Issuu

VOLUME 81, No. 1

OCTOBER 2026

IN THIS ISSUE Pedagogy Articles Region Jazz Audition Requirements NEW - Digital Music Showcase Music Production Grammy® Museum Partnership 2027 Eastern Division Conference Information

OCTOBER 2026

TEMPO

The Official Magazine of the New Jersey Music Educators Association a federated state association of the National Association for Music Education

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OCTOBER 2026

Volume 81, No. 1 https://www.njmea.org

OCTOBER 2026

FEATURES

DEPARTMENTS AND NJMEA BUSINESS

President's Message - Yale Snyder

President Elect's Message - Anthony Lanzerotti, Jr.

All-State Band Solo List (revised).........37

Executive Director's Message - William McDevitt

Advertisers Index & Web Addresses....63

12 News from the Board of Directors

Board of Directors................................ 61

24 Rhythm and Rotations: Creative Centers in the Elemantary Classroom - Amy Paz

Editorial Policy & Advertising Rates.....62

27 From Idea to App: Vibe Coding for the Music Classroom - Amy Burns 31 Before They Walk Through the Door: Positive Classroom Management - Amanda Newell

In Memoriam..................................54-55 MS/JrHi Choral Festival Application.....43 NJMEA Awards..................................... 60 NJMEA Past Presidents........................62

34 Tuning the Standards - Shawna Longo

NJ Young Composers Competition.......41

38 Student Choice in Cultivating Safe Spaces & Cultural Relevance in the Inclusive Music Classroom - Christopher Cavarretta

Region Jazz Requirements...............20-22

40 Empowering the Next Generation of Digital Creators Shawna Longo

Resource Personnel.............................. 53 Round the Regions..........................56-59

42 NJMEA Partners with the Grammy® Museum for Music Production 101 - Shawna Longo 44 Teaching Percussion: Building a Strong Foundation with the Snare Drum - Chris Colaneri 48 A Systematic Approach to Warming Up Voices - Lauren Athey-Janka 50 What 736 Performance Reveal About Choral Programming in 2025-26 - Rick Retzko TEMPO Editor - William McDevitt 300 W. Somerdale Road, STE C Voorhees, NJ 08043 Phone: 856-433-8512 e-mail: wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com Deadlines October Issue - September 1 January Issue - December 1 March Issue - February 1 May Issue - April 11

The New Jersey Music Educators Association is a state unit of the National Association for Music Education and an affiliate of the New Jersey Education Association. It is a nonprofit membership organization. TEMPO (ISSN 0040-3016) is published four times during the school year: October, January, March and May. It is the official publication of the New Jersey Music Educators Association. Inquiries regarding advertising rate, closing dates, and the publication of original articles should be sent to the Editor. Volume 81, No. 1, October 2026 TEMPO Editor - William McDevitt C/O NJMEA, 300 W Somerdale Rd, STE C, Voorhees NJ 08043

FORMS AND APPLICATIONS Please go to njmea.org Click on the desired activity for downloadable copies of all their forms & applications

EMAIL/ADDRESS CHANGES Please go to nafme.org to record email and address changes.

President's Message Yale Snyder Monroe Township Schools snyder.njmea[at]gmail.com

I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable summer and that you have had a wonderful start to the new school year! As we begin another exciting year in music education across NJMEA, I find myself incredibly energized and excited about all that lies ahead. There is something special about the beginning of a school year. New students walk through our doors, ensembles begin to take shape, rehearsals get underway, and our classrooms once again fill with the sounds of music. It is a time filled with possibility, and I am so excited to see what this year will bring for our students, our teachers, and our profession.

less other experiences give us opportunities to let people see what music education truly looks and sounds like. And don't be afraid to think outside the box! Advocacy doesn't always have to be a formal presentation or a legislative initiative. Sometimes advocacy is simply inviting someone into your classroom and allowing them to see the incredible things your students are doing. Sometimes it is sharing a student's success story. Sometimes it is telling a parent, administrator, or community member, "This is why what we do matters." When people see the impact our programs have on students, they become our strongest advocates.

Advocacy: Every Voice Matters As we begin the year, I want to take a moment to emphasize something that is incredibly important to me: advocacy. Every voice matters. As music educators, we are advocates every day. We advocate for our students when we provide opportunities for them to perform, create, collaborate, and discover their own musical voices. We advocate for our programs when we communicate their value to administrators, boards of education, families, and our communities. And we advocate for music education as a whole when we share the incredible work happening in our schools. If you have an opportunity to showcase your students and the great work happening in your classroom, all I can say is: DO IT! Invite your administrators to a rehearsal. Invite your Board of Education members to a performance. Share student accomplishments with your community. Take pictures. Celebrate your students. Send information to your local newspaper and social media channels. Invite families into your programs. Share what your students are creating and accomplishing however you can! The Fall and Winter months provide so many opportunities to do exactly this. Concerts, marching band performances, musicals, festivals, community events, holiday performances, showcases, recitals, parades, and count-

An Exciting Year Ahead There is so much to look forward to this year with NJMEA! Our February Conference will take place at the Atlantic City Convention Center from February 18–20, 2027, and I could not be more excited. Our theme this year is:

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TURN UP THE JOY Amplifying Creativity, Inspiring Connection I absolutely love this theme because it speaks to what music education is all about. We create. We connect. We inspire. We collaborate. And, most importantly, we bring joy to our students, our colleagues, and our communities through music. I cannot wait to see everyone in Atlantic City! Behind the scenes, the NJMEA Board of Directors has been hard at work all summer preparing for the year ahead. I want to take a moment to recognize every member of our Board for the tremendous time, energy, creativity, and commitment they continue to give to this organization. They are doing a truly spectacular job, and I could not ask for a better group of individuals to work with. I am incredibly grateful for their dedication to NJMEA and, more importantly, to music educators and students throughout our state. 4

OCTOBER 2026

Let's Make It a Great Year As we move into the fall, I encourage all of us to celebrate what we do. Celebrate your students. Celebrate your colleagues. Celebrate your programs. Celebrate music education. Share your successes. Invite people in. Find new ways to connect with your communities. And remember that every time we allow someone to see the impact of music education, we are advocating for our profession. I am so excited for everything happening throughout NJMEA this year, and I look forward to seeing all of you throughout the school year. And if I have not yet had the opportunity to meet you, please introduce yourself if you see me! I truly want to get to know the incredible educators who make up our NJMEA community.

Here’s to a wonderful school year filled with music, creativity, connection, and, of course, JOY! I am also planning to spend time this year attending concerts and performances throughout all three NJMEA regions. I want to be there to support you, our educators, and, most importantly, our students. I look forward to seeing the incredible work happening in your schools and celebrating the accomplishments of our students and music programs throughout the state. I’ll see you around the state! Wishing you all the best,

Yale Snyder

President Elect's Message Anthony Lanzerotti, Jr. Clifton Schools lanzerotti.njmea[at]gmail.com

access to music education and to supporting music educators throughout New Jersey. As we look ahead, I am excited to continue working alongside all of you and our amazing NJMEA leadership team. Together, we will create opportunities that inspire our students, strengthen our programs, and support one another as educators. I hope you will join us at the 2027 NJMEA State Conference this February. Our committee has planned an engaging and informative conference filled with outstanding performances, inspiring clinicians, valuable professional development, and opportunities to connect with colleagues from across the state. I look forward to seeing many of you there as we celebrate music education together. Thank you for your trust, encouragement, and continued support as I begin my second year as President-Elect. I am honored to serve this incredible organization and look forward to all that we will accomplish together. Here's to a fantastic school year filled with music, growth, collaboration, and success!

Welcome back! I hope you had a wonderful summer and are feeling refreshed as we begin another exciting school year. I wish each of you a year filled with success, inspiration, and meaningful musical experiences for both you and your students. As I begin my second year as President-Elect of NJMEA, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve this outstanding organization. It is a privilege to support each of you as we advocate for and strengthen music education throughout New Jersey. Thank you for your unwavering dedication to your students, schools, and communities. The work you do every day extends far beyond teaching notes and rhythms. All of you help with creativity, confidence, and a lifelong appreciation for music. Your passion and commitment has a lasting impact, and our students are better because of your efforts. This past June, I had the privilege of once again representing New Jersey at NAfME Hill Day in Washington, D.C. Returning to Capitol Hill was an inspiring reminder of the importance of advocating for music education at the national level. Alongside music educators from across the country, we met with members of Congress and their staff to highlight the impact music education has on students and communities. These conversations reinforced my commitment to ensuring every student has OCTOBER 2026

All the best,

Anthony Lanzerotti, Jr. 5

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Bring a New Jersey Symphony Musician to Your Classroom! Through a special partnership between New Jersey Symphony and the New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA), teachers can request a free in-school visit from a Symphony musician.

Choose your format: • Sectional or ensemble coaching • Performance demo + Q&A At no cost to you or your school with an NJMEA membership Sessions run January–June and are scheduled based on availability.

Submit the Program Request Form to reserve your spot! Made possible by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a Partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Scan for Form!

OCTOBER 2026

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Executive Director's Message William McDevitt wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com

NJMEA CONFERENCE - In last year's October TEMPO I reported that the Sheraton in Atlantic City was going to be taking on a huge makeover. Little did we know that 9 months later we would be informed that they would be completely overhauling their business model and we would be out on the street! After months of negotiating with hotels and revamping our usual plans for all of our February activities there is a plan in place that is the most convenient option for attendees and All-States. Additionally there will be some changes to the conference itself. We will have an amazing Orff strand (by the help of NJOSA) with a designated room and instruments provided by Studio49. We will have a designated room for emerging ensembles with setup provided by MusicWill. Our Friday evening concert will be provided by our All-State Modern Band and an additional guest ensemble - and will be held in Bally's. The Saturday AllState Treble Chorus and Bands concert will be held at Bally's. For up-to-the minute information on sessions, registration, schedules, hotel reservations, and everything else conference related check the Conferences page on the website often.

The 2025-2026 fiscal year was a much better one for NJMEA. We were able to anticipate some financial changes earlier and include them in the budget. These changes, along with a small restructuring of several activities left NJMEA in the black! Understanding the changes that are continuing to occur locally and nationally, the NJMEA Board of Directors approved a budget for 2026-2027 that is slightly leaner but also includes some increases to continue to keep the organization in the black. One positive that you should quickly notice in the financial statement is that last year's decision to make TEMPO a completely digital publication has left us with a net profit on the project. This will continue into the future. Current and past issues (going back to 2011) are available in Issuu.com, and can be accessed through a link on the NJMEA website (www.njmea.org/tempo). INSURANCE - Two years ago, we began our journey to complete background checks on any adults that have contact with students on behalf of NJMEA, our Regions, or our affiliated organizations that have a coordinated project. These checks included a criminal background check and the National Sexual Abuse Registry check. This was a reguirement for our acquisition of Sexual Abuse and Molestation Insurance Coverage which was a necessary requirement for several of the facilities that we use during the year. I am happy to report to the membership that more than 1500 submissions were requested! Every completed submission came back clear. We will continue to post Clearance Updates in the Weekly TEMPO Express. NJMEA DUES - This Summer, the NJMEA Executive Board voted to raise the NJMEA portion of our dues by $1 ($32 for Active Membership). When comparing our dues to the other states in the country there are still 35 states that have a higher dues rate than NJ! The highest rate is $73! TEMPO

If you ever have questions, please contact me. If I can't find your answers, I can do some research or point you to the person that can help. Most days, my office hours are 8am - noon. Sometimes I'm there much later. The office phone number is 856-433-8512. Have a great year!

Bill McDevitt 8

OCTOBER 2026

NJMEA Year-End Financial Statement ORDINARY INCOME/EXPENSE July 2026 - June 2027 INCOME Advertising in TEMPO AS TC/Bands-Hou/Meal/Trans AS Intermediate Orchestra AS Bands AS Chorus - SATB AS Chorus - TC AS Coordinator AS Jazz AS Orchestra Composer Competition AS Elementary Choir February Conference Modern Band Marching Band Festival MS Band/Chorus/Orchestra Festivals Miscellaneous Income NAfME Rebates Tech Expo Insurance TOTAL INCOME

EXPENSE - Continued 14,750.00 162,322.12 8,097.19 18,384.40 38,551.33 7.210.00 283,974.06 1,890.00 10,120.51 140.00 24,450.88 192,580.64 2,565.00 8,433.00 6,050.00 1,827.76 56,690.00 110.00 20,999.00

AS Intermediate Orchestra Bank Fees Board Meeting Meals Board Mileage Board of Directors OpExp AS Elementary Choirs Collegiate February Conference Governors Awards Modern Band Insurance Legal Fees Marching Band Festival MS Band/Chorus/Orchestra Festivals NAfME Summer Leadership NJRMEA November NJEA Convention Office Space Tech Expo TEMPO

859,145.89

TOTAL EXPENSE

EXPENSE AS Bands AS Chorus AS - COJ (November) AS - TC/Bands (February) AS Jazz AS Orchestra

OCTOBER 2026

20,665.61 28,479.60 253,660.12 156,256.42 7,612.19 11,945.74

4,136.24 170.27 1,347.44 1,627.00 81,898.23 21,452.73 2,813.40 193.544.81 275.00 4,487.85 25,613.32 5,300.00 6,181.00 5,663.28 2,931.16 271.64 319.94 9,456.93 3,350.30 79.65 849,539.87

Net Ordinary Income Other Income Other Expense

9,606.02 0.00 0.00

NET INCOME

9,606.02

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OCTOBER 2026

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Visit a class, meet faculty and students, and discover how you can create your future in music education at Berklee. To make an appointment, email bmurphy6@berklee.edu or call 617-747-2425. Please donate to the following Music Education Scholarships honoring the memory of Deanna Kidd-Szymczak, Faith Lueth, and Dr. Jarritt Sheel: college.berklee.edu/giving/active-scholarship-initiatives

berklee.edu/music-education OCTOBER 2026

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News From the Board of Directors Band Performance Jesse Argenziano njmeaband[at]gmail.com Welcome to the 2026/2027 school year! Hopefully you have had a smooth start to the year. Whether you are a 1st year teacher or a seasoned veteran, remember the work/life/balance concept. Especially during marching season, director burn-out is real. Don’t forget to touch some grass (or sand). As we begin to close in on our organizations activities, please remember that you will need to complete the mandatory background clearance to participate in NJMEA activities that involve students. Our insurance requires a specific ratio of adults to students during events to ensure a protected and safe environment. We also need the extra chaperones at the Region and All State levels to make sure we meet these requirements. Attending rehearsals and concerts help. You are likely signing up for a duty within your regions. That being said, if you already know you may need a sub, I encourage you to find someone sooner than later with a professional music background and is a NAfME member, perhaps an in-district middle/elementary school colleague. If you send a substitute to any audition or rehearsal duty, they must also be a NAfME member and have completed their background clearance. NJMEA Convention - many of us have similar district restrictions where we can only attend a single day for a conference. I would like to encourage you to begin this conversation now with your supervisor or principal. There is a “conference justification toolkit’ link on our website to help guide you. If you are interested in chaperoning the All State Bands during the NJMEA Convention in February, please feel free to contact me or Joe Cantaffa, All State Band Production Manager at jcantaffahhs[at] hotmail.com. You will receive conference admission and room/board. It’s a great deal! I would like to present to you the 2027 All State Band Conductors, managers, and their programs. Wind Ensemble Dr. Stephen Peterson (Retired, Univ of Illinois) Joshua Jenkins & Ryan Ward, managers

PROGRAM Fanfare Politeia by Kimberly Archer Colorado Peaks by Dana Wilson Irish Tune from County Derry by Percy Grainger Come Sunday by Omar Thomas]

Symphonic Band Dr. Todd Nichols (Rutgers University) Bailey Eng & Jayden Fusco, managers

PROGRAM In Living Color by Katahj Copley Adoration by Florence Price/trans. Chedon Williams Magnolia Star by Steve Danyew Armenian Dances (Part I) by Alfred Reed

Choral Festivals Donna Marie Berchtold firesongwed[at]gmail.com We hope all of you have had an exciting start to your school year, and your programs are developing with much enthusiasm for this upcoming year! The 72nd Annual NJMEA Middle School – Junior High Choral Festival dates are scheduled for 2027. The Festivals are currently scheduled to be held at two separate locations. • The first event (South Site) will take place at Rowan University on Thurs. March 18, 2027. The deadline for applications is February 4, 2027. Event time is 9:00am – 1:30pm. A snow date has been scheduled for Fri. March 19, 2027. TEMPO

OCTOBER 2026

News From the Board of Directors • The second event (North Site) will be held at Monroe Township Middle School on Wed. April 14, 2027. The deadline for applications is March 3, 2027. Event time is 9:00am – 1:30pm. The application form ison the NJMEA web site, however, they can also be found in this edition of TEMPO Magazine. A maximum of ten (10) registrations will be accepted at each site. The Registration Fee per school group is $200.00 for either site. Please send the Completed Form, listing your two (2) song titles and composers’ names, along with the registration fee (per the instructions) on the application form. Each participating choral group will receive written and aural evaluations by the adjudicators, along with a plaque from NJMEA which recognizes the commitment and involvement by the school, its chorus, and the di-rector(s). The students and teachers will be involved in an interactive event where the adjudicators may offer a Q & A experience with a mini clinic demonstration for each choir on stage. Any schools interested in participating in either of these events next year should be sure to complete the application form. Anyone with questions or concerns may contact Donna Marie at: firesongwed[at]gmail.com, or 609-226-7751 (cell). Wishing you all a most successful year!

PreK-8 General Music Amy M. Burns aburns[at]fhcds.org Welcome back! I hope that your school year has started off well with not too many surprises. And if there were surprises, I hope that they were joyous ones. We have some wonderful events coming up. NJSMA has their Fall Workshop featuring Matthew Stensrud on October 12. Register here if you are interested: https://www.njmea.org/state-conference. Also check out the Central Jersey Music Educators Association https://www.cjmea.org/ and the South Jersey Choral Directors Association https://www.sjcda.com for upcoming events and resources for general music and more. Finally, our annual NJMEA Conference is coming up in February and the Elementary Academy Headliners will be announced very soon. You will not want to miss it as we have two amazing headliners again this year!

