Visions.

My ideals for the next biennium presidential "In Unison" columns are to inform, to advocate, to challenge and to question. "In Unison" may not always be an appropriate heading. In Fact, some of my contributions might more accurately be described as "In Counterpoint" or even "In Cacophony."

I would like to congratulate our new officers and offer my heartfelt thanks to the outgoing officers. The outgoing officers have all been conscientious volunteers, giving tip endless hours and energy on behalf of MTNA. We will especially miss the talents and wisdom of Ben Caton and Wayne Gibson as they leave the Board of Directors.

Our Immediate Past President, Phyllis Pieffer, was truly a very special MTNA president during the past two years. First of all, she is a first-rate parliamentarian. Her sessions on Robert's Rules of Order at our Leadership Summit continue to receive rave reviews and probably are our most valuable offerings. As immediate past president on the board, Phyllis will continue to keep in line our tabled motions, friendly and unfriendly amendments and frequent points of order. Phyllis has wisely led us through important governance changes, significant modifications in the National Competitions and a revised Code of Ethics. Our published Essential Skills are the result of her perception and leadership. During her term, progress has been made to widen MTNA's influence on the international stage. By most every benchmark, MTNA has grown under her able guidance. Our challenge will be to build on these initiatives.

At the beginning of my biennium, it seems appropriate to articulate my vision for MTNA. The desired dream that immediately jumped into my mind was to never again hear the words, "But it went perfectly in the practice room." Now, back to realistic goals. Our dominant vision always will be to continue enhancing our mission "to advance the value of music study and music making to society and to support the professionalism of music teachers."

My vision also would be to reduce the number of adults who say, "I used to take piano lessons--I used to play the piano--I used to play the clarinet." If we could just mobilize all the adults who once studied music, our concert halls would be full, our music studios would have long waiting lists and our income would match our training, experience and contributions to society.

My vision is to have a renewed interest in creating better music sight-readers. MTNA's support of this professional goal could take several tracks. We could share the ideas of successful sight-reading programs, standards and competitions. We could organize collaborative festivals, duet and ensemble competitions, expand our chamber music competition, create music reading lending libraries and encourage music fund-raising read-a-thons. But most importantly, we all could make sight reading a primary objective of our weekly music lessons. The gap between performance repertoire and sight-reading skill is alarmingly wide for many, if not most of our students. What would society's reaction be if the objective of an English class were to publicly recite 10 minutes of Shakespeare from memory, with little or no concern for whether the student was able to read from a fourth-grade textbook? Why do we assign Chopin Etudes to students who can't sight read Clementi Sonatinas? Do we want a lifetime of fulfillment for our students or 10 minutes of exaggerated fame and glory?

Under Phyllis Pieffer and Gary Ingle's leadership and Pat Tuley's diligent efforts, the MTNA Certification Program has made important refinements and improvements. We now have opportunities to explore partnerships and reciprocal relationships between collegiate pedagogy programs and other accrediting agencies, as well as the development of a college of evaluators.

We should continue to offer members programs about music and wellness, the opportunities and advantages of group teaching and information about the latest technology.

My vision certainly includes our ongoing efforts to expand our partnerships with the Canadian Federation of Music Teacher's Association, the European Piano Teachers Association, the International Society for Music Education, Support music.com, the International Association for Jazz Education and music industry associations like the Retail Print Music Dealers Association.

Our vision for the MTNA FOUNDATION FUND is to continue to find more monetary support for the competitions awards, Teacher Enrichment Grants, Local Association Grants, State Affiliate Grants, Studio Teacher Fellowship Awards, Collegiate Chapter of the Year Award, AMT Article of the Year Award and the Distinguished Composer of the Year award.

We must keep improving our MTNA website and urging our members to become involved with the site as an essential resource. Through the website you may click on "Online Communities." Here, you have access to the expertise of MTNA members and the same beneficial exchanges and networking we have with face-to-face contact at a national conference. Collegiate members are the future of MTNA. Maybe our vision should include an online MTNA Collegiate Chapter, where students come together in front of their computers to discuss their future in the music teaching profession.

Thanks to the myriad efforts of Executive Director Gary Ingle, our wonderful staff and the service of countless members, MTNA's future has never looked better or brighter. The new board welcomes your advice and concerns.

National Conferences

March 25-29, 2006   Austin, Texas
March 23-27, 2007   Toronto, Canada

Paul Stewart

President