Pedagogy Saturday history: embracing all disciplines.

Editors Note: The December/January 2002/2003 American Music Teacher featured a "Meeting of the Minds" interview by Bruce Berr with MTNA Executive Director Gary L. Ingle and Louise Goss, renowned pedagogue, Frances Clark Center chair and co-founder of the New School for Music Study. Among the topics discussed during the interview was the establishment of MTNA's Pedagogy Saturday program.

Subsequent to this article, MTNA Past President and Chair of the first Pedagogy Committee Margaret Lorince offered a clarification of the origin of Pedagogy Saturday. It is printed here for your information.

"Pedagogy Saturday was the outgrowth of a decision by the MTNA Executive Committee in 1995 to form the MTNA Ad Hoc Committee for the Study of Performance Pedagogy Training. Four of the most eminent leaders in the fields of keyboard, strings and voice joined me, as chair, (Richard Chronister, Gail Berenson, Gerald Fischbach and William McIver) in organizing a meeting at the Kansas City National Convention in 1996 to discuss broad pedagogical principles applying to all disciplines. Over thirty outstanding pedagogues attended this initial meeting. The outcome was the establishment of the MTNA Pedagogy Committee and plans for the first pedagogical sessions for the members, presented in a concentrated format and based on exploring facets of a major topic. From the outset, the intent was to organize each session to include representatives of all the areas on the committee and to add areas as appropriate. Pedagogy Saturday did not "evolve" from a piano teachers conference idea. From the beginning, we understood and stood firmly by (despite some criticism from those who wanted in-depth piano "nuts and bolts" sessions) that our mission was to broaden our members' pedagogical thinking to include areas other than their own and to emphasize basic principles, including the conviction that we were concerned with the training of students of all ages and abilities for a lifetime of music. The committee also tackled other projects, such as supporting collaborative arts pedagogy and the valuable Annotated Bibliography on Musician Wellness [published in each June/July issue of AMT].

"Richard Chronister, with his long experience with the New School and the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy, was a stalwart supporter of the concept of bringing the applied music areas together to exchange thinking on important pedagogical issues. I feel he would have wanted me to clarify any misunderstanding as to the aims of the original Pedagogy Saturday Committee. Nevertheless, it is gratifying to see the Pedagogy Saturday program continue to flourish and serve the interests of MTNA and to welcome the return of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy to deal with specific keyboard issues. It is unfortunate that we cannot have a larger presence from non-keyboard areas involved in Pedagogy Saturday. However, despite the overwhelming percentage of piano teachers in its membership, MTNA serves effectively as an umbrella organization for all areas. The work of the Pedagogy Committee demonstrates how the various disciplines can benefit from working together.

"Cheers to all those who have made the music training of the future generations a priority in their lives and for the service each of you are giving the music profession."

Margaret Lorince Isle of Palms, South Carolina