ORCHESTRA DIVISION Dr. Bernadette Scruggs Welcome back to school! I will be the GMEA Orchestra Chair for the next two years after accepting the baton (no pun intended) from Sarah Black this summer. Sarah was a terrific state chair and I hope I can maintain much of her practicality, wisdom, and sense of humor as I take over this delightful task. I am best available by email, and I know Sarah would echo me when I ask you to (please) check the handbook for the answer before emailing me at orch@gmea.org with your question. This summer, a crew of ten outstanding teachers worked on cleaning up errors from and adding to the repertoire on the LGPE Required Music Literature List. When choosing your LGPE program, you should find a few less errors and a number of new selections. The music choices will now remain static until next summer. If you have selections you would like to have considered for addition to the required music list, please send them to me between March and May of 2018. For those teaching level one full orchestra: After purging the list of “Permanently out of Print (POP)” selections, there are not many choices left. If you are interested in adding to the level one FO list, please send me the title of the selection, as well as a link to the score and a recording. Because so little remains available on that list, I’m glad to add to that genre and level only during this school year. Cecil Wilder, our executive director, spent time this spring and summer compiling data with regard to Band, Chorus, and Orchestra
LGPE scoring. At LGPE, 76% of orchestras received a superior, 21% of the orchestras received a score of excellent, one percent received a rating of III (good) and, finally, 0.3% receive a rating of IV (fair). By the way, 62% of bands received superiors, 21% received excellent, eight percent received a III, and .05% came away with a IV. Chorus judges gave 57% of groups superiors, 33% of groups received a rating of excellent, seven percent received a rating of good, and one percent of the choruses received a rating of fair. I conducted a small survey of head judges to see how they felt about reducing the spread between a II and a III, and received almost an exact split of those who were for the idea and those who were against. I’m publishing this because I hope judges will think carefully about the necessary delineation between the terms “superior,” “excellent,” and “good”- although, when a group receives a III, I must honestly say that it’s likely that none of the judges would actually describe their performance using that term. If we choose to pilot a score sheet with narrowed margins, less mathematically authentic but easier to for groups to receive a (deserved?) III, this is probably an excellent time for orchestra directors to know that our GMEA judges may hold them to a higher performance standard this year. Lastly, though you are probably aware of this by publication time, the first audition All-State etudes for have been revised for all orchestra levels and instruments. Though some of the adjustments were a necessity, due to new book publications, Sarah and I felt this would be a good time to begin a new rotation of etudes. Scale tempos have also been edited in an effort to contribute to the positive mental health and well-being of the judges who are assigned to hear them. If you have any questions about the recently incorporated etudes, please contact me and I’ll do my best to assist you. I hope each of you has a wonderful beginning to your school year. I remain your humble servant. Dr. Bernadette Scruggs
fall 2017 // georgia music news
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