OMEA District 9

Welcome to the District IX web site. The information here is for you to use in your teaching and fellowship with other music teachers in our area.

Secretary/Treasurer's Report - Chris Foster
- As of 1/12/08 - D9 Account @ Chase Bank - 2420.45
- As of 1/12/08 - D9 Account @ State Office - 16,522.89

District 9 Website
- Ipowerweb.com - 600GB, 6000GB Bandwidth - $95.40
- Possible fee after 1 year for domain, approx. $100
- www.district9.com is available

OMEA Convention Presenters
- Amanda Blevins - Friday, 1:30PM, CC250
- Robert Jones - Friday, 11:00AM, CC250

Events Coming Up
- HS S&E - January 26 @ John Glenn
- HS Large Group - March 14/15 @ Zanesville
- Jr. High S&E - April 5 @ West Muskingum
- State Large Group - EC - May 2/3
- Jr. High Large Group - May 9/10 @ Maysville

District IX Spring Meeting
@ West Muskingum HS
April 21, 2007

Congratulations to those who presented or performed at the OMEA Conference

Congratulations to those who participated in the District Large Group AE, and good luck to those who will be performing at the State Large Group AE

07-08 Event Hosts:
Honors Choir Festival - Warren HS - November 17th, 2007
Honors Band Festival - Meadowbrook HS - January 19, 2008
HS Solo and Ensemble - John Glenn HS - January 26th, 2008
HS Large Group - Zanesville HS - March 14th and 15th, 2008
JHMS Solo and Ensemble - West Muskingum HS - April 5th, 2008
JHMS Large Group - Maysville HS - May 9th and 10th, 2008

Officer nominations needed for 2007-2008 ballot.
- President-Elect
- Treasurer/Secretary

Commissioning project update
- Grade 2 1/2 band piece
- 15 different composers were suggested. We will contact them, and start the process. More info to come. If you have more suggestions, or want to help, contact Amanda Blevins at Tri-Valley HS.

District IX Directory
- OMEA & non-OMEA members
- School name, address
- Phone numbers, school and home
- Email addresses
- D9 calendar, deadlines, host information, etc.
- Distribution to all D9 music educators

Online survey: Possibility of switching JHMS S&E and Large Group AE weekends
- advantage - achievement testing is now in May
- possible conflict - HS State Large Group AE preparation

Summer gathering?
- Salt Fork State Park - meal at lodge, pool, beach, golf, fishing, ect.
- any other ideas?

Much of the meeting was a recap of the Fall Meeting with the Choir teachers during the Honors Choir @ Warren High School. That information is on this page underneath Fall Meeting minutes.

District IX gathering @ Japanese place across from Columbus Convention Center on Thursday, at 6:00PM. Email Chris Foster for RSVP.

District IX Calendar - Spring Meeting Site will be at Jr. High Solo and Ensemble @ West Muskingum. 2007 Honors Choir Site will be Warren High School. 2008 Honors Band Chairs will be JP Wray and Andy Sigman.

District IX Commissioning Project - Amanda Blevins passed out questionaire about what specifics we want from this project. (grade level, time, composers, etc.) Some discussion was about making this a contest for young composers. More research will be needed. We will talk more about this at the next meeting.

Jr. High Honors Band Discussion about chairs/seating. Some recommended rotation of parts, and auditions live or on tape. More discussion will be at next meeting.

Bill Slachs from Muskingum College talked to the directors about the start of a new HS Youth Wind Symphony on Mondays from 7-9pm.

Thanks to Jocelyn Majoy and Mary Nuzum for organizing and hosting the 2006 Honors Choir event.

Membership and Contact Info - If your info on the OMEA website is incorrect, please update. Go to www.omea-ohio.org and log into the members only section using your OMEA card number. Just follow the directions for updating your info.

OMEA Professional Development Conference - District IX gathering will take place on Thursday evening, probably at the Japanese Grill across the street from the convention center. More info soon. The conference this year serves as a highly qualified professional development opportunity. Consult your TRIAD for more information.

AE Update - New HS Solo and Ensemble list. It is available online (OMEA website), on the new S & E Data Program, or hard compy from the OMEA vendor and music stores ($25). The new data entry program must be used.

Discussion of recording at Large Group - for educational purposes, LG chairs can offer one comment free audio recording to the director of each group. Since this recording cannot be sold, only one copy will be given to the director. Making copies and distributing to parents or students would not be allowed. The directors in attendance voted, approved, and will pursue this idea. More details to be discussed later.

New fee structure for 2006-2007
JH S&E - $11.00 per solo and $14.00 per ensemble
JH Large Group - $110.00 per group
HS S&E - $13.00 per solo and $17.00 per ensemble
HS Large Group - $150.00 per group
State Large Group - $175.00 per group

The Ohio Foundation for Music Education - is an extension of OMEA. It is designed to eventually help fund OMEA activities, are looking for suggestions for foundation donors. Private and corporate donations are tax deductible.