Choral Performance Matthew Wolf NJAllStateChoir[at]gmail.com Hello and welcome to a new school year! I’m very excited to introduce myself and step into the role of Choral Performance Chair along with our new Choral Procedures Chairperson, Kristen Markowski. I want to begin by thanking Brian Williams and Ken Bryson for their exceptional work in these respective roles over the last few years. Kristen and I are excited to continue to maintain the tradition of excellence of the New Jersey All State Chorus. Last April, we completed auditions for the 2026-2027 All-State choirs, resulting in the highest number of students we’ve had accepted into the choirs. I want to take a moment to thank all of the people who made auditions run so smoothly: First off, to Barbara Retzko for coordinating auditions along with her institutional knowledge of the audition process, and to Rick Retzko for his structuring of our online audition management software. Next, a warm thank you to our registration managers: Cheryl Breitzman and Kristen Markowski. Thank you to Sara Munson for being our systems administrator, helping answer questions, OCTOBER 2026

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News From the Board of Directors solve problems, and supplying missing passwords. Thanks to Ken Bryson, our previous choral procedures chair, for overseeing the audition process and the installation of new Silver Swan audition and practice tracks. Finally, thank you to all of our members who participated in the audition process! This Fall, the All-State mixed choir will come together to begin rehearsals before their performance at the NJEA conference and NJPAC in November. We are so excited to welcome Dr. Francis Cathlina from the University of Memphis, who will be working with our mixed choir. In the Spring, we are very excited to welcome back New Jersey native Juliana LoBiondo, from the University of New Mexico, to conduct the 2027 Treble Chorus. We are already in the process of looking for conductors for next year. If you are interested in conducting an All-State ensemble, please feel free to email me using the address below to get more information on applying. We are continuing to use MailChimp as a way to reach our active choirs - including students, directors, and parents. We understand that some school districts’ firewalls will consider these messages as spam and block them before they get to your mailbox. If you have been expecting correspondence from the All-State organization, check your junk folder and then reach out to the ensemble's respective managers who can assist you. Have a wonderful year!

Accessible Music Education Maureen Butler maureenbutlermusic[at]gmail.com By the time this issue of TEMPO is sent out, music teachers are acquainted with their students with disabilities, and have begun to make adaptations and modifications for them. Additionally, there may be students on their radar who are not classified, but about whom they have concerns. If you need help including these students in your classes, the Accessible Music Education committee is here to help! Our members include: Steve Braun, recently retired, Valerie Luther, Moorestown Township, Krysta Mirsik from Passaic, Glennis Patterson from Roxbury, Sarah Perry from Westminster Choir College, Barbara Weiner from Saddle Brook, Michelle Williams from Woodbridge, and myself. All of us have expertise in teaching students with disabilities, and are happy to share our insight and strategies. Simply contact me via email, I’ll direct your questions to the group, and you’ll receive a response. You’ll see our committee at the February convention, but many of us are also available to give a workshop at your school/ college during the school year. Just reach out to us! Many thanks to them for their passion and dedication, and grateful recognition of all current teachers who ensure that their music classroom is accessible for all students.

Orchestra Performance/Festivals Elisabeth Sato orchestra.njmea[at]gmail.com Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year! The All State Orchestra is currently preparing for their upcoming performances in November. Conductor Dr. Naima Burrs has selected a fantastic program, and students are working very hard to learn the music. We hope to see you in Atlantic City and NJPAC - you won’t want to miss these performances! The Procedures Committee has selected the solo repertoire and scales for the 2027 auditions, which will take place at BridgewaterTEMPO

OCTOBER 2026

News From the Board of Directors Raritan High School on Saturday, March 20 (Snow Date TBA). Thank you to Sherry Griggs for hosting the auditions. The Committee would also like to make directors and private teachers aware that "Students are expected to observe and interpret all markings and indications in this music using appropriate and accepted musical practices." Bowings and fingerings are at the discretion of the auditioner. Students do not need to follow exact bowings or fingerings printed in the music. Please check the NJMEA website for up-to-date audition information. Since the last issue of TEMPO, the All-State Intermediate Orchestra had a wonderful performance on May 8, at Chatham High School. Conductor Michael Avagliano chose a challenging and diverse program, and the orchestra delivered a high quality performance. A huge thank you to Caty Butler and Liam Keller for hosting the ASIO rehearsals and concert at Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School and Chatham High School, to Samantha Sara for managing the Orchestra, and to the chaperones for attending the rehearsals and performance. The NJMEA Middle School Orchestra Festival will take place on April 7, at Bridgewater-Raritan Middle School, with Caty Butler as the festival host. The High School Orchestra Festival date will be confirmed soon. Please check the NJMEA website for more information about the Orchestra Festivals.

Retired Members Kathleen Spadafino kspadeb[at]aol.com Welcome back to your best year ever! It certainly is for this committee – we are enjoying the cooler weather, traveling and attending concerts to our hearts’ delight. We are here to assist NJMEA in its many activities, such as our annual conference in February and helping boost our presence at the NJEA convention in November. We also choose a Master Music Teacher each year who is celebrated at our February conference. Our executive board, headed by our new president Ron Dolce, had our first meeting in September and we are busy planning some fun activities for our members and guests. Our first activity is our General Membership Meeting (everyone is invited to attend!) on October 14 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. at the Lakeside Recording studio in Ocean Grove. We will have a tour of the studios and maybe make a recording of our own! Details will be coming in an email from Ron. If you want to be sure you are reminded, please email Ron at Rdolce561[at]aol.com. If you know anyone who has recently retired and has some free time on their hands, please have them contact me at kspadeb[at]aol.com. We look forward to sharing music with you!

Administration/K-12 Ed Tech Shawna Longo shawnalongo[at]gmail.com Technology: K-12 Digital Music Showcase Launches! We are thrilled to unveil our newly expanded, NJSLS-aligned Digital Music Showcase—now fully inclusive of Grades K–12! Designed to seamlessly integrate into every classroom from elementary general music to high school audio engineering, this tool-agnostic framework allows students to use everything from Chrome Music Lab and Soundtrap to full DAWs to demonstrate their skills in creation, production, and artistic reflection. Entries are open for individuals or small groups across various grade-level categories, celebrating everything from foundational rhythm patterns in K–2 to advanced mix engineering in high school. Read the full feature article in this edition for category details and check out the timeline of key dates to prepare your students for this exciting state-wide celebration of digital artistry! OCTOBER 2026

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News From the Board of Directors

Industry Sessions coming to NJMEA Conference! NJMEA is officially launching a landmark partnership with the GRAMMY® Museum and Inspire EDU to bring commercial recording industry standards directly to New Jersey music educators. On Thursday, February 18th, we are hosting Industry Session: Music Production 101—a full-day, hands-on workshop covering DAW navigation, tracking, mixing, mastering, and modern music business royalties. Educators will gain real-world tools to transform their music technology and ensemble classrooms while earning 12.5 PD hours or 1 graduate credit ($250 total cost). Read the full feature article in this edition for further detail and register early through the NJMEA conference portal! Administration: NJMAA has an amazing year planned! Alfred Hadinger is the new President with Shawna Longo serving as President Elect. This year’s NJMAA general membership meeting schedule is as follows: ● October 2, 2026-Joint Workshop/Meeting w/ AANJ (Arts Education Roundtable Discussion) ● December 4, 2026-Workshop/Meeting (Navigating the Revised NJ Student Learning Standards for Music) ● February 5, 2027-Workshop/Meeting (Assessment and Data - Aligning Arts Practices with Tested Areas) ● April 9, 2027-Joint Workshop/Meeting w/AANJ (The Administrator's Script: Elevating Theater Instruction with Drama Notebook) ● June 4, 2027 - Workshop/Meeting (End of Year Roundtable) All meetings run from 8:30-11:30am and take place at The Rutger’s Club in Piscataway, bonus it includes breakfast! Visit njmaa.net to learn more and complete your membership application! We hope to see you soon! NJMEA Conference Opportunity: Future music educators, bring your resumes and your questions! Join the New Jersey Music Administrators Association for insider strategies on what K-12 hiring committees are really looking for—from your first interview to the podium. We’ll be presenting this workshop session on Friday, February 19th at the NJMEA Conference.

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Collegiate/Higher Ed/Research Marissa Silverman silvermanm[at]montclair.edu Happy October, New Jersey music educators. Not sure how you feel about this season, but I love the autumn: its colors, its flavors, its holidays (with both Halloween and Thanksgiving), and more. For me, autumn signals candied apples, carving pumpkins, and crisp air. In agreement, Emily Brontë stated: “Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” In other words: it’s a magical season. And so will be our next gathering at NJMEA come winter. Nearing the end of summer, I sent out a Call for Research Papers—the selected of those will present during a poster session at the 2027 NJMEA Conference. How wonderful to receive proposals from inservice teachers, doctoral students, and faculty in higher education. This kind of breadth is reassuring, exciting, and, quite frankly, what “should” be. All teachers research best practices (or the lack thereof). Because of this, it feels important that NJMEA members hear about a variety of professionally based questions, problems, best practices, and (re)visioned curricular strategies; that a variety of teachers feel that their teaching-based research pursuits get heard. I look forward to seeing you at NJMEA in February.

Advocacy Arwen Kapusta arwenkapusta[at]gmail.com Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year! Our role as advocates for music education and the arts is just as important as ever. Now is a great time to strategize your advocacy plan for the year. Consider adding these suggestions to your repertoire this year: • Invite school board members, central office administration, and even law makers to your concerts so they can witness, firsthand, why music matters and the positive impact music education has to offer. • Build community partnerships with parents, boosters, and local businesses. • Highlight the stories of your own music students. Survey your students to discover why music is important to them and how it affects their daily lives. Feature their responses in your music newsletter to parents, in a school newspaper article, through social media, or even with the local press. If you’re looking for some information on advocacy, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the advocacy resources available on our NJMEA website. This page is a one-stop-shop for all of your advocacy needs. Make this school year your best advocacy year ever! And if you have any questions, please reach out any time to arwenkapusta[at]gmail.com

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2027 Region Jazz Bands Junior Jazz Band Audition Requirements (Grades 7 - 9) All Solo Etudes, Scales, Applications, and Locations may be found on the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org *** REGION JAZZ BANDS - IMPORTANT DATES FOR ALL REGIONS *** Audition Date: Monday, March 15, 2027 Rehearsals: April 5, April 12, April 15 (4:30 - 8:30 PM) April 17 (9AM – 12 Noon) Concert: April 18 (3 PM)

• • •

***Audition Requirements for ALL INSTRUMENTS*** SOLO - All students must prepare the solo listed below in its entirety. All Solo etudes are downloadable from the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org SCALES / STYLES - Sax, brass, guitar, piano, vibraphone and bass students must prepare the scales listed below. Scales are listed in WRITTEN pitch. All scales must be played in a swing style. Drummers must demonstrate the ability to keep time in the styles listed below. Scale sheets & drumset patterns are downloadable from the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org SIGHT READING - All students must perform a short excerpt never previously seen. Students will be given 30 seconds to look over the piece before playing.

All Saxophones: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Saxophone Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Alto/Bari : G & D Blues - 2 Octaves, A Blues - 1 octave. G & A Dorian mode - 1 octave, D Dorian mode - 2 octaves. Tenor : C, D, & G Blues - 2 octaves. C & D Dorian mode - 2 octaves, G Dorian mode - 1 octave. Trumpet: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Trumpet Etude No. 1B *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Blues & Dorian mode C, D, & G - 1 octave. Trombone: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Trombone Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Blues & Dorian mode C, F, & Bb - 1 octave. Guitar: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Guitar Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Blues & Dorian mode C, F, & Bb - 2 octaves. Piano: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Piano Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED and 2 HANDS]: Blues & Dorian mode C, F, & Bb - 2 octaves. Vibraphone: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Vibraphone Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Blues & Dorian mode C, F, & Bb - 2 octaves. Bass: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Bass Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Blues & Dorian mode C, F, & Bb - 2 octaves. Drums – Drumset auditions will follow a NEW format this year. See website for NEW style requirements: *Required solo: NJAJE Junior Drum Etude No. 1A *Styles [ALL STYLES MEMORIZED]: Swing (w/brushes & sticks at various tempos), Shuffle, Funk, Second Line, Bossa, Mambo. Students must be able to play 2, 4, & 8 bar phrases with a fill at the end of each phrase. *Free Improvised Solo included as part of the solo etude. Students should demonstrate creativity, technique, and musicality.

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2027 Region Jazz Bands Senior Jazz Band Audition Requirements (Grades 9 - 12) All Solo Etudes, Scales, Applications, and Locations may be found on the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org *** REGION JAZZ BANDS - IMPORTANT DATES FOR ALL REGIONS *** Audition Date: Monday, March 15, 2027 Rehearsals: April 5, April 12, April 15 (4:30 – 8:30 PM) April 17 (9AM – 12 Noon) Concert: April 18 (3 PM)

• SOLO -

***Audition Requirements for ALL INSTRUMENTS*** All students are required to prepare the solo listed below in its entirety. All Solo etudes are downloadable from the NJAJE Website: http://www.njaje.org

• SCALES / STYLES - Sax, brass, piano, guitar, vibraphone and bass students must prepare the scales listed below. Scales are

listed in WRITTEN pitch. All scales must be played in a swing style. Drummers must demonstrate the ability to keep time in the styles listed below. Scale sheets & drumset patterns are downloadable from the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org

• IMPROVISATION - All students must play an improvised solo demonstrating creativity, technique, & musicality.

*Sax, brass, guitar, piano, vibraphone and bass students students must improvise a solo over 2 choruses of Blues in F or Bb concert using the Jamey Aebersold "New Approach to Jazz Improvisation, vol. 1." *Drum improvisation is included as part of the solo etude.

• SIGHT READING - All students must perform a short excerpt never previously seen. Students will be given 30 seconds to look over the piece before playing.

Saxophones: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Saxophone Etude No. 1A NOTE - Bari Sax: Students will play the entire saxophone etude using the bottom lines in the ossia section. *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Alto/Bari: C, G, D Blues - 2 octaves, A Blues - 1 octave. G & A Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 1 octave. C & D Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 2 octaves. Tenor: F, C, G, D Blues - 2 octaves. G Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 1 octave. F, C, D Dorian & Mixolydian - 2 octaves. Trumpet: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Trumpet Etude No. 1C – NOTE: NEW ETUDE!!! NOTE – To audition for Lead Trumpet, students must prepare the entire etude PLUS the lead trumpet excerpt. *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: C, D Blues - 2 octaves; F, G Blues - 1 octave. C Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 2 oct.; D, F, G Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 1 oct. Trombone: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Trombone Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Bb, C Blues - 2 octaves; Eb, F Blues - 1 octave. Bb Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 2 oct; C, Eb, F Dorian & Mixolydian modes – 1 oct. Bass Trombone: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Bass Trombone Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: Bb, C Blues, Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 1 octave (begin below the staff.) Eb, F Blues, Dorian & Mixolydian modes - 2 octaves (begin below the staff.) Guitar: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Guitar Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: C, F, Bb, and Eb Blues, Dorian, & Mixolydian modes - 2 octaves. Piano: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Piano Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED and 2 HANDS]: C, F, Bb, and Eb Blues, Dorian, & Mixolydian modes - 2 octaves. Vibraphone: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Vibraphone Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: C, F, Bb, and Eb Blues, Dorian, & Mixolydian modes - 2 octaves. Bass: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Bass Etude No. 1A *Scales [ALL SCALES MEMORIZED]: C, F, Bb, and Eb Blues, Dorian, & Mixolydian modes - 2 octaves. Drums – Drumset auditions will follow a NEW format this year. See website for NEW style requirements: *Required solo: NJAJE Senior Drum Etude No. 1A *Styles [ALL STYLES MEMORIZED]: Swing (w/brushes & sticks at various tempos), Jazz Waltz (w/brushes), Shuffle, Funk, Second Line, Samba, Mambo. Students must be able to play 2, 4, & 8 bar phrases with a fill at the end of each phrase.

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2027 Region Jazz Choirs Vocal Jazz Audition Requirements (Grades 9 - 12) All Solos, Scales, Audio Tracks, Applications & Audition Submission Guidelines may be found on the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org

*** REGION JAZZ CHOIRS - IMPORTANT DATES FOR ALL REGIONS ***

Audition Video Submission Deadline: Monday, March 8, 2027, BY 11:59 PM Rehearsals: April 5, April 12, April 15 (4:30 – 8:30 PM) April 17 (9AM – 12 Noon) Concert: April 18 (3 PM) Audition Video Information

• Auditions are accepted via YouTube only. • Applicants must include all components of the audition on ONE VIDEO without edits. • Each application video must contain the following audition materials in the order below: 1. SLATE: student’s full name & school 2. Low Major Scale 3. High Major Scale

4. Chromatic Scale 5. Solo 1 6. Solo 2

• Complete Instructions for compiling and submitting the audtion video can be found on the NJAJE Website: www.njaje.org.

• Videos and online registration must be submitted NO LATER than 11:59 PM 3/08/2027. ***Audition Requirements*** All scales must be sung ascending and descending, with the exception of the LOW major scale for ALTOS & BASSES, who may choose to begin with descending order for that scale only.

•

Low Major Scale: (sung a cappella on “AH”, ♩ = 80 approx. – starting pitch provided, or use your own pitch source) ü Soprano – C; Alto – F; Tenor – D; Bass – G

•

High Major Scale: (sung a cappella on “AH”, ♩ = 80 approx. – starting pitch provided, or use your own pitch source) ü Soprano – G; Alto – D; Tenor – G; Bass – C

•

Chromatic Scale: (sung a cappella on “AH”, ♩ = 80 approx. – starting pitch provided, or use your own pitch source) ü Soprano/Tenor – G to D; Alto/Bass – C to G

•

Solo 1 (music & accompaniment track downloadable from www.njaje.org): ü Must be sung in one of the two keys provided. ü Must be sung to accompaniment track from the website. ü Student may include vocal stylings to demonstrate understanding of jazz style.

•

Solo 2 (music & accompaniment track downloadable from www.njaje.org): ü Must be sung in the key provided. ü Must be sung to accompaniment track from the website. ü Student may sing the solo in any of the following manners: Ø Sing as written. Ø Sing the melody as written with student’s own syllables. Ø Sing an altered version of the melody using syllables of the student’s own choosing. Ø Sing an entirely improvised scat solo.

