Teacher Enrichment Workshops

Oregon Music Teachers Association in partnership with the Oregon Community Foundation and the Nellie Tholen Fund present statewide teacher enrichment workshops. These valuable and varying presentations are free and open to all music educators, members and non-members alike.

Workshop Videos

(The following videos are available to OMTA members and are password protected. Members may find the password in their members handbook. It is the same as for other password protected areas of this site.)

Nurturing Potential Into Passion

Presented by Leila Viss, 88PianoKeys.me

Starter Steps for Playing Eighteenth-Century Repertoire on the Modern Piano

Presented by Donna Gunn, M.M., NCTM

Teaching the Special Learner: Wisdom and Strategies for the Independent Music Teacher

Presented by Emily Ross, M.A., M.T. – B.C.

Tips For Preparing For Syllabus Exams

Presented by Heidi Evans NCTM

Succeeding With Sonatinas

Presented by Dr. Crystal Zimmerman NCTM, Professor of Piano, Willamette University

Music and the Brain – How We Hear And Understand Melody and Rhythm

Presented by Dr. Crystal Zimmerman NCTM, Professor of Piano, Willamette University

Authentic Baroque Dance

Presented by Daniel Stephens, M.F.A. and Judith Kennedy, M.A.

Upcoming Events 

A Good Lesson is Not Reliant on How Much or Little the Student Has Practiced

Date/Time: Saturday, April 27, 2019/10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Presenter: Dr. Jeanine Jacobson, NCTM
Location: EOU Choir Room, Loso Hall Room 123, La Grande OR 97850
Presenting District: Blue Mountain
Local Contact: Matt Cooper
Program Description:
How to make a lesson a positive and effective learning experience when the student hasn’t practiced.

About the Presenter:
Dr. Jeanine Jacobson, NCTM obtained her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington. She was awarded her master’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a doctorate from the University of Oklahoma. Subsequently, she taught at California State University, Northridge for 20 years and currently holds professor emerita status. Prior to her academic career she was an independent teacher for 30 years. She has written numerous articles and four books. Two books apply movement activities (Dalcroze) to teaching elementary piano students. Her first piano pedagogy textbook was published in 2006 by Alfred Publishing, and the second volume was released in early 2015. The second edition of the first volume was released in 2016 and includes two new chapters. Both volumes are widely used at universities across the United States and abroad. They received the 2016 MTNA Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award.
Dr. Jacobson received an award from NAMM in 2016 for her pedagogy textbooks. There is also a Youtube video about the books at https://www.youtube.com/user/AlfredMusicPiano.
Dr. Jacobson currently performs chamber music, teaches, conducts master classes, and gives lectures and workshops. She has been married for 56 years, has two daughters and two grandchildren and divides her time between Hood River, OR and Olympia, WA.

Becoming the Accompanist

Date/Time: Friday, May 3, 2019/10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Presenter: Matt Katz
Location: Oregon Coast Community College, South Beach Campus, 400 SE College Way, Newport, OR 97366
Presenting District: Lincoln County
Local Contact: Mary Morganti
Program Description:
The biggest question that comes up in private lessons with parents of piano and guitar students, “Will my kid earn a living making music?” The answer is yes! Accompaniment makes up a fair amount of the kind of work a lot of musicians can be employed with. Have you ever asked yourself, “Outside of teaching cadences and harmony, how can I teach my student to accompany?” In this workshop, Mr. Katz will break down and demonstrate the few basic activities that will start a student on the road to becoming the accompanist. Starting with teaching cadences in a “by-rote” method, he will take attendees through a practical approach to using current pop music and classics as a way to not only keep a student engaged who might be losing steam with studying piano repertoire, but to get them using all the music theory in an applied way to teach themselves a song quickly. Mr. Katz will cover learning a song by ear quickly as well as sight -reading an accompanied piece quickly. This will be a master-class style workshop with demonstrations and audience participation.

About the Presenter:
Matt Katz grew up studying piano in Brooklyn, NY. After earning a BFA in studio composition and jazz studies at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, he went on to tour with dance and pop bands honing skills on keyboard, production, vocals and arranging. He also spent some time working in music publishing as a sync licensing agent. Mr. Katz began privately teaching lessons during his senior year of High School and has done so steadily ever since, to students of all ages. Besides teaching, he also produces records for various singers, bands and artists as well as some film and theater sound work through his production company, The Katz Cradle.

Mr. Katz works with all types of vocalists and pianists from beginner to advanced. He excels at pop, jazz and contemporary theater singing styles and all types of piano study. He also teaches music theory, composition, arranging and offers both chamber and solo performance training. For more information please look online: http://www.thekatzcradle.com, www.fortemusicschool.com.