Ohio Alliance for Arts Education - is an arts advocacy organization. They are currently working to get 1 hour of credit in the arts as required for HS graduation as part of Gov. Taft's Ohio Core Plan. They are asking all supporters of the arts to contact their state legislators in support of this. Go to www.meadowbrookcoltsband.com for more information.

Ohio Dept of Education State Consultant for the Arts - Amy Chivington (614-387-0544) or amy.chivington@ode.state.oh.us. She is available for your school inservice meeting on Arts Standards and Lesson Planning. (This is a Free Service of ODE!)

Workshop info for those who teach a Guitar Class - July 9-13 @ Gahanna Lincoln HS. There is a small registration fee, and you can receive 3 Semester Hrs.

District IX Calendar - There was discussion about a spring meeting site, and 2007 Honors Choir Chairs and Site. More info later.

Use of SmartMusic at JH/MS Solo and Ensemble Event. The pilot began last year, and will continue this year in District 9 and 15. If interested, please contact Steve Box (Meadowbrook HS), or Troy Woodmansee (Cambridge HS) for more information.

NEXT MEETING - will be held at Meadowbrook HS during the Honors Band Festival on January 13th during the morning.

District IX MS & HS Honors Choir

Will be held Sat., Nov. 18, 2006, at Warren Local HS. Mary Nuzum (Warren Local) is the high school chair; Jocelyn Majoy (Waterford) and Robin Mead (Morgan) are co-chairs for MS.

Guest directors are Gayle Walker from Otterbein for HS, and Russ Raber who is the Director of Choral Activities at Oak Harbor High
School for MS.

Here is final list for both middle school and high school honors choir. The music is to be ordered through Stantons at 1-800-426-8742 under District IX.

"Gratias Deo" Lightfoot 3 part mixed with lower optional notes
"Al Shlosha D'Varim" Naplin SA Boosey & Hawkes 48004534
"Little Innocent Lamb" Johnson SAB Lorenz 15/1119
"Loch Lomand" Rentz TB Brilee BL426
"Come In from the Firefly Darkness" Bernon 3 part mixed (SAB)

"Ticket to the Kingdom" Moore SATB Alfred SV8952 Class C
"Erev Shel Shoshanim" Hardar SATB World Music Press 03 Class B
"Lacrymosa" Mozart SATB Presser 392003065 Class A
"Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal" arr. Shaw SATB Lawson Gould LG51331
"Prayer of the Childre" Klouse SATB Warner Bro. CH96165
"Praise His Holy Name" Hampton SATB Earthsongs

Thank you to Diane Box, and Julie Wray for the wonderful food for the director's breakfast, and lunch.

Patrick Murphy (Maysville) discussed Junior High Large Group - May 12, 2006

Discussion about OMEA database. Make sure that you update all of your information on the OMEA web site.

- Troy Woodmansee called the meeting to order. Approximately 24 members and guests were in attendance. Directors were requested to create a list of names, work and email addresses for reference. D-9 officers were introduced and as was each director. Chris Foster was acknowledged for his great work with the web D-9 site. Thanks, Chris!

- Jerry Stallsmith gave the treasurer’s report. We currently have approximately $13,000 in the D-9 checking account (before HS S&E bills) and approximately $6,500 held by OMEA for our later use, if needed.

- Some members voiced a concern with the OMEA Members Only area of their website, commenting that they could not log in.

- Some directors voiced concerns that they were having difficulties finding and hiring accompanists for S&E events. We discussed recommending (to the State Board) a proposal to pilot a stage at a future JH S&E event using the Smart Music accompaniment program for interested schools unable to find accompanists. We debated the pros and cons of such an action and agreed that the pilot study was in no way intended to replace live accompanists, or endanger jobs, but to increase educational opportunities for students in areas where live accompanists were unavailable. Amanda Blevins proposed that D-9 look into sponsoring a piano camp to help train HS students interested in becoming accompanists.

- We discussed the possibility of commissioning choral, band, or orchestra works in the future. D-9 currently has the fiscal resources to make this a reality. Amanda Blevins and Chris Foster volunteered to be on a “commission” committee. We also would like choral and orchestral directors on the committee. If interested, please contact Troy Woodmansee.

- Troy Woodmansee issued a challenge to D-9 members to publish articles in the Triad. He acknowledged the fine articles recently written by Amanda Blevins and Bill Hamilton.

- Amanda Blevins encouraged members to visit the ODE website and investigate the new curriculum models for general music and performance classes. ODE is looking for teachers willing to test lesson plans as part of the ODE pilot program. If interested, please contact Amanda for more information.

- We discussed a possible change to the JH Large Group schedule in response to some directors concerns of “split” judges’ panels. Pat Murphy suggested a possibility of having all choirs perform Friday and all bands and orchestras perform Saturday with appropriate judging panels. Pros and cons were debated, including the increased costs involved.

- Jazz Band Directors: Maysville HS is hosting a non-competitive Jazz festival on April 10, 2005. Please contact Pat Murphy for more info.

- Meeting was adjourned. Thanks to all who helped make the Honor Band a successful event!