
CROWNRIDGE MUSIC CLUB
The Crownridge Music Club began their year with a general meeting on September 3rd. There are 29 members in the club. We continue to meet via Zoom, due to the pandemic. Our district festival in February 2022 will remain online. At our online festival, we anticipate that students will be participating in events such as theory, improvisation, solos on various instruments, duets, sight playing, hymn playing, and American patriotic folk song. Festival preparations are underway.
ETUDE MUSIC CLUB OF SAN ANTONIO (Lois Armor)
Etude Music Club held its first meeting of the year September 20th. It also happened to be our first meeting since February 2020. There were six of us in attendance. It was most enjoyable getting together again and we look forward to more members attending our October meeting. Our program theme is “Welcome Back” and each of our programs tells us a little bit about the Program Leader through music. We also have a couple of programs being presented by guest artists.
ARPEGGIO MUSIC CLUB
News from 6-1 and 6-3
Both of our Districts are getting ready for their annual Festivals. Teachers should have received their State Dues “pink sheets” from Dorene Allen, which were sent right after Labor Day. If you need a dues form, contact Dorene Allen at ldoreneallen@yahoo.com .
We had a lot of All State Winners and Monetary Winners at State this year! In 6-3 there were 5 All State Winners. In 6-1 there were 37 All State Winners and 3 Monetary Winners. Congratulations to these teachers and students who achieved the Monetary Winner awards –
Maile Escalona – Piano Solo, Very Difficult I, teacher Juliana Michie
Emily Tando – Violin Concert, Junior Class 3, teacher Jenny Yang
Hannah Choi – Violin Concerto, Senior Class, teacher Jenny Yang
The Festivals for 6-1 and 6-3 are both planning to be “live and in-person” this year. The 6-1 Festival will be held on Saturday, February 26th in the Music Building at Texas State University and the 6-3 Festival will be held on Saturday, January 29th at Arpeggio Music Academy in San Antonio. We appreciate having helpers from the Study Clubs to help us with these Festivals. Please consider volunteering a day or a half of a day at one of them.
NEW BRAUNFELS MUSIC STUDY CLUB
The New Braunfels Music Study Club was finally able to have a regular meeting on September 9, 2021 after being "dark" for 14 months! Our meeting centered around the Mid-Tex Symphony performance which was to be held on Sunday, September 12. The music we highlighted was played by members of our club which included excerpts from "Scherazade" by Rimsky-Korsakov, and "Finlandia" by Jean Sibelius. Our club has been supporters of the symphony for many years. We thought that this would be a good time to listen to some of the music before attending the concert. We are also going as a group to the performance on April 3rd, which will be here in New Braunfels.
Our October meeting is going to be a German Musical Heritage celebration featuring our German choir, the children's choir, and German folk dancers.
Our main scholarship fund raising program, will be Sunday, November 28, Advent Vespers. We invite singers from many churches to attend the two practices before the concert and perform that day.
In February, we will feature the Comal Community Band and the string ensemble from Canyon High School. An added performance will be played by the New Braunfels Village Brass Band, directed by Al Tapia.
For our March meeting we will present the student Festival superior winners. Mary Wittrup is the coordinator for that meeting.
In May, we are planning to present Broadway Musical Favorites. Several of the members will be performing on that program.
As of now, we have 18 active members, three of which are new to our club and 8 associate members.
We hope to have a very active and enjoyable year for our members and guests.
President’s Report, Fall Conference Oct. 2, 2021
First I would like to express my sincere appreciation to all of you who are helping make this conference possible. A special thanks to Judy and Mike Gorrell who are the official hosts for our meeting and to our performers and presenters. And thanks to all of you for participating via Zoom. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that we will be able to meet safely in person next fall.
I especially appreciate our team of District VI officers who have agreed to serve for the next 2 years: 1st VP Virginia Kniesner, 2nd VP Judy Gorrell, Recording Secretary Mary Eck, Treasurer John Isaacks, Historian Cookie Nattinger, and Parliamentarian Mary Thomason.
A special thanks today to Lois Armor, who has agreed to take the minutes in the absence of Mary Eck.
I’d also like to recognize and thank Johnana Clark from the New Braunfels Music Study Club for agreeing to serve as the District VI Auditor.
Our next regularly scheduled general meeting will be the fall conference in 2022. If we followed the normal rotation, the Gonzales Music Study Club would be in line to host this meeting. However the Gonzales club leaders have declined since their numbers are currently very small and they wish to focus their efforts on recruiting some new members. A decision will be made very soon about who will be hosting in 2022. Watch your inbox for an update in the near future.
Marcia Edwards
2nd Vice – President
Hello everyone. My name is Judy Gorrell. Thank you so much for attending our Fall meeting.
As the 2nd Vice-President, I plan to help the all the Festival teachers of District VI by making sure they stay informed about any new items that will affect their Festivals and remind teachers of all of the NFMC scholarships that are available for our students.
By now, all Festival teachers should have received their “pink sheet”; their State Dues letter from Dorene Allen. If you are a new Festival teacher or you have not received this sheet, you need to contact Dorene at ldoreneallen@yahoo.com. The deadline to pay dues is always November 1st.
There are many corrections in our Festival Bulletin Book. Before teachers assign pieces for their students to learn this year, they need to go to the NFMC site to check the list. You can go to https://www.nfmc-music.org/ then go to the Festivals tab. Next you will see a drop down menu and then click on “Bulletin Updates”.
If you go to our TFMC website, texasfederation.org., then click on the tab Competitions/Awards, you can find information for all of the NFMC scholarships that are available for Juniors, Seniors and College students.
District VI has 4 Festival clubs – 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 and 6-4 and they always need volunteers to help with their Festivals each year. I would like all encourage all of our Study Club members to please consider volunteering their time, either a half day or a full day, to help work at our Festivals. Remember, these junior students who perform at our Festivals, will become the future music teachers of Texas and the future members of our Study Clubs! We are setting a great example for our students when they watch you help at our Festivals and see how much you love music!
Thank you everyone for electing me and I am excited to serve as the 2nd Vice President of District VI.
Texas Federation of Music Clubs District VI
Fall Conference
October 2, 2021
Credentials Report
The following is the report of the officers and chairpersons attending the TFMC District 6 Fall Conference held via Zoom on October 2, 2021.
NFMC Officers ____0____
NFMC Chairs ____1____
TFMC Officers ____3____
TFMC Chairs ____1____
District 6 Officers ____5____
District 6 Chairs ____1___
Club Officers ___ 12_____
Club Members ___ 24____
Life Members ___5______
Marcia Edwards