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Rhythm and Rotations: Creative Centers in the Elementary Classroom Amy Paz Woodside Avenue School, Franklin Lakes apaz[at]franklinlakes.k12.nj.us I always joke that being an elementary music teacher is like throwing a birthday party for 27 six-year-olds every 30 minutes, all day, every day. From the rapid turnover (with no clean up in between!) to the need for high engagement, creative structure, and sustained energy, every class brings its own challenges. Keeping everyone engaged while still making sure we are having meaningful musical experiences can be a challenge. For a long time, I taught almost completely based on wholegroup instruction. The idea of having students spread out around the room and work in small groups sounded too much like chaos to me. Then I started thinking about all the other classes my students were in. They were already expected to work independently and in small groups. So why not in music? That was the beginning of centers in my classroom. The first time I tried it, I was nervous. Would they stay on task? Would they know what to do? Would the noise level be completely out of control? I carefully prepared and over planned for that first day. Eventually, I found that centers gave me a way to get students more actively involved while also giving me the opportunity to step back. While students work, I can walk around, listen, ask questions, help when needed, and assess their understanding. I can also spend time with a small group instead of trying to hear what every student is doing while leading the entire class. Students could reinforce rhythms, explore instruments, listen and respond, create, use technology, or work together on a musical challenge. Each center had a purpose and connected to what we are learning in music. Centers also gave me opportunities for informal assessment. I can focus on a small group, listen for specific skills, and take notes.

age of my students all influence how I organize a rotation. If you’re new to using centers, start small. You do not need five or six different centers happening at once. Two or three wellplanned centers can provide plenty of variety. Once students understand the routines and the activities, you can always add more. Another option is to split the class into two groups and have each group work on a different activity. There is also nothing wrong with having both groups do the same activity! This can be a great way to start. It makes the classroom easier to manage while still giving students the experience of working in a smaller group. I also think about where I place each center. Instruments and games with pieces need more space, while listening or literacy activities may work better in another corner. If I have students listening or reading carefully, I definitely don’t want them sitting right next to a group playing ukuleles! Grouping is another piece I think about ahead of time. Sometimes I choose the groups, sometimes I make them randomly, and sometimes I group students strategically based on the activity. The important thing is having a plan before students walk through the door. Types of Centers Here are a few of my favorite low-prep centers that have been huge hits with my students. I love centers that give students a chance to make choices, be creative, and explore music without requiring a ton of preparation. Vocal Exploration A vocal exploration center gives students a chance to experiment with their voices. I tell them to make a creative shape, then trace it with their finger as they follow with their voice! Students can explore pitch, vocal sounds, dynamics, and different ways of using their voices. One of my favorite simple activities uses a piece of string. Students arrange the string into a shape or pattern and then trace it with their voices. As the string moves up, down, or around, students use their voices to follow the pathway. It is so simple and requires almost no preparation.

Getting Started Before planning a day of centers, I ask myself a few questions: • How many centers will I have? • How many students should be in each group? • How will I create the groups? • Where will each group work? The answers will look different in every classroom. My class size, room layout, available instruments and materials, and the TEMPO

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Students choose a character and have a musical conversation. In this center, the stuffies only speak “sing.” Students can ask questions like, “What is your favorite ice cream flavor?” or “What did you eat for lunch today?” This can be a fun one to change out seasonally with ghosts or turkeys. Here is an example of the card I place at that center with the direction. Build a Musical Creature I tell them to use the basket of instruments to build a musical creature! This is a great place to repurpose some older, “well-loved”, instruments (try to avoid finger cymbals, trust me!). If your students are familiar with Aiken Drum they can sing the song using the instruments they choose. Be mindful with this center. This center is where I see the most off-task behavior. My students are so excited to play, touch, and hear all the sounds the instruments make that they can get very curious..and loud!

Boomwhackers In this center, Boomwhackers encourage students to experiment with patterns, create rhythmic or melodic ideas, or work together to solve a musical challenge. For example, I might give students a short pattern to recreate. My students love having different colors and pitches to explore. Game-Based Play I love finding ways to turn games into musical learning. A building center can use Mega Bloks, Jenga blocks, or other game type manipulatives. Students might build a tower while completing a rhythm challenge, organize musical ideas, or build something connected to a musical concept. I often repurpose old childhood games and use white labels to write rhythms on each block. I am currently working on a rhythm version for our household favorite, Don’t Break the Ice!

Whisper Phones I love my whisper phones and any excuse to bring them out! The same goes for my large collection of picture books. Students choose from a pile of books and use the whisper phones to read or sing the story quietly. This gives students a way to focus on their own voices without adding as much sound to the room. It is especially helpful when other groups are working on louder activities. My younger students can make up a story based on the pictures, and my older ones love to revisit their favorites! I am always surprised at the intense engagement at this center! Explore a story or practice a melody!

Sing Me a Story This is one of my favorite centers because it combines singing, imagination, and musical play. I put out a basket of my favorite classroom stuffies, puppets, or little characters. Many of mine have come from the Dollar Spot at Target, so this does not have to be an expensive center!

Ukuleles If you have ukuleles or guitars, these make a great center. Students can practice chords, strumming patterns, chord progressions, or familiar songs. I place laminated chord chart flashcards at this center, and students can choose one chord OCTOBER 2026

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or arrange a few to create a chord progression. Students who are ready for an extra challenge can work on changing chords or creating their own patterns. Pick a challenge card and try something new!

Keeping the routine consistent makes a huge difference. Eventually, students know what comes next without me having to explain it every time. More Than a Rotation The purpose of centers isn’t just to make my elementary music classroom easier to manage. For me, it is about creating more opportunities for students to actually do music and reinforce the skills we are learning. When students rotate through centers, they can sing, play, listen, create, collaborate, experiment, and make their own musical decisions. I am able to really watch my students: listen, assess, work with a smaller group, and see what they can do when given space to work independently. Sometimes the best thing I can do is give students a musical task, step back, and see what happens. The days with centers may create a little more noise, a little more movement, and occasionally a lot more organized chaos. But that is just the beautiful sound of students actively creating and exploring music.

Making Rotations Work The activities are only part of making centers successful. The routines are just as important. • Teach the procedure first. We practice where to go, how to move, where materials belong, and what to do when we finish. • Make directions easy to follow. Short directions, pictures, and examples help students work independently. I have a picture at each center, along with clear, short directions and an example of what the center should look like. This makes it easy to use for sub plans as well! • Use a visual timer! Students can see how much time they have left and know when it is time to clean up or reset the center and rotate. • Separate centers by volume. I try to keep listening and literacy centers away from instrument-playing centers. • Give students a musical purpose. A center should not become “free instrument time.” Give students something to create, a problem to solve, a question to answer, or a skill to practice.

Resources My favorite visual timer: Five-Minute Timer with Two-Minute Cleanup: The 4x6 Store: http://www.youtube.com/@the4x6store

What Do Center Days Look Like? Once students know the routine, a center day in my classroom is pretty simple. 1. We start with our usual routine. Students come in and we sing our hello song. 2. I introduce the centers. I briefly explain each activity and demonstrate anything new. 3. We review what to do at each center. 4. I assign groups and send each group to its starting center. 5. We set the visual timer. Students usually have about five minutes at each center. 6. We transition. When the timer goes off, students have one minute to clean up and move to the next center. 7. We repeat!

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From Idea to App: Vibe Coding for the Music Classroom Amy Burns Far Hills Country Day School aburns[at]fhcds.org

Musical Spelling Game (https://www.amymburns.com/ websitesresources) by Amy Burns: This can be used as a center or whole-group activity to help students recall treble-clef note names through a game inspired by Hangman. Scroll to the Music Games section to find this app and others I have created while experimenting with vibe coding.

Like many technology terms that have appeared during my 30-plus years of teaching, vibe coding seemed to be everywhere this summer - even alongside our annual training sessions on bloodborne pathogens, concussions, and other essential topics. But what is vibe coding, and why should a music educator care? What Is Vibe Coding? Vibe coding is asking a generative AI tool to create an app for you. You describe what you want the app to do, and the AI writes the code. You then try the app, tell the AI what is working or what needs to change, and continue improving it. You do not need formal programming experience to begin. However, vibe coding is not the same as software engineering, and the person creating the app remains responsible for what it does. For music educators, this can make small, highly specific classroom tools possible: a game that practices one rhythm pattern, a scale selector for an ensemble warm-up, or an alternative way for a student to make music. The best first projects are focused tools, not complete learning-management systems or apps that collect student information. Examples Created by Music Educators Scale Grabber (https://scale-grabber-band.katie497653. chatgpt.site/ )by Katie Argyle: This claw-machine-style app lets students select the scale their ensemble will play.

Vocal Adventures (https://vocaladventures.netlify.app/) by James Kotora: Students choose a syllable, vocal line, and background, then sing along with the screen as a vocal warm-up.

OCTOBER 2026

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Play Music Your Way (https://teachingmob.my.canva.site/) by Stephanie Williams: Williams, a music teacher from Arkansas, created this collection so students can make music through traditional and nontraditional forms of interaction. As the site invites students, "Experiment with music using body movements or eye movements to create your own sound!"

The New Jersey Department of Education's AI (https://www. nj.gov/education/innovation/ai/) guidance is another useful starting point for district conversations. Expect Filtering and Sharing Differences If an AI platform hosts your app, its name may appear in the web address, and that domain may be blocked on a school network. Using a school-supported AI tool can help, but it does not guarantee that the finished app will be accessible. Features, sharing permissions, and data protections vary by plan and by administrator settings. Test the exact published link while connected to the student network and on the devices students will use. Check Accessibility, Musical Accuracy, and Copyright AI-generated apps do not automatically meet accessibility standards. Test them with a keyboard as well as a mouse or touchscreen. Check color contrast, readable text size, visible focus indicators, clear instructions, and alternatives for information presented only through sound or color. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Quick Reference (https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/quickref/) can help guide this review. The AI may also generate wrong pitches, rhythms, note spellings, instrument ranges, or scoring rules while presenting them confidently. A music educator must verify every musical detail. Finally, use only audio, images, fonts, and other media that you created or have permission to use. Material that may be appropriate for an in-person lesson is not automatically cleared for posting on a public website.

Peter and the Wolf Musical Theme Flashcards (https://peter-wolf-flashcards.katie497653.chatgpt.site/) by Katie Argyle: This site offers an engaging way to review the characters and musical themes in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.

How to Begin 1. Start with one learning goal. Choose a focused need, such as practicing musical alphabet words, identifying instruments and their families, or selecting a scale for warm-ups. 2. Choose a tool your school supports. Confirm that the platform and its published links are permitted on your network before investing significant time. 3. Describe the learner and the task. Include the students' age or grade, the musical concept, the desired interaction, the devices they will use, and what successful feedback should look or sound like. 4. Add guardrails. State that the app should require no login, collect no data, use only approved media, work with keyboard and touch controls, and include clear Reset and Help options. 5. Build one feature at a time. Test after every successful change and save a known-working version before asking the AI to revise something else. 6. Test like a student. Try correct and incorrect answers, repeated clicks, small screens, muted audio, slow connections, browser refreshes, and unexpected input. Ask a colleague or small pilot group to test it, too.

What to Know Before You Build Protect Student Information First and foremost, do not begin by building an app that collects or stores student names, grades, email addresses, photographs, voice recordings, performance scores, or other personal information. Never paste confidential student information into an AI prompt. FERPA (https://studentprivacy. ed.gov/ferpa) governs personally identifiable information from education records, while COPPA (https://www.ftc.gov/ business-guidance/resources/complying-coppa-frequentlyasked-questions) places requirements on online services that collect personal information from children under 13. District and school policies may add further requirements. A tool does not become private simply because students do not create accounts. A site may still use analytics, contact outside services, or transmit information. For a first project, create a no-login, no-data tool that runs without saving student work. Before classroom use, ask your IT staff and/or administration to review both the AI platform and the published app. TEMPO

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For example, my first prompt for the Musical Spelling Game described the basic concept and listed the words I wanted to use. A stronger opening prompt would be: Create a browser-based musical spelling game for students in Grades 3-5. Use only the letters A-G and the words BEE, EGG, BEG, FACE, ACE, CAB, BEAD, FEED, CAFE, BAGGAGE, and CABBAGE. Present one hidden word at a time and give students buttons labeled A-G. When a student selects a letter that appears in the word, reveal every occurrence and add one point. When the letter is not in the word, subtract one point. Include brief directions, New Word and Reset buttons, keyboard and touchscreen controls, large readable text, and sufficient color contrast. Do not require a login, collect data, use analytics, or save student responses. The first version will rarely be the final version. Test it, explain one problem at a time, and ask for a specific change. If a revision breaks something that previously worked, return to the last working version rather than continuing to patch a broken one.

Figure 1 https://www.canva.com/ai/code

Figure 2: Vibe coding Musical Hangman with Canva

OCTOBER 2026

Figure 3: Version 3 of Musical Hangman

Choosing a Generative AI Tool Canva Code (https://www.canva.com/ai/code) Canva for Education (https://www.canva.com/learn/canva-for-education/ ) is free for eligible K-12 teachers and students and includes premium features. Canva Code can create interactive designs or elements, save versions, and publish the finished design as a website. AI access and usage limits vary. In my experience, Canva is a comfortable place to begin with a small, self-contained game because the result can be placed in a design and customized visually. I found it less forgiving with intricate projects: one revision sometimes affected another feature, and repeated prompting used the available AI allowance. ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/) ChatGPT can create, preview, test, and revise detailed web apps. Some plans and workspaces also offer publishing through Sites (https://developers.openai.com/codex/sites). In the version I used, the app remained private while I reviewed it and was published only when I requested that step. When memory or project context is enabled, ChatGPT may also draw on information previously shared. For example, it used the Boomwhacker colors and hex codes from earlier work when helping me create a Boomwhacker Music Maker. That continuity can save time, but every detail still needs to be verified. Availability, limits, and publishing options depend on the plan and workspace settings. Gemini (https://gemini.google.com/). Gemini's Canvas (https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/16047321) can create and share interactive apps. A school that uses Google Workspace may find Gemini fits more naturally into its existing environment, but a school email address does not guarantee that Canvas, app sharing, or a published link will be enabled. Those details depend on licensing and administrator settings. Google also offers free AI literacy training and a Gemini Certified Educator credential (https://edu.google.com/learning29

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center/certifications/). Stephanie Williams used Gemini to help create the inclusive music-making experiences in Play Music Your Way. Claude (https://claude.ai/) Claude can create interactive apps through Artifacts (https://support.anthropic.com/en/ articles/11649427-use-artifacts-to-visualize-and-create-aiapps-without-ever-writing-a-line-of-code) and can be effective for projects involving several features or detailed instructions. Whether an Artifact can be published publicly or shared only within an organization depends on the account and plan. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude can support projects with audio, multiple screens, and detailed interactions, but their capabilities, limits, prices, and sharing options change frequently. A paid plan may provide higher limits or more features, but it does not guarantee better results or error-free code.

The Cons • A polished-looking app may still have features that do not work as intended, incorrect musical content, security weaknesses, or inaccessible controls. • Fixing one feature may cause another feature to stop working, especially when the creator does not understand the underlying code. • Time and usage limits: Repeated testing and prompting can consume both planning time and AI credits. • Maintenance: Browser updates, platform changes, expired links, or changed hosting policies can cause a classroom app to stop working. • Dependence on the platform: If the code cannot be exported or the app exists only on one service, moving or repairing it later may be difficult.

The Pros A Customizable App for Your Music Class The biggest benefit of vibe coding is being able to create a customizable app for your specific music class and students. You are not limited to a general app designed for thousands of classrooms. You can ask for the exact pitches, rhythms, instruments, colors, directions, and ways of interacting that your students need. This can help you reach students who may not be able to participate successfully through a traditional instrument, singing activity, or written response. The app should not replace those experiences; it can provide another way for students to make music and show what they know. • You can start with one small classroom need and add features only when they are useful. • You can turn a classroom idea into something you can test without first learning a programming language. • You can create a specialized tool that may not be available from a commercial developer. • You can revise the app as your curriculum or students' needs change.

Final Thoughts At this point, I think of vibe coding as working with an enthusiastic junior programmer. The AI can build quickly, but it needs clear direction, careful testing, and frequent correction. It does not replace software engineers, nor does it remove the teacher's responsibility for privacy, accessibility, copyright, musical accuracy, or classroom appropriateness. Begin with one no-login, no-data classroom need. Keep the first app small, save working versions, and test it on the same network and devices your students will use. Vibe coding is most valuable when it helps more students make music in ways that support - rather than distract from - the musical goal.

