Nelita True receives achievement award. (Association News).

Nelita True, NCTM, of Rochester, New York, was honored with the 2002 Music Teachers National Association Achievement Award at the Awards Brunch March 20 during the MTNA National Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio. MTNA President Dr. R. Wayne Gibson, NCTM, presented the award.

"It is with great pleasure that MTNA honors Nelita True with this award. She has dedicated many years to MTNA and has had a tremendous impact on music teaching and the field of piano pedagogy," says Gibson. "We salute her accomplishments."

True is a professor of piano at the Eastman School of Music, where she served as chair of the piano department for fourteen years. Nelita received bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan. She also studied at the Juilliard School, where she was awarded a teaching fellowship and won the concerto competition as soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra. Upon completion of her studies at the Juilliard School, she took her first job teaching studio and class piano for two years at the University of Kansas, and then went on to receive a Fulbright Award to Paris for study with Nadia Boulanger. Nelita's summers were spent at Interlochen National Music Camp, first as a staff accompanist, then as a piano literature and piano teacher for nineteen years. She continued her studies by earning her D.M.A. degree at the Peabody Conservatory. During that time, she joined the piano faculty of the University of Maryland in College Park.

Over the years, Nelita has given hundreds of master classes, lectures and recitals throughout the world. With numerous solo and chamber recordings to her name, True also has made four videotapes, Nelita True at Eastman. She has served on the juries of several prestigious international competitions, including representing MTNA as an adjudicator for the 2001 Piano Teacher's National Association of Japan Competition. In addition, she was the first American invited to be a visiting professor in the Soviet Union performing and conducting master classes for a month at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

"I am especially honored to receive the MTNA Achievement Award. MTNA helped launch my career with a master class at the National Convention in 1977. I have also had the opportunity to travel all over the country, meeting countless independent music teachers," says True.

She is on the MTNA FOUNDATION'S Music Advisory Council and serves on the board of the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy.

The MTNA Achievement Award is given annually to the individual who has shown significant and lasting contributions to music and music teaching in America.