State MTNA Performance Competition 2023 Recap

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Julie Swienty, WSMTA MTNA Performance Competitions Chair

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Washington State’s MTNA Performance Competition was successfully completed! Chairing this event confirmed what I have witnessed over the years—that Washington piano teachers are amazing! The level of skill and literature exceeds what I remember to be graduate level playing of very difficult literature—and in such young students. Be sure to check out the programs by Junior Divisions!

Congratulations to each performer, teacher and family represented. We are proud of each one of you!  We were thrilled to be able to use Central Washington University’s amazing facility in Ellensburg. The competition was held November 10-12, with winners announced upon completion of each category. All of our coordinators, volunteers, and judges were wonderful to spend time and work with over the three-day event. Special thanks to competition coordinators Dr. Amanda Harris, who helped me with the Junior Division, Mary Kaye Owen, NCTM, Senior Division, and Laura Curtis, Young Artist Division. Special thanks needs to be extended to Terri Hlubek, MTNA Competition Chair, as well as other national office staff, for their invaluable counsel as I learned how to do the job of chairing this huge event.

We are immensely grateful for the knowledge and guidance of the team at CWU for their assistance with facilities and all the details that happen behind the scenes. Thanks to Bonnie Hendrickson, Scheduling Coordinator, Anne Smethurst, Department of Music Office Assistant, and Allen Larsen, Media Producer Lead, and all of the building managers, who worked tirelessly to help us.

I cannot thank Kathy Mortensen, WSMTA Past President, Colleen Hunter, NCTM, WSMTA President, Mary Grant, WSMTA Treasurer, Samantha Yeung, WSMTA Communications Coordinator, Kirsten Carlson, Administrative Coordinator, Cherie Felts, OAPC Chair, and Preta Laughlin and her granddaughter, Beverage and Food Coordinator, enough for all of their work, wisdom and guidance.  Real friendships come from working together, and I value getting to know and work with each of them! This event could not have occurred without each of you.

So many others volunteered extraordinary amounts of their personal time to help: Carol Cross, Barbara Riley, Dr. Ross Salvosa, Naomi Johnson, and Kira Miller (and her son!), and I know that I’m forgetting many others who stepped up to help. Through the hard work of the students, parents, teachers, chairs, judges, and certainly many others, the event was a resounding success. The judges have commented on the level of playing and how thrilled they were to hear the performances.

Decisions were difficult in many divisions, and the balloting frequently took all three times as judges stood up for their favorites!  The program booklet with the list of repertoire is available on the state website. There were 103 entries in 11 divisions:

  • Piano: Junior, Senior, Senior Duet, Young Artist
  • String: Junior, Senior, Young Artist (violin, cello, and string bass)
  • Woodwind: Senior (flute), Young Artist (flute, saxophone)
  • Brass: Young Artist (french horn)
  • Voice: Senior (soprano, tenor)
I hope that if you haven’t attended an event like this before, that you will consider coming to listen next time. I promise it will be inspiring!
The state winners will now prepare videos for the Northwest Division Competition round, which will be held online. Division Winners will then move on to the National Competition at the MTNA National Conference in Atlanta in March 2024.
Judges for the 2023 Competition are listed below. Their bios can be found here. We appreciate their diligence, expertise, and willingness to assist us with this competition:
  • Piano Division: Roger McVey, Scott Rednour, Greg Presley
  • String Division: Korine Fujiwara, Kevin Hekmatpanah, Brendan Shea
  • Voice Division: Nancy Gregory
  • Woodwind Division: Leonard Garrison
  • Brass Division: Jason M. Johnston

Piano Division Judges Roger McVey, Scott Rednour, and Greg Presley

– Julie Swienty, NCTM, WSMTA MTNA Performance Competitions Coordinator

Outstanding Artist Piano Competition (OAPC) 2023 Recap

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Cherie Felts, OAPC Chair

It was so good to meet and greet everyone during the Outstanding Artist Piano Competition in Ellensburg! It was a full three days with 48 in performance beginning Friday morning, November 10, and continuing all day on Saturday and Sunday. There were 29 students entered in Junior Division and 19 in Senior Division, representing 25 teachers.

I would like to thank Michelle Mielke, Chair of the WSMTA Education Board, Colleen Hunter, WSMTA President and Amanda Harris, WSMTA Vice President for their encouragement and work. We all thank Preta Laughlin for her time and energy in making sure everybody working competitions was taken care of for snacks and lunchtimes; to Kirsten Carlsen, WSMTA Administrative Coordinator, for her help with registrations and communication tasks overall; and to Julie Swienty for being the MTNA/WSMTA Competitions Coordinator and for her communication with the support staff at CWU especially. Thank you also to Jani Stoehr, (Program Repertoire Researching and Formatting) for extra research with titles, opus numbers and clarifications needed to make the printed program as accurate as possible and for formatting it as well.  Thank you also to Dr. Jay Mauchley for proof-reading the printed program (repertoire titles) to ensure as much accuracy as possible! I owe a debt of gratitude to Samantha Yeung and Kirsten Carlson for their encouragement and publishing the competition results quickly as we moved through the weekend days.

A huge thank you is extended to our 2023 OAPC Judges: Dr. Jason Kuo, NCTM, Dr. Lark Powers, NCTM, and Mr. Jeffrey Gilliam, NCTM. It was a pleasure to work with them! Our Monitors this year were Patti Robertson, NCTM, and Jani Stoehr, NCTM. I so appreciate their ongoing service and commitment to WSMTA and our students!

Cherie Felts, OAPC Chair