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Resources Argyle, K. (n.d.). Code your own interactive music games and activities using AI (for complete beginners!) [Webinar]. Midnight Music. https://midnightmusic.com/ Frankel, J. (2026, August 21). What the heck is "vibe coding," and why should you know what it is? Music Tech Helper. https://www.musictechhelper.com/blog/what-the-heck-isvibe-coding-and-why-should-you-know-what-it-is

OCTOBER 2026

Before They Walk Through the Door: Proactive Classroom Management Amanda Newell Adjunct Instructor, Music Education Westminster Choir College at Rider University newellam[at]rider.edu

It was a typical “desk-throwing Tuesday,” although things had improved enough that, on this particular day, I was only dodging books being thrown at me by one student. And somehow, the rest of the class was engaged. The lesson was working. Then one student stood up and shouted at his classmate, “Will you sit down and stop this and let the lady teach!” I froze. I was a first-year teacher, and I absolutely had things to learn about classroom management. But I had also learned another lesson: calling the office for help could itself become evidence that I could not manage my class. As my vice principal had told me, “Only you can stop yourself from teaching.” The student throwing the books had learned something, too: consequences did not necessarily apply to him. As I hesitated, he crossed the room and punched the classmate who had spoken up. Now I had no choice. I called the office. A lesson in which nearly an entire class had remained engaged while I dodged flying books became another piece of evidence that I could not manage a classroom. Early in my career, classroom management was often framed in the negative: what students should not do, what teachers should not tolerate, and what happened when someone crossed a line. The advice was familiar: “Don’t smile until Christmas.” Be tougher. Make sure they know who is in charge. Rules and consequences could also be undermined from above, leaving teachers responsible for maintaining order without a consistent schoolwide system. I was split between two schools, and the difficulties were not identical. I was still the same inexperienced teacher, but the context changed. That mattered. The district sent me to a full-day classroom management workshop, and I tried the suggested strategies. But in 1995–96, finding music-specific guidance meant physically searching for it. I spent weekends at Barnes & Noble looking through education and music sections. MENC—now NAfME—had a small publication on classroom management, but I found little addressing elementary general music. OCTOBER 2026

Most guidance was designed for classroom teachers who saw the same students every day. I was trying to adapt those systems to approximately thirty different classes. I made thirty sticker charts. I tried prize buckets. They did not work. Years later, Alfie Kohn’s critique of rewards and punishment gave me language for what I had begun learning through experience: extrinsic systems may produce short-term compliance without helping children understand, value, or eventually take ownership of what a community needs. When I moved into my second year in a new district, I was terrified—and extraordinarily fortunate. I landed in a school with an exceptional principal and colleagues whose approach to children matched what I had always felt teaching should be. They met students where they were and for who they were. Care was not separate from expectations; it shaped how expectations were communicated. I would later recognize that idea in Nel Noddings’s work. Care is not simply being “nice.” It is relational: knowing students, responding to them, and creating conditions in which they can succeed while maintaining meaningful expectations. I was still traveling between schools, once to three in a single year. Forty minutes every six school days, class after class. I began recognizing that sticker charts and prize systems were not built for this kind of teaching. So I began throwing them out. What replaced them was not one new classroom-management system. It was a different way of thinking about when classroom management begins. For me, it began before students entered the room. Students thrive on predictability: knowing the boundaries, what is expected, and what happens next. I heard that from students while I was still teaching, in conversations about why they behaved differently in different spaces and what helped them learn. I still have recordings of some of those conversations. Years later, when I began interviewing former students, one word surfaced repeatedly: safe. That safety came from far more than routines or colored 31

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tape. It grew from relationships, care, consistency, belonging, and understanding why expectations existed. Those parts of classroom climate deserve fuller attention and will be the subject of future writing. For now, I want to focus on the first opportunity we have to begin building that climate: before students walk through the door. Predictable routines and clear boundaries were one part of that safety. Students knew what would happen next and what success looked like. That structure did not make the room less creative. It gave them something stable enough to stand on before lessons called for them to sing alone, improvise, move, create, make mistakes, or take the other risks meaningful music-making requires. That realization shifted my management from reactive to proactive. Instead of waiting for something to go wrong, I began asking what I could put in place first. How would students enter? Where would they go? What would they hear? What would signal that they had moved from one classroom culture into another? What could I make clear enough that a five-year-old could understand it without a lecture? The transition itself became part of the lesson. If students arrived ready and moved quickly into music-making, no instructional time was lost. If they needed several minutes in the hallway to reset to music-room expectations, they learned that those minutes came from the same forty-minute period they hoped might include a favorite game, song, video, or closing activity. Over time, they became remarkably aware of the clock. Efficient transitions created more time for the extra-special activities they looked forward to in music class. The goal was not to threaten them with the loss of a reward. It was to help them understand that our time was finite, their choices affected how we used it, and they had agency in protecting it. With my fellow “Dungeon Crew”—the special-area teachers housed down a flight of stairs in a semi-basement—we kept returning to one deceptively simple problem: the hallway. Up to thirty classroom teachers could mean thirty different expectations for walking, lining up, waiting, entering, and transitioning. Children arrived from different classroom cultures carrying different ideas about what those things should look like. I could not control thirty classroom systems. But I could create one that made sense when students arrived at mine. We borrowed a simple idea from our incredible PE teacher: floor tape. We marked the place where each class would be greeted. That line became the transition point between one classroom’s expectations and ours. Crossing it was almost like clicking the View-Master in their brains: now we were in music. When I later moved to the district where I would teach until retirement, I expanded the idea. Green tape marked where TEMPO

students could go. Red tape marked where they should stop or ask first. With kindergarten, I introduced those expectations in the first music class. “What does green mean?” “Go!” “What does red mean?” “Stop!” “Perfect. The first person in line will be our door holder. I see around thirty classes every week, so from this moment on, when we enter”—with as much drama as possible—“the music room, the first person holds the door.” Then I turned to the second child. “You’re going to lead us in. Follow the green line, stop at the red X, and we’re going to play ‘Following the Leader.’” Before entering, the children knew where to go, where to stop, what the first two people would do, and that music class would feel different. The tape was never the point. The point was making the invisible visible. Because I taught many students from kindergarten through fifth grade, I rarely had to explain the routine again. New students got a quiet introduction; otherwise, the structure became part of music class. The routine stayed the same, but the music changed constantly. Sometimes recorded music led directly into the lesson. Sometimes I gave the first notes of a familiar song and students carried it from there. My favorite was “Steal the Song From Mrs. Newell.” Students listened for lyrics, repeated phrases, and rhythmic patterns. When they could predict or remember what came next, they could “steal” that phrase from me. Bit by bit, they learned the song while entering the room—beginning instruction without losing a moment of class time. Sometimes, if I spent too long talking with a classroom teacher, the students stopped waiting for me and chose their own song. Years later, our former librarian and one of my favorite substitute teachers, Joan Brady, described what happened when I was absent. Students knew the expectations. Someone stepped forward and began the entry song. They requested favorite Kodály singing games and led them themselves. Joan sometimes adjusted the substitute plan because she was so impressed that the students knew what to do and comfortably took responsibility for the music-making. That is where I now see Vygotsky and Freire living inside the practice. What began as teacher-supported structure became increasingly independent action. The students were no longer simply following my routine. They were using it, adapting it, choosing within it, and leading one another. The teacher had not disappeared, nor had the boundaries. But the musical life of the room no longer belonged exclusively to the teacher. 32

OCTOBER 2026

The structure had not disappeared because I was absent. It had become theirs. One of my greatest early challenges was getting students through the door and regulated enough to move from whatever climate they had just left into the creative climate of the music room while maintaining high expectations without becoming someone I wasn’t. On a difficult day, that transition could consume ten or fifteen minutes of a forty-minute class. By beginning with active music-making or focused listening, and by making boundaries visible, the expectations were already in place and the learning had already begun. Too often, children find themselves “in trouble” for breaking a rule they did not know existed because no one made the expectation clear. A red line in front of the piano says something more useful than a reprimand after the fact: Stop. Ask first. Classroom management stopped being primarily about what I would do when children got it wrong.

It became about how intentionally I could create the conditions that helped them understand, participate, take ownership, and succeed. References Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 50th anniversary ed.). Bloomsbury Academic. (Original English work published 1970). Kohn, A. (1993). Punished by rewards: The trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A’s, praise, and other bribes. Houghton Mifflin. Noddings, N. (1988). An ethic of caring and its implications for instructional arrangements. American Journal of Education, 96(2), 215–230. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds.). Harvard University Press.

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Tuning the Standards Shawna Longo District Supervisor of VPA and Consumer Education shawnalongo[at]gmail.com

As New Jersey music educators, our classrooms are spaces under constant tuning. We adjust our ensembles’ pitch, refine our students' rhythmic precision, and constantly adapt our instructional practices to meet the diverse needs of the young musicians walking through our doors. This year, our state’s educational framework is undergoing a similar process of tuning and refinement. Under New Jersey Administrative Code (N.J.A.C. 6A:8-2.1), the Commissioner of Education is directed to engage in a systematic review and readoption of the New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS) every five years. The Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) standards, last adopted in 2020, entered this cyclical review process on June 30, 2025. Following months of collaborative evaluation, writing, and public discussion, the newly revised 2026 NJSLS-VPA has emerged. If the phrase "revised standards" triggers a wave of curriculuminduced anxiety, take a deep breath. This revision is not a complete reconstruction of the wheel. Instead, think of it as a masterclass in editing. The expert committees—comprised our own New Jersey arts educators and specialists—focused on "right-sizing" our educational roadmap. Their primary objectives were to streamline performance expectations, enhance vertical alignment, respect developmental readiness, and grant local school districts muchneeded flexibility. To help you prepare for the upcoming transition, let’s break down what has stayed the same, explore the five most critical strategic shifts, and look at the timeline leading to full classroom integration.

musical ideas. • Performing (Pr): Selecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting musical work. • Responding (Re): Perceiving, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating music. • Connecting (Cn): Synthesizing personal experience and relating musical work to societal, cultural, and historical contexts. 2. The Eleven Anchor Standards The general skills and knowledge descriptions associated with these processes remain unchanged and parallel across all five arts disciplines (Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts). For example, Anchor Standard 1 will always be "Generating and conceptualizing ideas," whether a student is a second-grade general music student or an advanced high school wind ensemble clarinetist. 3. The Five Music Sub-Disciplines The framework continues to recognize the unique instructional landscapes of music education by preserving our five distinct content strands: • 1.3A General Music (K-8) • 1.3B Music Composition and Theory (9-12) • 1.3C Music Ensembles (Novice to Advanced) • 1.3D Music Harmonizing Instruments (Novice to Advanced) • 1.3E Music Technology (9-12) 4. Enduring Understandings & Essential Questions The conceptual frameworks of Enduring Understandings (EUs) and Essential Questions (EQs) persist to guide our daily lesson planning and deep, inquiry-based learning.

What Remains Consistent When navigating any major educational update, it is reassuring to anchor ourselves in familiar territory. The core structural pillars of our state's arts education framework remain fully intact. The revised standards continue to build on the foundational philosophy that arts literacy is a fundamental right and an essential component of a holistic education.

5. Cross-Curricular Climate Change Integration (□) New Jersey continues to lead the nation by incorporating climate change and environmental sustainability education across all academic areas. Music educators will still find the "sprout" symbol (□) throughout the standards, highlighting opportunities where environmental themes and cultural discourses can be organically explored through musical expression, responding, and connecting.

1. The Four Artistic Processes The cognitive and physical pathways of arts learning remain the bedrock of the standards. Our curriculum will continue to be organized around the same four familiar artistic processes: • Creating (Cr): Generating, organizing, and refining original TEMPO

OCTOBER 2026

Five Key Shifts While the foundation is secure, the revisions represent a major leap forward in user-friendliness and pedagogical realism. The writing committees worked diligently to correct the "crowdedness" of the 2020 document. Here are the five key strategic shifts that will shape your curriculum work moving forward: 1. Reduction and Consolidation of Performance Expectations (PEs) Many music educators felt that the 2020 standards suffered from "target fatigue." There were simply too many distinct performance expectations to teach, track, and assess within a single school year—especially in programs with limited instructional contact time. The 2026 revisions streamline these requirements by merging redundant expectations and focusing on core content. By narrowing the volume of targets, the state is encouraging depth over breadth. This allows educators to spend more time facilitating high-quality artistic mastery and less time checking off hyperspecific administrative boxes. 2. Realignment of Performance Expectations The writing committees audited every single performance expectation to ensure it mapped logically and cleanly to its designated Anchor Standard. Where language was muddy or misaligned, it was rewritten to promote vertical coherence. This realignment ensures that as a student progresses from elementary general music to middle school band or high school choir, their developmental scaffold is smooth, logical, and continuous. 3. Focus on Developmental Learning Progressions One of the most compassionate and practical changes in the 2026 standards is the adjustment of standards to match the cognitive and physical developmental readiness of students. Overly complex or abstract benchmarks have been shifted to older age bands, while early-grade expectations have been modified to focus on building critical, tactile foundational skills. For example, in the 1.3A General Music strand for Grade 2: • Old Standard: Students were expected to select patterns and ideas that "represent expressive intent." • Revised Standard (1.3A.2.Cr2a): This has been rewritten to require selecting patterns and ideas that "express an idea or emotion." This shift to "idea or emotion" is much more aligned with the vocabulary and social-emotional capacity of a seven-year-old child. Similarly, in Grade 5 General Music (1.3A.5.Cr3a), the revision removes the cumbersome requirement for intermediate students to verbally "explain their rationale for changes" during a revision process, shifting the primary focus back to the collaborative, active musical revision itself.

sembles (1.3C) and Harmonizing Instruments (1.3D) were bound to a high school grade band within the alphanumeric coding (using the "12" identifier, such as 1.3C.12nov.Pr4). This created significant implementation confusion: How do we legally and logically apply these standards to a middle school intermediate band or an elementary-level beginning string ensemble? The 2026 standards solve this elegantly. The fixed grade level "12" has been entirely removed from the alphanumeric coding for Ensembles and Harmonizing Instruments. The levels are now coded strictly by proficiency level (Novice, Intermediate, Proficient, Accomplished, and Advanced). For example, the code for Novice Ensembles is now simply 1.3C.nov. Pr4a. This change empowers school districts to officially map standards-based proficiency instruction to any grade level. You can now align a 4th-grade beginning band or a 6th-grade select choir with the Novice or Intermediate standards respectively, recognizing their musical growth based on skill acquisition rather than age. 5. Clarified and Teacher-Friendly Language The writing committees combed through the language of the 2020 standards to eliminate unnecessary academic jargon, simplify sentence structures, and clarify ambiguous terms. In 1.3A General Music (Grade 5 - Performing), for instance: • Old Version: Required students to read and perform using "standard notation." • New Version (1.3A.5.Pr4c): Now specifies reading and performing using "appropriate notation." This simple word change opens the door to using lead sheets, graphic scores, tablature, and non-traditional notation systems, validating the diverse ways modern music-making is documented and shared. In another instance, the second-grade standard 1.3A.2.Pr6b has been updated to explicitly read: "Perform for an audience using appropriate concert etiquette." By injecting clear, direct concepts like "concert etiquette," the standards become an immediate, practical resource for our performance preparation. Navigating the Two Document Formats Now that the official documentation is fully published, you are able to access the standards in two distinct formats, depending on your current curriculum needs: 1. The Developmental Progressions Format: This presents the performance expectations by disciplinary concept in a continuous, visual K-12 learning progression. This is highly useful for curriculum writers and district supervisors looking to scaffold instruction horizontally and vertically across grade levels. 2. The Performance Expectations Format: This organizes the standards traditionally by grade bands (K-2, 3-5, 6-8) and high school proficiency levels (Proficient, Accomplished, Advanced). This format is ideal for classroom teachers drafting unit plans and aligning daily lesson targets.

4. Alphanumeric Flexibility For secondary performance directors, this is the most exciting and liberating change in the entire 2026 revision. The Road to Implementation: What Happens Next? In the 2020 standards, the performance expectations for EnThe transition to these revised standards is designed to be a OCTOBER 2026 35 TEMPO

thoughtful, gradual process. There is no need to discard your current curriculum maps or redesign your assessments overnight.

guides, curriculum crosswalks, and professional learning opportunities designed to help you integrate these changes smoothly into your existing programs. Our immediate task as music educators during this bridge year is simple: familiarization. Read through the streamlined performance expectations, discuss the proficiency-based coding with your district colleagues, and begin thinking about how these refined pathways can help make your teaching more impactful, expressive, and joyful. The 2026 Revised NJSLS-VPA respects our time, honors our students' developmental curves, and protects our artistic flexibility. To learn more, check out the NJDOE website (https://www. nj.gov/education/standards/vpa/ ) and make sure you attend my panel workshop at our February Conference in Atlantic City. Hope to see you there! Please note: This article was written in collaboration with Gemini in August 2026 prior to the official approval of the 2026 NJSLS

[September 2026] NJ State Board Final Approval ↓ [2026 - 2027 School Year] Development of Guides, Professional Learning, & STAMP Updates ↓ [Fall (September) 2027] Full Classroom District Alignment Implementation The New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), in collaboration with music education leaders across the state, is preparing a comprehensive suite of resources to assist districts. These will be housed on the STAMP (Standards Transparency and Mastery Platform) webpage. This roll-out will include detailed implementation

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OCTOBER 2026

2026 - 2027 ALL STATE BAND SOLO LIST (rev. July 2026) Instrument

Solo

Composer

Publisher

Piccolo

Piccolo Espagnol

Christensen

Kendor 10420

Flute

Sonata in e, No. 5

Bach/Wummer

Southern SS120

Oboe

Quartet K370, Mvts 1 & 2

Mozart

International 1466

English Horn*

Concertino for English Horn

Donizetti

Edition Peters EP4847

Eb Clarinet*

Adagio e Tanantella (Bb Clarinet Version

Cavallini

Carl Fischer CU526

Bb Clarinet

Concerto, Mvts 2 & 3

Mozart

Schirmer HL50261780

Eb Alto Clarinet*

Darkwood

Bennett

Carl Fischer W1670

Bb Bass Clarinet

Ballade

Bozza

Southern SS287

Contra Clarinet*

Darkwood

Bennett

Carl Fischer W1670

Bassoon

Concert Piece

Pierne

International 1617

Bb Sop. Sax*

Sonata "Alpine", Opus 37

Lunde

To the Fore Publishing

Eb Alto Sax

Sonata, Mvts 1 & 2

Lunde

Southern SS743

Bb Tenor Sax

Concerto in g minor

Bennett

Carl Fischer W1736

Eb Bari Sax

Sonata, Mvts 1 & 2

Anderson

Southern ST172

Bb Trumpet

Sonata, Opus 18

Hansen

Hickman Music Editions

Horn

Concerto No. 1

Strauss

International 1715

Trombone

Morceau Symphonique

Guilmant

Alfred TS0046

Bass Trombone*

Concerto

Lebdev/Ostrand

Editions Musicus EMI 128 Ensemble Pub

Euphonium

Lyric Suite, Mvts 2 & 3

White

Schirmer HL50365300

Tuba

Etudes 7, 8, 9 from 70 Studies for Bb Tuba, Vol 1 Blazhevich

Robert King HL48185234

Harp*

Impromptu Caprice

Pierne

Alphonse Luduc AL10381

Piano*

Fantasien, Opus 116, No. 7

Brahms

G. Henle Verlag HN1216

Timpani

Etude #17 from The Timpani Challenge

Woud

Pustjens Percussion Products

Mallets

Tambourin Chinois

Krisler/Green

Carl Fischer F1934

V from Nine French-American Rudimental

Tompkins

Bachovich Publications

Whaley

Meredith Music 00317000

Battery Percussion Snare

Solos - Volume 1 Keyboard

Etude No. 8 (from Audition Etudes)

*Instruments will be used as needed. OCTOBER 2026 TEMPO

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Student Choice in Cultivating Safe Spaces & Cultural Relevance in the Inclusive Music Classroom Christopher Cavarretta Music Teacher cdc1234[at]verizon.net

