2003-2005 national officers.

Phyllis Pieffer, NCTM, is MTNA president. She has been actively involved in MTNA for thirty years, having previously held such positions as MTNA president-elect and vice president for membership development; Colorado state president, certification chair and competition chair; West Central Division president and junior high competition coordinator; and MTNA high school performance competitions coordinator.

Pieffer holds degrees in piano performance from the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, and in music theory from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. A firm believer in the importance of local associations, she was instrumental in developing the Foothills MTA in Lakewood, Colorado. While residing in Colorado, she served as assistant professor and chair of the Music Department at Colorado Christian University (CCU) in Lakewood, in addition to maintaining a successful independent music studio. During her tenure at CCU, she regularly performed in chamber music, solo and duo-piano recitals. Pieffer also has served as an adjudicator throughout Colorado and for the National Guild of Piano Teachers. As a clinician, she frequently gives programs on parliamentary procedure as well as various piano pedagogy topics. Now residing in Aberdeen, Washington, Pieffer teaches piano and theory at Grays Harbor College, operates an independent music studio and performs as part of a duo-piano team and a flute-piano ensemble.

Gail Berenson, NCTM, is MTNA vice president. She has been a member of MTNA since 1968, joining as a fledgling faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since then, she has held a variety of Illinois State MTA, Ohio MTA (OMTA) and MTNA offices. After accepting a position on the piano faculty at Ohio University, she initiated the founding of the Southeast District of OMTA. She was OMTA president, co-chair of the 1980 and 1990 Ohio State Conventions, Collegiate Buckeye Competition chair, OMTA student chapters chair and OMTA historian. She holds the MTNA Master Certificate in piano and piano pedagogy and also was awarded the 1999 OMTA "Outstanding Teacher of the Year" award. Berenson served as OMTA Southeast District's vice chair for teacher activities. Her national involvement in MTNA began in 1995 as a member of the MTNA Pedagogy Committee. In addition, she has served as MTNA piano chair on the 1996 and 1997 Convention Committees and was a two-term member of the American Music Teacher Editorial Committee. She now is serving as 2002 and 2003 MTNA National Conference chair.

Berenson is professor of piano and chair of the keyboard division at Ohio University, Athens, where she was awarded the "Distinguished Teacher of the Year" Award for 2000. An active performer, as well as a noted expert on musician wellness issues, she is a coauthor of A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop Mind and Body for Optimal Performance and a contributor to the new piano method Piano Discoveries as a member of the Lorenz Advisory Board. Holding degrees from Northwestern University, Gail has performed and lectured in more than twenty-five states, as well as Great Britain, Belgium, Switzerland, Israel and Canada. Her students are performing and teaching in private studios and on college faculties throughout the United States.

Paul Stewart, NCTM, is MTNA president-elect. He is chair of the keyboard division at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), where he teaches piano performance studies and pedagogy. He holds a D.M. degree in piano performance from Florida State University, an M.M. degree from the University of Illinois and B.M. and B.M.E. degrees from Indiana University.

Prior to becoming president-elect, Stewart was MTNA treasurer. During 2000-2001, he served as chair of the National Convention Planning Committee for the Minneapolis and Washington, D.C., Conventions. As a member of the MTNA FOUNDATION Board of Trustees, 1996-1998 and 2001-2003, Stewart has chaired both the MTNA FOUNDATION Teacher Enrichment Grant Committee and the MTNA Awards Committee. As a 1996-1998 and 2001-2003 member of the MTNA Board of Directors, he was a national representative to Wisconsin, Indiana and Nevada and chaired the MTNA Policies and Procedures Committee (1996-1998). Stewart's service to the Southern Division began in 1986 as local chairman for the MTNA Southern Division Meeting/Auditions and continued as college audition chair, vice president for auditions and president. His involvement with the North Carolina MTA goes back to 1973 when he chaired the state Baldwin competition and includes service four times as site chair for state conventions, vice president for conventions and state president, 1985-1987. Stewart is a frequent adjudicator for MTNA-related competitions and has given a number of workshops for local Music Teachers Associations. His recent performances include Schubert's Trout Quintet (2002), solo piano recitals in North Carolina (2001) and a premier performance of Jupiter's Moons, a six-movement work by Judith Lang Zaimont that Paul commissioned for the 2000 UNCG Focus on Piano Literature. His article, "The Piano Music of George Rochberg and the New Romanticism," appeared in American Music Teacher in January 1989.

Benjamin D. Caton, NCTM, is MTNA secretary/treasurer. He holds a Ph.D. degree from The Ohio State University and a pedagogy and musicianship certificate in Kodaly. He is professor of music at East Tennessee State University (ETSU), where he teaches aural skills and piano, and coordinates the graduate program. His teaching experiences range from first-grade public school music classes to graduate music courses.

Caton has served as president of his local Music Teachers Association for two bienniums; Tennessee State MTA president; Southern Division collegiate competitions chair, secretary, president-elect and president; and a member of the MTNA Board of Directors and FOUNDATION Board of Trustees (2000-2002). Honors include the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Foundation Award for Excellence, the John Phillip Sousa Award while playing trombone in high school band and being named an MTNA FOUNDATION Fellow. His most memorable performance was accompanying the ETSU Men's Ensemble in the Chicago Symphony's Orchestra Hall at the 1999 American Choral Directors Association national convention. His articles have appeared in Clavier, Music Educators Journal, American Music Teacher and The Tennessee Musician.

R. Wayne Gibson, NCTM, immediate past president, taught voice and music history at the university level for thirty-one years. During his twenty-five-year tenure at Kennesaw State University in suburban Atlanta, Gibson chaired the Department of Music and Performing Arts. He also served as special assistant to the president for arts affairs prior to his retirement. Before joining the faculty at Kennesaw, he taught in Chicago, Missouri, New Jersey and New York. Gibson's students have won state and regional vocal competitions for MTNA and the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

He has a history of leadership in the organization at all levels. Gibson has served as the president of Georgia MTA, MTNA Southern Division president, national convention chair and national treasurer.

Gibson holds a bachelor's degree from Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama, and a master's and a Ph.D. degree in music history and literature from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is a research specialist in nineteenth-century French grand opera.