Audiation and Learning

Date/Time: Friday, May 10, 2019/10:45 AM to 12:15 PM
Presenter: Mary Hall Kogen, PSU Professor Emerita
Location: Studio of Janet Smith, 60775 Breckenridge St, Bend, OR 97702
Presenting District: Central Oregon
Local Contact: Janet Smith
Program Description:
We give meaning to music by audiating it. Through the process of audiation, we sing and move in our minds – without necessarily having to sing and move physically. Why is audiation essential for students’ musical growth? Music is first incorporated into the body through the ear. As children, we begin to move when we hear music and then we begin to sing. We hear a melody and we sing with joy, freedom and gusto. As we grow, what is it that happens, and that joy gets lost? As music teachers, we have the possibility to rekindle that joy, that freedom. Providing your students with the skill of audiation through rhythm, melody, harmony and memorization is indispensable to their musical growth. In this lecture, Ms. Kogen will talk about hearing in many dimensions: tonality, harmonic progression, rhythm, meter, and melody, to mention a few.

About the Presenter:
Mary Hall Kogen is Professor Emerita at Portland State University in Portland, OR. During the 26 years prior to her retirement in 2003, she taught Applied Piano, Piano Pedagogy, Class Piano, and supervised Graduate Teaching Assistants. Beginning in 1993, Ms. Kogen directed a summer music camp “Let Music Be the Food of Peace” in collaboration with Self Enhancement Inc. This camp won many awards and celebrated its tenth anniversary with Ms. Kogen’s retirement in 2003.

For the last 18 years, Ms. Kogen has pursued rhythm and movement through the experiential rhythm system TaKeTiNa. In 2008, she presented “Rhythm and Evolution” for the Music Teachers National Association in Denver, CO. She has been a member of the SYMS faculty at the University of New Hampshire for the past nine years where she taught participatory rhythmic learning to high school music students. She has presented rhythm workshops at numerous universities around the US. In June 2014, she gave two workshops for NFMC, “Using the Music Lesson to Teach Leadership Skills” and “Learning Through Rhythm and Movement”. For the past two years, Ms. Kogen has done “Taketina” in Albignac, France, with pianists from around the world, at Paul Roberts piano school. In June 2017, she presented “Movement and Mapping” at the National Andover Educators Conference in Georgia. Ms. Kogen continues to do presentations throughout the United States, and maintains a private studio in Portland where she teaches pedagogy and piano.

“Mary Kogen has literally become the Piano Teachers’ Piano Teacher”. — The Oregonian

Stepping into the Light: Thoughts on Performance Anxiety

Date/Time: Saturday, May 11, 2019/10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Presenter: Dr. Diane Baxter, NCTM
Location: First Presbyterian Church, 601 Pine St, Klamath Falls OR 97601
Presenting District: Klamath Basin
Local Contact: Terri Horn
Program Description:
“Why are my hands cold and clammy?” “Why is my heart pounding?” “Did you just say something to me?” “No, I can’t just relax!” Performance anxiety is a complex topic that involves how we think, how we feel, and how we behave. The results of it may range from mildly discomforting to completely paralyzing. We all want to get it right when it matters most, whether we are performers, family members, or teachers. All of us have something to gain by understanding what happens as we strive to excel. This talk will introduce some of the causes of performance anxiety, and will offer some tips on how to do your best under duress.

About the Presenter:
Dr. Diane Baxter, NCTM, performs as a soloist, a chamber musician, and an orchestral pianist throughout the United States, in Canada, Japan and France. Her training is primarily from a long heritage of Hungarian piano teachers, including Bela Boszormenyi-Nagy and Gyorgy Sebok. Dr. Baxter has worked recently with British pianist Paul Roberts, London-based artist Charles Owen, and Washington DC’s Alon Goldstein. She is the Principal Keyboard Artist for the Newport Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as soloist with the Cascade Festival of Music Orchestra, the Western Oregon Symphony, the Newport Symphony Orchestra, and the Oregon Mozart Players.

Dr. Baxter is currently Professor of Music at Western Oregon University where she has received the Faculty Honors Award for Outstanding Creativity and the Mario and Alma Pastega Award for Excellence in Teaching. She regularly teaches courses in Ethnomusicology, Graduate Research Methods, Performance Anxiety, and Studio Piano. Dr. Baxter’s article on music and the brain, “The Science of Artistry: The Fourth String,” was published in the international journal, Clavier Companion (November/December 2013). She is editor of The Oregon Musician, a journal for the Oregon Music Teachers Association. Dr. Baxter frequently gives workshops on performance anxiety for students and teachers, and adjudicates for piano competitions and festivals around the northwest. In March 2015 she served as principal adjudicator of 350 pianists and presenter of the keynote speech, “Stepping Into the Light: Advice for Performers,” for the Woodley Competition in England.