Student representation can take place at all levels of music education. Students can demonstrate representation within their education at all ages, from kindergarten through twelfth grade. We incorporate representations through ownership of musical selections and the association of personal identification. In this process, students can distinguish instruments for each part and how to play them. In their small groups, they are given time to work on the rhythm while one group member counts the beats out loud. After that, I asked each group to play their part for the other groups, and then we incorporated each one with the others. Each group can play for the different groups to create their unique arrangement. Blair (2009) references how students taking control of the instrument selections and distribution of parts creates a critical element of how students feel heard and appreciated in their classroom. The more students can control their environment and feel they are contributing to their education, the more likely they will understand new or long-lasting concepts in music successfully. Student representation relates to the core of student identity. Some of the greatest classical composers whose works have stood the test of time are from Europe. However, when leading ensembles, this does not mean that the only repertoire we utilize should originate from these areas. My school has a diverse range of students who originate from places in South America, Asia, Africa, and other cultural groups around the world. To name a few, composers such as George Bridgetower, Kris Bowers, and Roscoe Mitchell are three BIPOC artists who composed music for string ensembles. Their music offers a wide range of rhythmic and notational challenges that would be good for student growth. Even if the music is challenging for students, we can still utilize their music through arrangements or other components of a lesson. Students who can identify with the music they hear and use in the classroom will be able to resonate with the music. As educators, we can still utilize European classical composers. They offer rich musical cultures, inspirations, and consistently enriching melodies and harmonies. Students and teachers may burn out due to repeated repertoire or playing styles. Utilizing a diverse range of artists offers a contrast in musical styles, rhythms, and melodies for the classroom. When students and teachers encounter the same music repeatedly, it is easy to start feeling bored and disengaged. Mixing things up with a variety of artists can shake things up. Different musical styles, rhythms, and melodies bring new energy into the classroom. By exploring various genres and cultural influences, teachers can open fresh perspectives for students, deepen their musical knowledge, TEMPO

and reignite their excitement for learning. This makes the lessons more exciting and helps students develop a richer, more diverse appreciation for music. Offering new pieces and composers provides a healthy challenge to teachers and students alike. We can break down stereotypes and biases by highlighting diverse perspectives in the music classroom. This leads to a more comprehensive understanding of different communities and reduces prejudice in repertoire selection. A diverse curriculum and inclusive practices help students appreciate and respect other cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives. This promotes a more inclusive environment where all students feel valued and understood. Caring about student representation matters because it ensures that all students see themselves mirrored in their education, which can impact their engagement, sense of belonging, and success in music class. When working with or communicating with struggling students in my class, a common challenge has been identifying why a subject is necessary or where to find the motivation to put work into something. Students may refuse to do homework, complete assignments, or even attend classes merely because they choose not to do so. So, how do we engage students in material where they feel little connection to it? In some situations, I have engaged students in my classroom by relating their interests to their cultural backgrounds and current “pop” culture. Farias (2016) discusses the concept of teachers as cultural workers who identify with and should represent the different individuals in their classrooms. As cultural workers, teachers believe that all educators should be conscious and reflective of the individuals we work with daily. If we are better prepared and respectful of the different cultural needs of our students, we will be teaching responsively and effectively. This plays out in students' interests and how they respond to our teachings. As students enter a new environment, they may have considerable challenges adjusting. My younger students, particularly ENL in the kindergarten to third-grade range, struggle to engage in writing and verbal prompts. So, during a unit with second grade, where we introduced body movements with new rhythmic patterns, I incorporated traditional music from Uzbekistan for two new students who recently immigrated to our area. Teachers can incorporate our students' cultures, heritage, traditional songs, and musical material to teach our concepts and provide students with relevant and essential experiences in the classroom. Benson (2012) describes culturally significant teaching as providing an essential context for students to understand the material and creating situational awareness for their education. How students 38

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associate with material defines how they relate to core content areas. Outside of music education, culturally appropriate content encourages students to find new ways to connect to their material through possible family connections. As educators utilize culturally responsive material, they can find new ways to communicate with their students. Palmer (2021) identifies that teachers who practice cultural responsiveness in their classrooms find that students are experiencing individualized musical growth through phrasing, improved authentic relationships with their teachers, higher quality performances, and careful idea development for phrasing and musical context. Overall, culturally responsive education enhances students' ability to relate to the material and classroom experience. Coulson (2013) explains that students are more confident in their abilities to compose and create music when they are satisfied with their musical skills through self-representation. Self-representation can be seen in various ways, ultimately allowing students to feel confident in their work. When we utilize student opinion in repertoire selection, self-composition, and musical expression, we tell our students that we believe in them and value their choices. Even in non-educational settings, such as music therapy sessions, individuals can change the lyrics of songs to represent their unique opinions and outlooks better. Coulson (2013) also explains how students view music that they enjoy as being inherently creative. As students grow this viewpoint and begin to make their musical choices in selfexpression, we can foster their creativity to produce a higher standard of learning through self-representation, self-appreciation, and opinions that encourage self-growth. The importance of student choice in the music classroom cannot be understated. The reality of student representation and establishing their voice in the school ultimately allows for the crucial development of young minds in education. In the introduction of my research, I mention how every student has a right to feel proud, relevant, and connected to the material they see in the classroom. Throughout the four major components of my work, I introduce different elements of my students' music education and represent research that supports the concept of student voice in the classroom. Our beginner ensembles discuss the importance of maintaining investment in our classrooms. Incorporating ways to ensure students stay invested in the music-making process and create lifelong learning by engaging their interests in the school, using their common interests and pop culture, which allows us as teachers to utilize relevant teaching material. The cultural significance of demonstrating these practices is not lost on our students when we utilize music and popular figures from their homes. NYC is constantly pushing the boundaries of innovation, and our students thrive in the pursuit of challenging their progress. Our new students should be able to reflect their cultures in the classroom by displaying their interests in every lesson through repertoire selection, examining musical traditions, and exploring musical cultures worldwide. By incorporating these student opinions, we open the door to new improvisational and creative experiences that may have been previously closed off to our students. As an educator teaching kindergarten through eighth grade, I want to see all my students engage in a classroom that reflects their wants and needs as musicians. By allowing students to choose repertoire selection and creative expression, we empower them to connect personally with the material in a way that invites them OCTOBER 2026

to think for themselves. Ultimately, incorporating student choice into the curriculum is a powerful strategy for music educators, enhancing relevance and engagement in students' musical journeys throughout their education. Suppose every student I have who starts in kindergarten and moves every year up to eighth grade can see themselves at least once in my lessons, which demonstrates the ability of music to connect with a student's inner desire to learn in a way that will carry with them past my classroom.

Bibliography Abril, C. R. 2006. “Music That Represents Culture: Selecting Music with Integrity.” Music Educators Journal, 93(1), 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/002743210609300122 Benson, Barbara E. 2003. “Framing Culture within Classroom Practice: Culturally Relevant Teaching.” Action in Teacher Education, 25 (2): 16–22. doi:10.1080/01626620.2003.10463301. Blair, D. V. 2009. “Stepping Aside: Teaching in a Student-Centered Music Classroom.” Music Educators Journal, 95(3), 42–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432108330760 Coulson, A. N., & Burke, B. M. 2013. “Creativity in the elementary music classroom: A study of students’ perceptions.” International Journal of Music Education, 31(4), 428-441. https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761413495760 Davis, V. W., & M. E. Culp. 2024. “Using Students’ Interests in General Music (Part 3): Suggestions for Practice.” Journal of General Music Education, 37(2), 24–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/27527646231188089 Draper, A. R. 2019. “Democracy in the Middle School Music Classroom.” Music Educators Journal, 105(3), 17-22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432118816147 Farias, G. 2016. “‘Teachers Choose the Songs’ Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the Music Classroom.” Master of Teaching Research Projects. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/72189 Palmer, E. S., J. Vodicka, Huynh, T., C. D’Alexander, & Crawford, L. 2022. “Grounded Framework for Culturally Relevant and Responsive Music Teaching.” Applications of Research in Music Education, 41(1), 24–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/87551233211055815 Reynolds, H. R. 2000. “Repertoire is The Curriculum: Repertoire selection has a major impact on what students will and will not learn, and it should help their musical understanding and appreciation.” Music Educators Journal, 87(1), 31–33. https://doi.org/10.2307/3399675 Sweeney, Christopher Robert. 2002. "The Effects of Structured Practice on the Performance Skills of Middle School First-Year Band Students." Order No. 3050743, University of Miami. 39

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Empowering the Next Generation of Digital Creators Shawna Longo District Supervisor of VPA and Consumer Education shawnalongo[at]gmail.com

Elementary Division (Grades K–5): • Discovery Level (Grades K–2): Short, 15-to-30-second projects celebrating foundational skills like pattern-making and sound storytelling. Perfect for tools like Chrome Music Lab or Incredibox. • Application Level (Grades 3–5): Projects (45–90 seconds) that demonstrate musical form (Beginning, Middle, End) and texture using platforms like Soundtrap, Beepbox, or other online tools. Middle School Division (Grades 6–8): • The Remix Challenge: Reinterpreting a familiar melody or genre using digital tools. • Original Soundscapes & Beats: Building unique atmospheric pieces or rhythmic tracks from scratch. • Songwriting: An original song written by the student that focuses on telling a story through sung or rapped lyrics and is recorded in a DAW or similar tool. High School Division (Grades 9–12) • Covers & Remixes: High-level re-imagining or sonic reinterpretation of pre-existing compositions. • Mix Competition: A technical "level playing field" where students engineer identical raw multi-tracks. • Original Compositions: Advanced works highlighting electronic music, film scoring, or modern songwriting that focus on production. • Songwriting: An original song written by the student that focuses on telling a story through sung or rapped lyrics and is recorded in a DAW or similar tool.

As music educators, we witness every day how technology is changing the way young people interact with sound. From building drum loops on a tablet during lunch to engineering multi-track recordings in high school labs, our students are creating, producing, and experimenting with music in ways that push far beyond traditional ensemble borders. To celebrate this exploding creativity across New Jersey, we are thrilled to introduce the newly imagined Digital Music Showcase! Whether you teach General Music in a K–2 elementary classroom, lead a 7th-grade electronic music elective, or mentor high school audio engineers, this expanded framework is designed to fit seamlessly into your curriculum. Grounded in the NJSLS Artistic Processes—Create, Perform/Produce, Respond, and Connect—the Showcase offers an inclusive, growth-oriented platform for students in Grades K through 12.

The Power of the "Reflection Form" In alignment with the NJSLS Respond and Connect standards, every submission requires a brief Composer’s Reflection Form along with a screenshot of the student's project workspace. For a 1st grader, this reflection might be a single sentence or a voice recording explaining why they chose a specific sound effect. For a high school senior, it’s an opportunity to explain their signal chain, EQ choices, or creative rationale. This step elevates the submission from a simple audio file to a meaningful reflection of artistic intent.

Meets Students Where They Are: Tool-Agnostic Categories One of our primary goals with this redesign is equity and access. You do not need an expensive digital audio workstation (DAW) lab to participate! Submissions are evaluated based on artistic process, intentionality, and musicality, not software price tags. TEMPO

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Timeline of Key Dates & Deadlines Mark your calendars! Below is the official roadmap to help you plan your unit goals and guide your students toward submission. Date Milestone

How to Get Started in Your Classroom 1. Incorporate it as a Unit Project/Assessment: Use the rubric criteria as the final assessment for a digital music, song-writing, or general music unit. 2. Encourage Small Group Collaboration: Projects allow individual submissions or teams of up to 4 students. Whole class submissions are permitted for Grades K-2. 3. Submit with Confidence: Adjudication is designed to be encouraging and constructive, providing every young creator with valuable feedback from industry and education experts.

November 1 Submissions Open & Stem Files Released for Mix Categories (Online Portal) December 15 Final Project Submission Deadline (Audio, Workspace Screenshot, & Reflection Form) January 1-15 Adjudication Period February 1

Distribution of Project Scores & Certificates

February 18

Online Showcase published

Let’s showcase the incredible, diverse musical voices coming out of New Jersey schools. We can't wait to hear what your students create! For detailed information, submission links, and stem downloads, visit the official NJMEA website.

New Jersey Young Composers Competition Information & Registration The New Jersey Music Educators Association is proud to announce the 2026-27 New JerseyYoung Composers Competition (NJYCC) for high school students in grades 9–12 (graduating June 2027). Finalists will be invited to attend an interview and critique session to be held in during the NJMEA State Conference at the Atlantic City Convention Center on Saturday, February 20,2027. In addition, the winning composer(s) will be announced at that time and awards will be presented. All other participating student composers are welcome to attend. The exact time and location will be announced in January 2026. The deadline for application submissions is December 18, 2026. Endorsement page andapplication fees must be postmarked by December 11, 2026. For applications, visit http://www.njmea.org/young-composers-competiton Questions about the competition may be directed to Dr. Andrew Bleckner, NJYCC Chairman at: andrew.bleckner[at]prismsus.org

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NJMEA Partners with the Grammy® Museum for Music Production 101 Shawna Longo District Supervisor of VPA and Consumer Education shawnalongo[at]gmail.com

New Jersey music educators now have direct access to commercial recording industry standards through a partnership among the New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA), the GRAMMY® Museum, and Inspire EDU. This collaboration brings industry-level professional development directly to our teaching community. K–12 music educators can gain hands-on production experience, learn current music business models, and earn graduate-level continuing education credits.

sessions, using loops and software instruments, and developing an efficient production workflow. • Creative Process & Arrangement: Learn how to develop a musical idea, layer sounds, build sections, and shape a track from an initial concept into a structured arrangement. • Mixing Fundamentals: Explore the basics of balancing levels, EQ, compression, panning, and other techniques used to create a clear and cohesive mix. • Copyright, Distribution & Publishing: Gain a foundational understanding of copyright, music publishing, distribution, and how music generates revenue after it is released.

The Inaugural Session: Music Production 101 On Thursday, February 18th, NJMEA will host Industry Session: Music Production 101 - a 12.5-hour immersive course designed specifically for K–12 music educators. Combining 6.5 hours of live, in-person instruction with 5.5 hours of independent project work, this session bridges the gap between commercial studio production and classroom instruction. Whether you are looking to launch a digital music elective, modernize your ensemble recording setups, or give students real-world guidance on music careers, this full-day experience equips you with the tools to do so.

Graduate Credit & Turn-Key Classroom Materials Participants will complete an independent audio production project and a customized classroom implementation plan. Through Inspire EDU’s university partner, participants can earn 1 Graduate Credit / Continuing Education Unit (12.5 contact hours) for a total cost of $250. Alternatively, attendees can apply the 12.5 contact hours toward standard district Professional Development requirements.

What You Will Experience

How to Sign Up

Taught by industry professionals and educational specialists, the course walks step-by-step through the full production workflow:

Reserve your spot for the first ever collaboration between NJMEA and GRAMMY Museum on Thursday, February 18th during conference registration on the NJMEA website and take your music technology curriculum to the next level!

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The 72nd Junior High/Middle School Choral Festival Application Form

School Name:

School Phone:

School Address:

City:

Zip:

Director’s Name :

Home Phone :

Home Address: City:

State:

Zip:

Email: NAfME Membership #:

Expiration Date: _______________ (Please include a photocopy of your NAfME card)

Name of performing group: Voicing:

Number of singers:

Number of rehearsals per week: (during school:

Please check the appropriate category below: (evening):

(before school):

(after school):

Will participate at Rowan University, (South Site) March 18, 2027: 9:15 - 1:30 pm:

(Snow date: March 19th)

Will participate at Monroe Twp MS, (North Site) April 14, 2027: 9:15 - 1:30 pm: We can arrive at:

We must depart no later than:

Proposed Program (Time limit: Not to exceed 10-12 minutes, no more than 2 titles) THIS SECTION MUST BE COMPLETED AT THIS TIME! Please Print or Type Legibly Selection (Maximum of 2)

Complete Name of Composer/Arranger

Voicing

1. 2. (If any of the above titles are folk songs, please indcate country or region of origin) FEE: $200.00 per group (non-refundable)

FESTIVAL DATES: (Limited to the first TEN (10) Groups on each date)

DEADLINES: Friday, February 5, 2027 for Rowan University Friday, February 26, 2027 for Monroe Twp MS

Thursday, March 18, 2027 (Snow Date: Friday, March 19, 2027) South Site: Rowan University TIME: 9:15 - 1:30 pm

SEND TO:

EMAIL:

Donna Marie Berchtold, Registrar 545 South Buffalo Avenue Galloway Township South Egg Harbor, NJ 08215-1720

Wednesday, April 14, 2027 North Site: Monroe Township Middle School TIME: 9:15 - 1:30 pm ALL INCOMPLETE FORMS WILL BE RETURNED! MAKE CHECK PAYABLE TO NJMEA (Do not send cash) CHECKS MUST ACCOMPANY ALL REGISTRATION FORMS BE SURE TO INCLUDE A PHOTOCOPY OF YOUR NAfME CARD

firesongwed@gmail.com

FESTIVAL HOST: Donna Marie F. Berchtold & Karen Blumenthal Other information including directions and schedules will be mailed.

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If your school is paying by Purchase Order, it must be sent to: NJMEA 300 W Somerdale Road, STE C Voorhees, NJ 08043

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Teaching Percussion: Building a Strong Foundation with the Snare Drum Chris Colaneri

Music Director, Berkeley Heights Public Schools ccolaneri[at]bhpsnj.org

Teaching percussion can feel overwhelming, even for experienced band directors. With so many instruments to cover and limited rehearsal time, teaching percussion while developing technique, rhythm, and ensemble skills can be a major challenge for any band director. Throughout my 30 years as a band director with a focus on percussion, I have learned countless lessons—many through trial and error. In this article series, I will share practical strategies and solutions to help you build a strong Total Percussion program that inspires, empowers, and transforms your students. The Total Percussion approach covers snare drum, keyboard percussion, timpani, traps, world percussion, and drum set. We’ll start with the foundation of percussion instruction: the snare drum.

from the drum. My preference is to play just a little off-center, away from the clutch. This is the ideal beating spot for playing mezzo forte and louder. When I want students to play softer, I direct them toward the edge of the drum, farthest away from where they are standing. Stick Height: Although I have a percussion background, I still find middle school snare drummers overusing full strokes, especially when multiple players perform together. To address this, I include stick-height exercises in lessons and band warm-ups. A favorite is Eight in a Hand—eight notes with the right hand followed by eight with the left (quarter notes for beginners). Students practice at three stick heights: full (90°), half (45°), and quarter (22°). By having the students warm-up this way, it will avoid many balancing issues that come up when rehearsing band music. Stick Choice: For concert band drumming, stick size matters more than brand. Students with smaller hands often do better with thinner sticks, such as the Vic Firth 5A, while the Vic Firth SD1 General remains an excellent all-around choice because its weight produces a fuller sound and supports multiple-bounce rolls. More advanced players may benefit from the longer, lighter Innovative Percussion Chris Lamb CL-1L. When purchasing for a program, buying sticks in bundles is a cost-effective option. Finally, avoid plastic-tip sticks, as they produce a less desirable concert band tone and are more prone to damage.

Getting Started Snare drum height: Position the snare drum at waist height with the playing surface parallel to the floor. For students using traditional grip, angle the drum slightly downward toward the dominant hand. This tilt allows the non-dominant hand to approach the drum at a natural angle while maintaining proper playing technique and alignment. The snare throw-off (clutch) should face the student. This allows students to conveniently turn the snares on and off when needed. It also positions the drum so that when students play, they are striking over the snare strainer, allowing for maximum response from the snares. Grip is one of the most difficult techniques to change once students develop poor habits. This is why it is essential to establish proper technique at the elementary level. The most common problem that occurs in students is that they wrap their index finger around the stick, gripping at the sat the second joint and squeezing too tight. This doesn't allow for a proper rebound and is often the reason for poor sounding rolls. What makes grip recommendation so tricky is there are many schools of thought. Here are my three-step instructions for grip: 1. Thumb and index finger (at the first joint) 2. Wrap the remaining fingers around the stick 3. Palms face the floor (they can turn inward ever so slightly) The stick should be engaged with the middle finger. This allows for less tension and a more relaxed, breathable roll. Beating Spots: The best tone quality on the snare drum comes from playing slightly off-center in order to achieve a full response TEMPO

Rudiments and Warm-Ups Recently, I visited the elementary school in my district where I teach and met with some percussion students. One student completely blew me away. I asked him what rudiments he could play, and he demonstrated the five-stroke roll—first closed and then open. He then played a paradiddle. I complimented him and asked if he knew any other rudiments. He said yes and proceeded to play the ratamacue, flam accents, Lesson 25, and the pataflafla! I was amazed. In all my years of teaching, I had not come across a fourth grader who could play these advanced rudiments. The lesson I was reminded of was not to put students in a box or create a cookie-cutter curriculum. That being said, here is my cookie-cutter curriculum. By all means, if a student advances beyond these benchmarks, let them soar. Before organizing rudiments by grade level, it is important to remember that music education follows a spiral curriculum. Stu44

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dents continue to practice and refine the rudiments introduced in previous years while progressively learning more advanced skills and techniques.

timed manner, students can learn to end their rolls together with greater consistency. This is why I placed the 17- and 32-stroke rolls in the middle school category because they can be applied when playing half-note and whole-note rolls. Practicing these rolls can solve many problems when performing band literature.

Level and Suggested Rudiments Elementary School - Single Stroke Roll, Double Stroke Roll, Single Paradiddle, Flam, Drag (ruff), Buzz (multiple-bounce) Stroke, Basic Accents Middle School - Five-Stroke Roll, Seven-Stroke Roll, Nine-Stroke Roll, 17- and 32-Stroke Rolls, Flam Accent, Flam Tap, Flam Paradiddle, Double Paradiddle, Paradiddle-Diddle, Single Drag Tap, Drag Paradiddle High School - Ten-, Eleven-, Thirteen-, Fifteen-, and SeventeenStroke Rolls, Lesson 25, Flam Drag, Swiss Army Triplet, Inverted Flam Tap, Pataflafla, Flam Paradiddle-Diddle, Single Ratamacue, Double Ratamacue, Triple Ratamacue

Supplemental to rudiments are accent patterns and sticking exercises. These are almost always found in the glossary of a method book. They typically appear as measures filled with eighth notes containing various accent patterns or sticking combinations.

Rolls are such an integral part of percussion that they are worth exploring in greater detail. First, rolls should be practiced both open and closed. An open roll uses the exact number of strokes indicated by the name of the roll, while a closed roll uses a buzz technique. Open 5-Stroke Roll: R R L L R L L R R L Closed 5-Stroke Roll: Buzz Buzz Tap

It is important to incorporate these exercises into your curriculum. They provide students with the flexibility needed to respond to accent patterns in music, adapt to drum set fills, and successfully perform timpani, tom, and multi-percussion parts. Snare Drums During Band Rehearsal Managing the percussion section during band rehearsal sets the tone for the entire rehearsal. The energy in the room can become overwhelming if percussionists do not understand expectations as they enter the room and begin their warm-up. One simple practice I implemented was having students warm up on practice pads instead of snare drums. With a percussion section of more than 20 students, managing the overall volume is crucial. While students are spread across various percussion instruments, a significant number are still playing snare drum, making volume control an important part of maintaining an effective rehearsal environment. Using practice pads during the warm-up period significantly reduces the overall noise level, allowing me to give directions without competing against excessive sound. This simple routine creates a calmer rehearsal environment, reinforces expectations from the moment students enter the room, and helps the ensemble transition more efficiently into a focused rehearsal. When students transition from practice pads to playing on snare drums, it is important to remind them about stick height and matching their dynamics to the size of the group and the room. From the elementary band room to indoor drumline, I have found that many percussion sections, regardless of level, play too loudly. This is why it is important to have students approach the snare drum musically, beginning with the warm-up. This mindset will carry over into their performance of the repertoire. So, what does musical snare drum playing look and sound like?

My favorite roll exercise cannot be found in a book and is very simple to practice. I call it “The Train Pulling Out of the Station.” The title lends itself to being used at the elementary level, but this is an exercise I still practice today. The student buzzes their sticks from right to left, gradually moving from slow to fast. The key is to have the second stick enter before the first one stops. Students need to develop a good extended buzz with each individual hand before attempting this exercise. If a student's buzz is too short and choked, they most likely need to loosen their grip on the stick—and vice versa. My second favorite roll exercise is to play one measure of buzzed eighth notes followed by one measure of buzzed sixteenth notes, then repeat. Students should make sure each stick enters before the other one finishes and that the strokes remain even.

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First, make sure students’ stroke height is at 45 degrees or less. Make sure both sticks are striking in the same area of the drum. Many drum roll issues and sixteenth-note patterns can be improved by correcting students’ beating spots. When one stick strikes closer to the edge of the drum while the other strikes closer to the center, the pitch difference can create an uneven sound. Consistent beating spots are essential for developing a clean and controlled sound. Sometimes a student is playing the correct rhythm, but it simply does not feel musical. This could be because they are not using dominant-hand lead. Dominant-hand lead means the dominant hand plays on the stronger parts of the phrase. A good example would be a student playing a full measure of the “1 & A” rhythm. When using alternating sticking, this three-note grouping is played right-left-right. The challenge is that beat two now begins with the left hand, which is typically the weaker hand. Using dominant-hand lead for right-handed students would change the sticking to right-right-left. This creates forward motion in the phrase and produces a more confident sound.

Another way to encourage musical playing is to have snare drum students phrase with the music. Even when dynamics or articulations are not specifically notated, it is important to make the music come alive. We accomplish this by having students listen to the phrasing of the other instruments. If snare drum students breathe at the same time as trumpet players take a breath, they will naturally create a more unified phrase. Snare drummers can adjust their dynamics to match the winds, even when those changes are not written in the music. Tell them to play with their ears! One final thought is to keep percussionists playing. Some studies have shown that percussionists may only get around 30 percent of the playing time during a band rehearsal. Even when rehearsing other sections, keep percussionists engaged. Have them click time, play through their parts quietly, or continue working on their role while the focus is elsewhere. Motivation While many percussion students are naturally motivated to practice, they still need to hear and see what outstanding snare drum playing looks and sounds like. One of the greatest advantages teachers have today is the wealth of high-quality performances available online. Even if you are not a percussion specialist, a few carefully selected videos can inspire students, reinforce proper technique, and expose them to musical styles beyond the classroom. Many educational recordings also include scrolling notation, allowing students to connect what they hear with what they see on the page. Here are a few favorites that consistently engage students:

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• • • • • • • •

Classical Snare Drum Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade (Fourth Movement) Prokofiev: Lieutenant Kijé Suite (“Troika”) Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf Ravel: Boléro Drum Corps and Marching Percussion Paul Rennick etudes Colin McNutt-inspired solos and exercises Gridbook Academy etudes and educational content Performances by leading Drum Corps International (DCI) ensembles

Traditional Snare Drum Solos • The Downfall of Paris • Connecticut Halftime • Three Camps

One ensemble that never fails to capture students’ attention is Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel, Switzerland. Their performances combine exceptional musicianship, precision, choreography, and entertainment, making them an excellent motivational tool for percussionists of all ages. As students watch these performances, encourage them to listen critically. Ask questions such as: • What makes this performance musical? • How do the performers use dynamics, stick heights, timing, and phrasing? • What techniques can you incorporate into your own playing? Developing thoughtful listeners is just as important as developing skilled performers. Closing Teaching snare drum is about more than developing fast hands or mastering a list of rudiments. It is an opportunity to instill musicality, develop strong practice habits, and provide students with a technical foundation that will serve them throughout their entire percussion career. By emphasizing proper fundamentals and clear expectations from the very beginning, directors can help students become not only better percussionists, but better musicians. Strong percussion instruction also leads to more productive rehearsals, stronger ensembles, and a more successful band program. Remember: every rehearsal is an opportunity to inspire, empower, and transform. The skills you teach help students become better percussionists, the example you set helps them become better people, and the positive culture you build makes your entire band program stronger. Happy teaching!

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NAfME Eastern Division Biennial Inservice Conference Established 1918 For more than a century, the Eastern Division Inservice Conference has brought together music educators, performers, researchers, and students for professional learning, artistic excellence, and meaningful collaboration. KEYNOTE SPEAKERS Thought leaders sharing insights to inspire and empower music educators. FEATURED PERFORMERS Outstanding ensembles and artists presenting exceptional musical experiences. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SESSIONS Timely topics and practical strategies for today’s music educators. RESEARCH POSTER SESSION Exploring current research and innovative practices. YOUNG COMPOSER SHOWCASE Celebrating & sharing the creative voices of student composers.

April 1-4, 2027 PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND

COLLEGIATE SESSIONS Connecting students with pathways and opportunities. SCHOOL PERFORMING GROUP CONCERT HOURS Traditional school ensembles PLUS Modern Band & Contemporary Ensembles. MUSIC ED INDUSTRY EXHIBIT HALL & COLLEGE FAIR Resources, services, and opportunities to support your program. TRI-M DAY Leadership, service, and music advocacy for student members. PARENT BOOSTER / ADVOCACY DAY Tools and strategies to strengthen support for music education. AND FEATURING THE HONORS ENSEMBLES! All-Eastern Band, Choirs, Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble and Modern Band. Over 800 high school students representing every state in the Division.

WWW.RIMEA.ORG/EASTERN EASTERN DIVISION CONFERENCE

presented by the Eastern Division of the National Association for Music Education

PROVIDENCE

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A Systematic Approach to Warming Up Voices Lauren Athey-Janka Rowan University athey[at]rowan.edu Before beginning a rehearsal, it is helpful to begin with two essential questions: Do you have a specific game plan for your vocal warm-up? Are you creating or assigning vocalises with purpose? While familiar warm-ups can sometimes be useful, vocalises are most effective when they are intentional, organized, and responsive to the needs of the singers at hand. The voice can be exercised strategically by utilizing vocalises designed to address the systems that play a part in creating beautiful sound: posture and alignment, respiration and support, phonation, registration, resonance, and articulation. When teachers have an awareness of these systems, warm-ups become a more thoughtful part of vocal training. Awareness of Mindset Before beginning a rehearsal, it is helpful for teachers to address their own mindset. Teaching is similar to performing. The energy, focus, and openness of a teacher shapes the experience of the students in front of them. When entering the rehearsal space, consider asking: Am I in a positive state of mind? Am I open to exploration? Can I connect with my imagination and playfulness? Am I centered and grounded? A vocal warm-up should begin with specific goals. Those goals should be realistic, organized, and achievable. Students benefit from a teacher who is prepared, but also flexible enough to respond to obstacles without judgment. It is essential to persevere with patience and remain open to exploration. Vocalise Journal A vocalise journal can be an excellent tool for the classroom and can function like a lesson plan for vocal work. It prevents teachers from warming-up by habit, and allows teachers to instead choose exercises that are connected to what they hear, what they see, and what their students need. This journal can become a reference for ensuring constant improvement and progression in the classroom. Begin by creating a journal with a chapter for each of the systems of the voice. Then, write down exercises to create a toolbox of problem-solving techniques. For instance, if a student is struggling with breathiness, resonance, or jaw tension, the journal gives teachers a place to turn as they work through those issues.

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Posture and Alignment Posture and alignment refer to the proper positioning or adjustment of body parts in relation to each other. In the classroom, this means helping students find a body that is released, balanced, available for singing. A body scan or movement exercise can help students center and “check in” before they sing. For a body scan, students may close their eyes and move their awareness through the body, starting with their toes and slowly moving upward. A movement exercise may include students stretching their arms overhead, releasing forward at the hips, and slowly rolling back up through the spine. Useful alignment reminders include released hips and knees, a suspended ribcage, especially the back ribcage, a rounded chest without hyper extension, and sitting bones above the heels. Overall, the goal is to help students feel loose, free, and ready to sing. Respiration and Support Breath work should address all phases of respiration used in singing: inhalation, suspension, and exhalation. The Farinelli breathing exercise is a useful tool for exploring these three phases. During suspension, there should be no air exchange, and the glottis should remain open. Fainelli Breathing Exercise: • Inhale for 4; Suspend for 4; Exhale for 4 • Increase the counts until you reach 8-12 Teachers can also help students experience breath movement in the body. In a tabletop position on the floor, gravity can help students notice expansion in the back ribs and release in the abdominal muscles. Once students stand, they can try to recreate the same sensations in a tall, noble posture. From there, teachers can guide students through simple breath exercises: • Sniff in four small breaths while keeping shoulders and sternum stable; Let the air out and feel the recoil of the lungs/ ribcage • Inhale through the sniff and exhale on “sh” for 4, 8, then 12 counts • Change the sniff to a mouth breath, allowing the breath to open up the vocal tract and expand the ribcage • Inahle then release for 4 beats on [s], [z], [o], [z], [s] • Sing a scale on a [v] then on a vowel 48

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Phonation Onsets, agility, cord closure, and efficiency can all be addressed with proper exercises. Before singing, teachers can help students feel a sense of openness in their throat without hyper-extending the jaw or over-widening the mouth. Teachers might begin with imagery, such as the snobby look of “The Queen of England taking a breath in” or the breath before a sneeze. With their lips together and teeth apart, students can gently tuck their chin and stretch the back of the neck wide with the fingertips. For a balanced onset, teachers can gently use “uh oh” or “every orange” to encourage cord closure before a vocal exercise.Voice consonants, such as [l], [m], [n], [v], and ][z] can also facilitate tonal efficiency if a tone has too much breath or begins with a hard glottal onset. Legato work can begin with small intervals, such as a minor second or major second, and sliding back and forth between two pitches. From there, teachers can gradually work up to thirds, fourths, fifths, etc. For staccato work, students can begin by laughing and connecting to the abdominal muscles. Once they have found freedom in releasing the abdominal muscles, teachers can add short staccato exercises such as 5-5-4-4-3-3-2-2-1-1 on [i i e e a a o o u u]. For agility, dotted rhythm exercises often lead to lighter phonation. Singing a scale on a dotted rhythm first can help students achieve flexibility. Registration Teachers can ask students to connect to cartoon characters or specific emotions to access different parts of the range. Helpful sounds include Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, puppy dog, whining, monkey sounds, moo-ing, etc. Mixed vowels can also help with registration. For example, students can sustain “i” while forming the lips to the shape of a closed “o.” Closed vowels can be used for the passaggio and to encourage the transition to head voice. Open vowels can be used to find more released chest voice and bring strength to a stabilized upper range. Messa di voice is another valuable tool. It requires using a crescendo and diminuendo on a single pitch. Students should start in the lower or middle range and first practice this on a vibrant hum, lip trill, or through a straw to protect the voice while acquiring the skill. When working to increase the range of the voice, pitch glides on lip trills, tongue trills, raspberries, and “straw bubbles in a cup” will stretch the vocal folds in an efficient manner with balanced pressure. Teachers can also juxtapose semi-occluded vocal tract exercises with vowels. Resonance The resonators in the vocal tract include the larynx, pharynx, and oral cavity. Warm-ups can help students to open the pharyngeal space and maintain that space while singing. Helpful imagery for resonance includes drinking the voice, inhalare la voice, jello palate, jello pharynx, a parachute at the back of your head, singing behind you, a mouth in the back of your head, and a puppet facing backwards. A small opening at the front of the mouth, such as a “finger OCTOBER 2026

trumpet” or straw, can force the space to stay open in the back. Panting exercises can also help students keep that space open. Panting also has the added benefit of keeping the ribcage flexible and removing the possibility of adding tension. Teachers can also use [ŋ] [m] or [n] to attempt to connect a feeling of ease to help a student find efficient resonance space. From there, students can transition from those consonants into vowels. Articulation It is important to find vocal freedom by minimizing unwanted tension and achieving independence of the tongue and jaw. The articulators live within the vocal tract, which is the pathway of the vibrations above the level of the larynx. The jaw, or mandible, needs to release for pitch and articulation. Many singers struggle with jaw tension, TMJ/TMD (Temporomandibular Joint Disorders), or overusing the jaw in articulation. In everyday speech, students may be unaware of their own articulatory habits. In singing, teachers can help them notice those habits and find a freer way to shape vowels and consonants. Two of the powerful muscles that close the jaw are the masseter and the temporalis muscles. Gentle massages of the masseter and temporalis muscles can help students gain awareness and reduce tension. Use the following exercises with relaxed jaws, tongues and lips: 1. Lip trill descending sirens 2. Raspberry (tongue-out lip trill) ascending and descending sirens 3. Bubba on 1-2-3-2-1 4. [pui] on 1-3-5-3-1 5. Soft lip [vu]. [u] will encourage a release in the lips. Find this below creating [v]. [vu vu vu vu vu vu vu vu vi i i i i i i i i] 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 The Soft Palate Teachers can help students explore soft palate lift through exercises that encourage width and space in the back of the throat. One way to begin is by having students breathe slowly over the hard palate until they reach the back of the throat, feeling a wide, open stretch in the back. The goal is not overly open the frontal space. Soft palate exercises include: 1. Panting (start very slow, then speed up) 2. Inhale and sigh on [a], then inhale [a] and sigh on [e], [i], [o], [u] 3. [a] pant out in [e] pant out in [i] pant out in [o] pant out in [u] on 5 4 3 2 1 then legato keeping height in the palate Building a Warm-Up for Your Students Once teachers have an idea of the systems of the voice, they can begin building warm-ups that are intentional, flexible, and responsive to their students. The most important thing to remember is that warm-ups can be approached with curiosity. When warm-ups become more purposeful, students have more opportunities to develop vocal freedom, confidence, and growth. 49

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What 736 Performances Reveal About Choral Programming in 2025-26 A first look at repretoire trends from a season of shared concert programs Rick Retzko

MFR Holdings, LLC rick[at]mfrholdings.com Living composers, not historical ones, dominate the season. Outside the December repertoire, the most-programmed composers were overwhelmingly living composers working today: Elaine Hagenberg, Ola Gjeilo, Jennifer Lucy Cook, and Eric Whitacre all appeared in the season's top tier, all composing from within the last decade. The only composer from an earlier era to break into the top five — George Frideric Handel — owed his position almost entirely to holiday programming. This tracks with a broader shift many directors have felt anecdotally: that today's active repertoire pipeline is increasingly built around living voices, not the historical canon, except where the calendar itself calls for tradition. A distinct Nordic/Baltic sound runs through the season. One of the clearest stylistic threads in the data is a cluster of composers writing spacious, atmospheric, text-centered choral music from the Nordic and Baltic countries: Ola Gjeilo (Norway), Pärt Uusberg (Estonia), and Eriks Ešenvalds (Latvia). Gjeilo alone was performed 8 times across 7 different programs — trailing only Elaine Hagenberg and generic “Traditional/ anonymous” attributions among all composers in the dataset — with “Tundra” appearing three times on its own. Uusberg and Ešenvalds each appeared 3 times across 3 programs, clearing the “trend” threshold on a much smaller total sample size than Gjeilo. Taken together, this Nordic/Baltic aesthetic was present in roughly one in ten logged programs — notable given that none of these composers write primarily in English or draw on American choral tradition. It's a pattern consistent with what several state ACDA reading sessions have highlighted in recent years, which translates into actual programming, not just conference buzz. One piece stood out above the rest. “Time,” by Jennifer Lucy Cook, was the most-performed single title in the dataset — 7 performances, all but two of them in the spring semester. No other title came close during spring; the next tier (“Tundra” by Ola Gjeilo, “Glow” by Eric Whitacre, “Veni, Veni Emmanuel” by Michael John Trotta, “Muusika” by Pärt Uusberg, and “O Love” by Elaine Hagenberg) each landed 3 performances across the full year. What's more striking than any single title, though, is how rare repeats were at all: of 736 total selections, only 42 included a title performed more than once anywhere in the

Choral directors make dozens of programming decisions at least twice a year — how to open the next concert, which arranger's “Veni, Veni” to use (Trotta!), whether this is finally the year to program that Ešenvalds octavo sitting in the folder. Multiply those decisions across even a few dozen programs and certain patterns begin to emerge: which composers are being sung, not just anthologized; which arrangers quietly dominate a season; and whether the field is moving in any specific direction. This article is a first attempt to look at those patterns directly, using data from ChoirTrends.com, a platform where directors upload their concert programs — repertoire, ensembles, dates, and schools — as they build each season. From September 2025 through July 2026, choral directors logged 63 concert programs from 40 schools, totaling 736 individual performances of 694 unique titles. A note on the data, up front. This is a small, self-selected sample — early users of one platform, concentrated in New Jersey (40 of 63 programs), with smaller representation from Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Maryland, and Tennessee, plus a first international data point from two schools in Trier, Germany. This was not a scientific survey of American choral programming but instead a real, unfiltered look at actual concert programs as directors shared them — no anthologizing, no self-reporting bias toward “important” repertoire, just what actually was performed. As the dataset grows in future seasons, we expect these patterns to sharpen; for now, treat what follows as a signal worth watching rather than a settled conclusion. METHODOLOGY Data drawn from ChoirTrends concert program logs, September 1, 2025–July 31, 2026. Figures include only performances with a matching program and event date in range; composer/ arranger figures require an attributed composer or arranger on the song title record. “Trend” threshold set at 3+ performances per the platform’s standard reporting convention. Full query detail available on request.

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have that detail, some patterns emerge (SATB choirs accounted for the largest typed share, and a cappella performances were concentrated there as well), but with this much missing data, we're not treating the ensemble-type breakdown as reliable yet — it's included for context, not as a finding. Where this goes next. This is a first snapshot from a single season and a still-small, geographically concentrated dataset. The value of this kind of analysis compounds with scale: as more directors upload more programs, patterns like the Nordic/Baltic thread, the winter/spring arranger divide, and shifts in the historical-versus-contemporary balance will become sharper and more defensible. We'll be revisiting this analysis with a hopefully larger, more geographically diverse sample as we welcome any choral director's data to be included as part of the bigger picture.

dataset. Directors, at least in this sample, are not reaching for the same shelf. Winter and spring tell different stories. Splitting the season in two reveals a clear seasonal divide. Winter programming (September through January, 24 concerts) leaned sacred and seasonal — Handel, Byrd, Victoria, and Vivaldi appeared alongside Gjeilo's wintry soundscapes and Trotta's “Veni, Veni Emmanuel.” On the arranging side, Roger Emerson was the dominant voice of the winter season by a wide margin: 10 performances across 7 programs, nearly double the next mostused arranger. Spring programming (February through July, 39 concerts) shifted decisively toward contemporary American voices — Hagenberg, Cook, Pederson, Rollo Dilworth, and Marta Keen led the composer list, while the arranger landscape broadened considerably, with Mark Brymer, Kirby Shaw, Craig Hella Johnson, and Audrey Snyder all posting strong numbers. Pop crossover repertoire also surfaced in spring with arrangements of “Dust in the Wind” and “Homeward Bound” appearing multiple times. This suggests some directors are deliberately bridging choral and popular repertoire for spring audiences in a way that doesn't show up in winter programming at all. What we don't yet know. Ensemble-level detail — whether a piece was sung by an SATB choir, an SSA/treble ensemble, a TTBB group, or performed a cappella — was only reliably recorded for about 23% of performances in this dataset; the rest are logged simply as “Unknown” ensemble type. Where we do

WHAT ELSE WILL YOU FIND? While this article focuses on a single season of submissions, ChoirTrends.com now contains more than 20 years of archived concert programs from New Jersey All-State Mixed Chorus. As the database continues to grow, it will offer an increasingly valuable resource for studying repertoire programming, historical trends, and evolving practices in choral music education. If you are the keeper of the same archival programs for your state, please consider adding those programs to ChoirTrends. com.

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NJMEA RESOURCE PERSONNEL Area of Responsibility

Name

Email Address

Administrative Matters........................................................ Yale Snyder................................................ snyder.njmea[at]gmail.com All-State Coordinator........................................................ Joseph Cantaffa................................... jcantaffa[at]rocknrollchorus.com Association Business........................................................ William McDevitt....................................... wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com Band Performance Chair.................................................. Jesse Argenziano................................................ njmeaband[at]gmail.com Band Procedures Chair........................................................ Allan Daleus.......................................................... adaleus[at]whrhs.org Choral Performance Chair...................................................Matthew Wolf..............................................njallstatechoir[at]gmail.com Choral Procedures Chair................................................. Kristen Markowski...........................................njallstatechoir[at]gmail.com Composition Contest.....................................................Dr. Andrew Bleckner..................................andrew.bleckner[at]prismsus.org Diversity/Equity/Inclusion/Access.................................... Whitney Covalle..................................................deia.njmea[at]gmail.com Guitar Education......................................................................... TBD............................................................................................. TBD Jazz Procedures Chair........................................................ Andrew Lopez................................................. alopez.njaje[at]gmail.com Marching Band Festival Chair............................................. Nancy Clasen................................................. nancyclasen[at]gmail.com Membership.................................................................... William McDevitt....................................... wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com Middle/Junior High Band Festival....................................... Nancy Clasen ................................................. nancyclasen[at]gmail.com Middle/Junior High Choral Festival............................. Donna Marie Berchtold........................................ firesongwed[at]gmail.com Modern Band........................................................................ Zach Gates......................................... zacharygatesmusic[at]gmail.com MusicTECH Fest................................................................. Shawna Longo............................................... shawnalongo[at]gmail.com NJMEA Historian.............................................................. Nicholas Santoro .................................................... n31b13[at]gmail.com NJMEA State Conference Exhibits Chair............................. Nancy Clasen................................................. nancyclasen[at]gmail.com NJMEA State Conference Manager..................................... Marie Malara ........................................................ malara97[at]aol.com NJMEA/ACDA Elementary/MS Choir.................................... Christa Rizzo............................................................crizzo[at]westex.org November Convention – NJEA............................................ Nancy Clasen................................................ nancyclasen[at]gmail.com Orchestra Performance Chair.............................................Elisabeth Sato........................................... orchestra.njmea[at]gmail.com Orchestra Procedures Chair....................................... Liam Keller & Caty Butler.................................. orchestra.njmea[at]gmail.com Research......................................................................... Marissa Silverman......................................... silvermanm[at]montclair.edu Students with Special Needs............................................. Maureen Butler................................. maureenbutlermusic[at]gmail.com Supervisor of Performing Groups.................................... David Westawski....................................... westawski.njmea[at]gmail.com Tri-M............................................................................ Anthony Lanzerotti, Jr.................................... lanzerotti.njmea[at]gmail.com REPRESENTATIVES/LIAISONS TO AFFILIATED, ASSOCIATED AND RELATED ORGANIZATIONS NJ American Choral Directors Association..........................Kason Jackson............................................njacdapresident[at]gmail.com American String Teachers Association/NJ.........................Jennifer Meckler............................................. njastachapter[at]gmail.com Governor’s Award for Arts Education.............................. David Westawski....................................... westawski.njmea[at]gmail.com NJ Association for Jazz Education.......................................Andrew Lopez.................................................. alopez.njaje[at]gmail.com NAfME.............................................................................. William McDevitt ...................................... wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com NJ Marching Band Directors Association.............................. Erin Lagatic....................................................njmbda[at]njmarching.org NJ Music Administrators Association........................Dr. Latasha Casterlow-Lalla........................................... njmusicaa[at]gmail.com NJ Retired Music Educators Association................................ Ron Dolce............................................................ rdolce561[at]aol.com Percussive Arts Society......................................................... Joe Bergen ...............................................joe[at]mantrapercussion.org COMMUNICATION SERVICES/PUBLIC RELATIONS Executive Director/TEMPO Editor/ TEMPO Express/NJMEA Website..................................... William McDevitt...................................... wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com OCTOBER 2026

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This column salutes the lives and careers of recently departed colleagues. It is the way NJMEA and NJRMEA can express appreciation for the work that they have done and the lives that they have touched. We mourn their passing and salute their contributions, which are the basis for music education in the state of New Jersey.

John S. Cuozzo, a beloved resident of Lafayette Township, New Jersey, passed away peacefully on February 14, 2026, at the age of 79. Born in Jersey City on May 7, 1946, John lived a life defined by music, laughter, and unwavering dedication to his students and community. He graduated from college in 1968 and soon began what would become a remarkable career in music education. John first taught at Hoboken High School for several years before joining Kittatinny Regional High School, where he devoted 29 years to shaping young musicians and nurturing a deep appreciation for the musical arts. He retired in 2004, leaving behind an enduring legacy within the school and the countless students he inspired. A gifted conductor and arranger, John shared his talents well beyond the classroom. He spent countless summers at the esteemed Interlochen Center for the Arts, inspiring hopeful musicians from across the country. His distinguished career included guest conducting at Carnegie Hall and directing numerous New Jersey All-State Orchestras, Operas, and Broadway shows. His musical arrangements were performed at notable events nationwide. To call John an accomplished maestro scarcely captures the depth of his talent and influence. John leaves fond memories to his sister, Diane O’Reilly; his brother, James Cuozzo and wife Barbara Hennig; his niece, Kristen O’Reilly; his nephew, Marc O’Reilly and wife Julie; his nephew Daniel O’Reilly; his great-nephews, Kevin and Hudson; his great-nieces, Kaitlyn and Skylar; as well as many extended family members and cherished friends who will miss him dearly. John’s life was truly a symphony — rich with music, laughter, and love — and his memory will continue to resonate in the hearts of those he leaves behind.

PA, and Scott (Stephanie) of Burnt Hills, NY, and eight grandchildren, Samuel, Derrick, Mitchel, Mia, Isaiah, Olivia, Abigail, and Benjamin, and his sister Alma Paff (Doug) of Barnegat, NJ. He was predeceased by his brother Charles (Chuck) Evans, and his parents John and Florence Evans. Jack grew up in Forty Fort, PA, and graduated from Wilkes University, Wilkes Barre, PA, with a degree in music education. Family and music were the loves of his life. Jack shared his musical talents with the community, teaching young musicians and leading his church choirs in song. He taught high school instrumental music for 34 years, first as band director and supervisor of music in Dover, NJ (30 years), and later as band director of John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, FL (4 years). While at Dover, he directed students in more than 15 musicals, competed in marching band shows, took the Dover high school band to music festivals in Mexico City and Italy, and played halftime shows at many college and NFL football games. Jack also directed church choirs for 36 years, as music minister and choir director. His music career began with learning to play the trumpet in third grade, traveling alone by bus to Wilkes Barre for lessons. In 1957, his family moved to Newton, NJ, during his sophomore year at Wilkes University. He had a scholarship of $300 per year and a loan of $1,000, which he supplemented by playing in dance bands on weekends and in the Poconos during the summer. During the summer of 1959 in NJ, he met the love of his life, Helen Francisco. She was a friend of his sister's, and with the encouragement of family, they began a life-long relationship and marriage of almost 65 years. Jack and Helen moved to the Poconos after retiring from teaching, and he enjoyed the Hideout at Lake Ariel and taking his grandchildren for rides on his Sea Doo jet ski. He always loved connecting with his grandchildren and cherished friends

John (Jack) Evans

Richard Hoagland

John (Jack) M. Evans, 88, of Spring Hill, Florida, passed away peacefully on July 31, 2026. He was born in Binghamton, New York, on September 19, 1937, and came to Timber Pines in 2004 from Jensen Beach, FL and Lake Ariel, PA. He is survived by his beloved wife, Helen, and two sons, Erik (Cori) of Mill Hall,

Richard Hoagland, a cherished husband, father, grandfather, and brother, passed away peacefully at his home on May 1, 2026, at the age of 89. Born on October 12, 1936, in Somerville, New Jersey, Richard lived a life as sweet and harmonious as the music he loved.

John Cuozzo

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Richard, commonly known as Dick, was the beloved son of Elnora and Curran Hoagland, who instilled in him values of kindness, dedication, and a deep appreciation for the arts. He graduated from Somerville High School and continued his education at DePauw University in Indiana, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in Music Education. It was this passion for music that would guide his career and touch the lives of countless students. After proudly serving his country in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1960, Richard embarked on a teaching career that saw him become a beloved music teacher in the Middlesex School District. His influence extended far beyond the classroom, as he inspired a love of music in his students that would last a lifetime. Richard also shared his talents with the Bound Brook Community Orchestra and was an active member of the Somerset County Historical Society and the Orff-Schulwerk Association. On July 12, 1969, Richard married the love of his life, Kathleen Saylor, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Together, they built a beautiful life in Bound Brook, New Jersey raising their four children-Suzanne (Pete), Jeffrey (Theresa), Alexis (Bryan), and Kathleen (Kris)-in a home filled with laughter, music, and unwavering love. Their 56-year marriage was a testament to their deep bond and shared joy in life's adventures. Dick's legacy lives on through his cherished grandchildren, Nicholas (Ang), Sabryna, Cole, Jeanel, Miranda, and Caden. He is also survived by his dear sister Joy and a large extended family of cousins, nieces, and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Pete, sister Susie, and his precious granddaughter, Tatiana Marie, whom he now joins in eternal peace. Carol Keith Carol Keith passed away, leaving behind a legacy of faith, music, education, and devotion to family and community. Born on October 20, 1934, in Des Moines, Iowa, Carol was the daughter of the late Robert Ronsheim Tincher and Roxanna F. McNay Tincher. From an early age, she developed a deep love for music, a passion that would define much of her life's work and enrich the lives of countless others. Carol graduated from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, and earned her master's degree from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. She taught elementary and middle school students for 25 years in Westfield, New Jersey, sharing her talents generously with the children, giving them a lifelong appreciation of choral music. A gifted and accomplished cellist, she performed with the Germantown Symphony Orchestra, was active in string quartet groups, and loved teaching young students the fundamentals of string instruments. Carol was active in the US Coast Guard Auxiliary for over 10 OCTOBER 2026

years serving as Flotilla Commander in 2000. On July 4, 1983, Carol married Philip B. Keith Jr. They made their home in Millington, Tennessee, where they lived from 1983 until 2024. In 2024, Carol moved to Bartlett, Tennessee, where she spent the final years of her life. Carol is survived by her sister, Judith L. Peterson of Warwick, Rhode Island, and her stepchildren: Philip Keith III of Long Beach, Mississippi; Linda Tammen of Long Beach, Mississippi; John Keith of Mobile, Alabama; and David Keith of Terrytown, LA. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Philip B. Keith Jr, and her sisters, M. Diane Mennella of New York, New York, and Virginia Caldwell McNay of Whittlesford, Suffolk, United Kingdom. Carol will be remembered for her gracious spirit, unwavering faith, extraordinary musical gifts, and the lasting influence she had as a teacher, mentor, and friend. Whether through the music she performed, the students she encouraged, or the kindness she extended to those around her, she leaves a legacy that will continue to resonate in the hearts of all who knew and loved her.

Frank Pinto Frank Pinto, 58, of North Bergen, passed away peacefully on May 20, 202. Frank was a devoted father, grandfather, son, brother, educator, talented musician, and loyal friend whose kindness touched countless lives. He is survived by his beloved daughter, Mina Briones (née Pinto), and her husband, Jose Briones; his cherished grandchildren, Katie and Eli Briones; his loving mother, Angela Rizzo; and his stepfather, Paul Rizzo. He is also survived by his sister, Debbie Scalice (née Pinto); his brother, Alfonse “Butchie” Pinto, and his wife, Jahnavi Foster; his partner and the mother of his child, Maria Policarpio; and his beloved nieces and nephew, Angie, Christina, and Danny Pinto. A longtime music teacher at North Bergen High School, Frank inspired generations of students through his passion for music, patience, and encouragement. His dedication to education and the arts left a lasting impact on both his students and colleagues. Frank proudly served in the Army National Guard, where he played in the Army band, combining his love of music with his commitment to service. He was also a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and New Jersey City University, where he continued to develop the talent and discipline that defined his life. Beyond his accomplishments, Frank will be remembered most for his generous spirit. He was always willing to lend a helping hand to neighbors, friends, and anyone in need. Whether offering advice, sharing a laugh, or simply showing up when it mattered most, Frank made people feel cared for and valued. 55

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NJSMA

North Jersey School Music Association www.njsma.com

Greetings Colleagues! On behalf of the entire NJSMA Executive Board, I hope the beginning of the 2026 school year is going well and look forward to the amazing work you and your students will create this year. I would like to thank Mr. David Walsh (Leonia) for his service to NJSMA as our Treasurer and would like to welcome Ms. Nancy Clasen (Lodi) back to the NJSMA Executive Board as our newly elected treasurer as well as Ms. Natalie Kerr (Bloomfield) who was re-elected as our Corresponding Secretary/Publicity Chair. A HUGE “THANK YOU” to Lisa Wichman for organizing last year’s NJSMA PD Day. It is an immense undertaking and she does an amazing job making the day perfect for everyone in attendance. NEWS FROM AROUND REGION I ELEMENTARY DIVISION - Co-Chairs: Karen Andruska & Lisa Wichman 2026 NJSMA Fall Workshop - What a wonderful day of learning, music, and connection at our NJSMA Fall Workshop! A heartfelt thank-you to our guest clinician, Matthew Stensrud, for sharing his experTEMPO

tise, energy, and inspiration, and to all of the music educators who joined us and made the day so special. We are also grateful to our dedicated volunteers and everyone who helped make this exceptional day possible. We hope you left with new ideas, renewed energy, and plenty of music to bring back to your classrooms! 2027 NJSMA Choral Celebration - Elementary choral groups will benefit from this exceptional day of singing, learning, and collaboration with guest clinicians Chaequan Anderson (TCNJ) and Dr. Hannah Carr (WPU). Join us Thursday, June 3, 2027, for a morning or afternoon session—limited spots are available! To register, email elementary@njsma.org. SAVE THE DATE! — NJSMA PD Day, Tuesday, June 8, 2027 - Join us for a day of professional learning, networking, lunch, and more—with opportunities to connect, learn, and celebrate the year with fellow music educators! Choose from engaging session tracks tailored to your teaching area and connect with colleagues as we wrap up the school year with fresh ideas and inspiration. For additional information, including registration links and details, please visit the NJSMA Elementary Music Division webpage: https://njsma.org/elementaryhome/ ORCHESTRA DIVISION - Co-Chairs: Samantha Bream & Kim Kanefke Welcome back! We hope your school year is off to a wonderful start. We are looking forward to this year’s orchestra season events! While many directors are aware of the opportunities for orchestra students each year, some newer directors may not be. Below is the list of this season’s events: Region 1 Intermediate Orchestra & High School Symphonic Orchestra Concert (Auditioned, Winter), Middle School & High School Orchestra Festival (Director-Nominated, Spring), Middle School & High School Orchestra Adjudication Festival (Spring), and Elementary Honors Orchestra Festival (DirectorNominated, Spring). The Region 1 Intermediate Orchestra (Grades 6-8) and High School Orchestra (Grades 9-12) auditions will take place on the same day, Saturday, January 9, 2027 (Snow Date: Sunday, January 10, 2027). We are currently looking for orchestra directors to help support the NJSMA Orchestra Division in 2026OCTOBER 2026

2027 by hosting, managing, and/or coordinating rehearsals, performances and festivals. The Orchestra Division events give students the chance to make music with peers from across northern NJ and learn from guest conductors. These events also create opportunities for directors to connect and build relationships with other orchestra educators. Reach out to us if you are able to assist us in the division. We greatly appreciate and welcome your willingness to serve. If you are new to Region 1 or your contact information has changed in the last year, contact us so we can update our records. Thanks! Lastly, remember to check the NJSMA website, www.NJSMA.org, periodically for important information such as calendar dates, deadlines, and audition information. Wishing you a successful fall! CHORUS DIVISION - Co Chairs: Deana Larsen & Becky Polynice We hope you had a wonderful summer and had some time with friends and family and feel recharged for 2026-2027! For those of you that were able to attend our 2026 Professional Development Day in June, we would like to thank you for attending and helping us make it such a successful event. We are honored to work with such talented directors. Please save the following dates! HS Chorus Festivals will be held on 12/3/26, 12/4/2026 & 12/7/2026. Our Intermediate Chorus Festivals will be held in March. Check out the njsma.org website for more details. (We will have that posted sometime in September.) We are also scheduling a Google Meet for HS Choral Directors about our HS Region Choir Auditions. All HS directors planning on sending kids are welcome and encouraged to attend! We will send out a blast with more information in early September. We always welcome you to become more involved by hosting and/or managing. We particularly need a host for our January 21st rehearsal for HS Regions. Please email us if you can help.out! Our events can only run with the help and support of all of you. We are always looking for volunteers with any level of experience to serve as site host, OCTOBER 2026

audition chair, manager and committee members. If you wish to be involved, we have a spot and will work alongside you throughout the entire process. Welcome to any new teachers in our region and to those who have not been active as NJSMA members. If you are reading this or know someone who desires to join us, please have them reach out to our corresponding secretary (publicity[at]njsma.org), or fill out the contact form on our website. All relevant information about our region is on the website (njsma.org). The calendar section is up to date with all of our confirmed events as of this publication. Contact information for all executive board members/ divisions is listed under the officers’ section. I am looking forward to another successful year collaborating with all the exceptional music educators in Northern New Jersey. Your dedication and passion are truly inspiring, and I am excited about the possibilities ahead. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. All the best, Lyn M. Lowndes President, North Jersey School Music Association president[at]njsma.org

CJMEA

Central Jersey Music Educators Association www.cjmea.org

Greetings! I’m hoping you had a restful and rejuvenating summer and that your school year has been off to a good start! We had an incredible year with CJMEA last year and I can say that it has been incredibly fulfilling to serve as CJMEA President - and to have the opportunity to connect with so many of you across our region! Check out our 25-26 CJMEA year in review (https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY2esssz5WP/)! The Central Jersey Music Educators Association board is a passionate and dedicated group of music educators that serves our members throughout our region and provides students and teachers with meaningful, authentic, and excellent musical expe57

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riences. I am so grateful for the leadership and service of the members of our CJMEA board and for all of the music educators in our region that have volunteered their time, talents, resources, and energy to our organization! Your impact is inspiring and you are so valued. This year, we will continue to expand upon our goals to provide professional learning resources to our membership that can be accessed on a flexible and convenient schedule (keep an eye out for our upcoming CJMEA Professional Learning Academy Webinars!), continue music education advocacy through the sharing of music education stories across our region (share your story with us here!), and to increase opportunities for intergenerational mentorship and community-building spaces (register for the February NJMEA conference!). Our calendar for the year can be found on our website, and region audition information will be posted to our division pages no later than October 15th. If you might be interested in serving as a manager, rehearsal/concert host, or in any other way please reach out to us! We look forward to connecting with you throughout the year! Please follow us on instagram (@ cjmea_official) and bookmark our website, CJMEA. org, where you can find all of the ensembles and professional development opportunities that we have available for you this year. Please know I am here to help you - feel free to reach out via email if there’s anything I can do! With gratitude and joy, Rebekah Sterlacci CJMEA President president.cjmea[at]gmail.com

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SJBODA

South Jersey Band and Orchestra Directors Association www.sjboda.org

Welcome Back! Our first membership meeting for this school year will be held on Wednesday, October 14, 2026. This breakfast meeting will take place at Seven Star Diner in Sewell at 9:00 AM. There is no fee to attend the meeting but you must register. Please notify John Drechen (609-457-0590 or sjbodapresident[at]gmail.com) if you plan to attend. Auditions for the 2027 All South Jersey Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Symphonic Band and Junior High String Ensemble will take place on Saturday, December 12, 2026 at Absegami HS. Jeffrey Moore (Palmyra School District) is our Senior High auditions chair and Patrick O’Keefe (Absegami HS) will be our host. Audition information, applications, and directions are available on our website. The first rehearsal for these ensembles will take place on Saturday, December 19th at Cinnaminson HS. Nick DiSalvio will be our site host for this rehearsal. Our 2027 Orchestra will be conducted by Gary White (Philadelphia Sinfonia) and Kate Wyatt (Egg Harbor Township School District) will conduct the Junior High String Ensemble. The Wind Ensemble will be conducted by Joe Higgins (Rowan University) and Vinnie Du Beau (Delsea Regional HS) will conduct the Symphonic Band. Carrington Thompson (Eastern Regional HS) is our Strings Coordinator and Jon Porco (Rosa International MS) is our High School Band Coordinator. The Junior High Band auditions will take place on Saturday, January 30, 2027 at Southern Regional Middle School. Andrew Wright will be our host supported by Jennifer Hodgson and the Southern Regional Tri-M Music Honor Society. Audition information is available on our website. Joe Jacobs (Ventnor MS, retired) and Jon Porco (Rosa International MS) are the Junior High Band auditions cochairs. Nancy Robinson (Linwood Public Schools, retired) is our Junior High Band Coordinator. SJBODA is searching for a candidate to represent 58

OCTOBER 2026

the region on the All State Orchestra Procedures Committee. Please contact any of our executive board members for information. There are currently openings for two additional conductors for our Elementary Honors Bands and two conductors for our Elementary Honors String Ensembles. There is also a vacancy for an Intermediate String Ensemble conductor as well as openings for coaches for our various Chamber Ensembles. Applications to conduct or coach are on the homepage of our website. The South Jersey Band and Orchestra Directors Association offer many opportunities for instrumental music teachers to expand their involvement and expertise as music educators. We provide excellent vehicles for professional development including conducting, coaching, and managing our ensembles. Many teachers have gained wonderful ideas and strategies by observing rehearsals and collaborating with colleagues. There are plenty of excellent performing opportunities for your students and ensembles to enhance your school music program. We invite all music teachers to take advantage of the wonderful resources offered by SJBODA this year. For additional information, please contact John Drechen at sjbodapresident[at]gmail. com or 609-457-0590. We encourage you to check our website, which is maintained by Derek Rohaly (Mainland Regional HS), for the latest SJBODA updates. www.sjboda.org We wish everyone an exciting and successful school year. John Drechen SJBODA President sjbodapresident[at]gmail.com

SJCDA

South Jersey Choral Directors Association www.sjcda.com

The South Jersey Choral Directors Association Board of Directors worked throughout the summer and are looking forward to a successful year of choral activities in Region III. We began the year with our annual General Membership Meeting and Reception at White Horse Winery on September 14th. Conductors for our honors choirs presented their programs and the executive board discussed new opportunities and initiatives for SJCDA members, most importantly Elementary specific PD opportunities.Thank you to Larry Little, Virginia Jarvela, Dr. Vanessa Bond at Rowan, and the NJMEA Elementary Chair Amy Burns for making this happen. More details soon! Most importantly, our membership had the opportunity to connect with their colleagues and share ideas about the upcoming school year. Our 69th Annual South Jersey High School Choral Festival will be held at the Performing Arts Center at Washington Township High School on January 23rd and 24th, 2027. Our Senior High conductor is Catherine Chambers of Cherry Hill West High School and our Junior High conductor is Kathryn Pepe Coleman of Millville Senior High School. Auditions for these choirs will be held on Saturday, November 14th at Clearview Regional High School. Our 44th South Jersey Elementary Festival Choral Concert will be held on February 27th, 2027 and will be conducted by Keven Gehringer of Richard L. Rice Elementary School in Marlton. Full concert programs for all three honors choirs as well as bios of our conductors are available on our website- sjcda.com. You can also find all the dates for the upcoming year on the site as well. We look forward to another exciting year working with the teachers and students throughout South Jersey! Cristin Introcaso SJCDA President cintrocaso[at]collsk12.org

OCTOBER 2026

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OCTOBER 2026

NJMEA 2025-2027 Board of Directors EXECUTIVE BOARD

President Yale Snyder

Past President David Westawski West Windsor-Plainsboro SD westawski.njmea[at]gmail.com

President-Elect Anthony Lanzerotti, Jr

Monroe Township District snyder.njmea[at]gmail.com

Woodrow Wilson MS lanzerotti.njmea[at]gmail.com

Executive Director

NJSMA, President

CJMEA, President

Lyn Lowndes

Rebekah Sterlacci

Butler High School president[at]njsma.org

Piscataway HS president.cjmea[at]gmail.com

William McDevitt Retired wmcdevittnjmea[at]gmail.com

SJCDA, President

SJBODA, President

Collingswood High School cintrocaso[at]collsk12.org

Retired sjbodapresident[at]gmail.com

Cristin Introcaso

John Drechen

APPOINTED MEMBERS Accessible Music Education Maureen Butler Retired maureenbutlermusic[at]gmail.com

Band Performance Jesse Argenziano W Windsor-Plainsboro HS South njmeaband[at]gmail.com

Jazz Education Andrew Lopez Sparta High School alopez.njaje[at]gmail.com

Administration/K-12 Ed Tech Shawna Longo Westfield Public Schools shawnalongo[at]gmail.com

Choral Festivals Donna Marie Berchtold Retired firesongwed[at]gmail.com

Orchestra Performance/Festivals Elisabeth Sato Martin Luther King Elementary orchestra.njmea[at]gmail.com

Advocacy Arwen Kapusta John Adams Elementary School arwenkapusta[at]gmail.com

Choral Performance Matt Wolf Ramsey High School NJAllStateChoir[at]gmail.com

PreK-8 General Music Amy Burns Far Hills Country Day School aburns[at]fhcds.org

All-State Production Manager Joseph Cantaffa Howell High School jcantaffahhs[at]hotmail.com

Conferences Marie Malara Retired malara97[at]aol.com

Research/Collegiate/HigherEd Marissa Silverman Montclair State University silvermanm[at]montclair.edu

Band Festivals/NJEA Liaison Nancy Clasen Lodi Public Schools nancyclasen[at]gmail.com

D.E.I.A Whitney Covalle Montclair State University deia.njmea[at]gmail.com

Retired Members/Mentorship Kathy Spadafino Retired kspadeb[at]aol.com

Emerging Ensembles Zach Gates East Brunswick High School zacharygatesmusic[at]gmail.com

NJ Collegiate NAfME Briseis Munoz NJNAfME Collegiate President briseis.munoz[at]gmail.com TEMPO

OCTOBER 2026

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EDITORIAL POLICY Articles may be submitted to the editor of this magazine by anyone who wishes to write about topics related to music or music education. All articles which are selected for publication will be proof read for content, spelling and grammatical errors. Authors who submit an article to TEMPO Magazine for publication agree to all of the following 1. the editor may edit all articles for content, spelling and grammar. 2. the printing of the article in TEMPO Magazine, the printing date, and placement are at the discretion of the editor. 3. permission is granted to reprint the same article in any National or State Music Education Association magazine on the condition that the author’s name and TEMPO Magazine are to be mentioned in all reprinted articles. 4. no exceptions will be made regarding items 1 through 3 above. 5. the author of the article may submit his/her article to additional magazines for publication.

NJMEA Past Presidents 1924 - 1926 1926 - 1930 1930 1930 - 1931 1931 - 1933 1933 - 1935 1935 - 1936 1936 - 1938 1938 - 1939 1939 - 1941 1941 - 1942 1942 - 1944 1944 - 1945 1945 - 1947 1947 - 1949 1949 - 1951 1951 - 1953 1953 - 1955

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Josephine Duke R.W. Laslett Smith Jay W. Fay Wilbert B. Hitchner Thomas Wilson John H. Jaquish Clifford Demarest Mable E. Bray Paul H. Oliver K. Elizabeth Ingles Arthur E. Ward John T. Nicholson Frances Allan-Allen Philip Gordon Violet Johnson Samuel W. Peck Janet G. Gleason Henry Zimmerman

1955 - 1957 1957 - 1959 1959 - 1961 1961 - 1963 1963 - 1965 1965 - 1967 1967 - 1969 1969 - 1971 1971 - 1973 1973 - 1975 1975 - 1977 1977 - 1979 1979 - 1981 1981 - 1983 1983 - 1985 1985 - 1987 1987 - 1989 1989 - 1991

Agnes B. Gordown Leroy B. Lenox Elizabeth R. Wood Harold A. Brown E. Brock Griffith Robert C. Heath Edward Brown Rudolph Kreutzer Charles Wertman Stephen M. Clarke Herman L. Dash Buddy S. Ajalat Alyn J. Heim Robert Marince Anthony Guerere Joan Policastro Joseph Mello Dorian Parreott

1991 - 1993 1993 - 1995 1995 - 1997 1997 - 1999 1999 - 2001 2001 - 2003 2003 - 2005 2005 - 2007 2007 - 2009 2009 - 2011 2011 - 2013 2013 - 2015 2015 - 2017 2017 - 2019 2019 - 2021 2021 - 2023 2023 - 2025

David S. Jones Anthony Guerere Sharon Strack Chic Hansen Joseph Mello Nicholas Santoro Frank Phillips Joseph Akinskas Robert Frampton William McDevitt Keith Hodgson Joseph Jacobs William McDevitt Jeffrey Santoro Patrick O'Keefe Wayne Mallette David Westawski

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OCTOBER 2026

Caldwell University

New Jersey Association for Jazz Education

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2027 NJMEA STATE CONFERENCE February 18 - 20 Atlantic City Convention Center All Conference Information is available at: www.njmea.org/state.conference

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OCTOBER 2026