Music Literacy Program (MLP) High Honors

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Okanogan County Chapter

Lois Rhoads: Avarie Werner (1), Racie Rothrock (2)
Rosalind Nau: Adonijah Boguslavsky (1), Sophia Kiester (1), Trinity Doré (1), Evelyn Sheller (5)

Lynden Chapter

Karen Scholten: Makyla Boon (1), Payson Boon (1), Tess Bosman (1), Titus Chase (1), James Lemperes (1), Liam Foote (2), Kenzie Lankhaar (2), Thomas Leyenhorst (2), Emma Davis (3), Tamsen Kottelenberg (3), Rylea Lodder (3), Kiersten VanDelft (3)
Tammy Rutgers: Reid Elton (1), Gabriel Gassman (1), Max Hamilton (1), Hallie Puckett (1), Clara Bajema (2), Macy Faber (2), Karen Jones (2), Ruth Klein (2), Grace Stevens (5)
Leona Foster: Callum Crompton (1), Thomas Hungerford (1), Seren Kaemingk (1), Gabby Leavitt (1), Ellie Sokol (1), Aaron Presley (1), Will Presley (1), Sara Yue (6)
Karen Visser: Isaiah Kooiman (1), Noelle Lenssen (2), Faye Tamminga (2), Elena Stuart (4), Reta VanderMey (8)
Sherry VandenBos: Elena Slagle (2), Corah VanderMey (3), Lena VanderMey (5), Ava Tyler (6)
Meg Krieg: Lucy Stuart (3), Madeline Morris (9), Clara Rogers (9)
Lulu Johnson: Deklan Hoag (2), Avery Rennie (2), Jack Lovegren (3)
Emily Bailey: Edmund Blair (1), Josh VanWinckel (2), Sam McDough (2), Hannah VanWinckel (2)
Alissa Veeneman: Kaylee Tjoelker (1), Wyatt Johnson (1), James DenHartog (4)
Bethany Hilt: James Tinklenberg (1), Nathan VanderWoude (2)

Spokane Chapter

Joyce Hawkins: Mary Jensen (1), Emily Jensen (2), Jason Cunningham (2), Sasha Turner (4), Alyna Turner (5), Eshan Reddy (7), Dallin Howard (7), Adam Ling (8), Jason Claypool (8)
Davis Hill: Austin Downey (3)
Anastasia Sinitsa: Sophia Chernyavaskiy (Levei 2), Jason Chernyavaskiy (2)
Carolyn Stuart: Avery Turner (2), Abby Chuang (7), Leroy Koh (8)

Music Literacy Program: April 2024

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Melanie Stroud, WSMTA Music Literacy Program Chair

Spring has sprung, and my students are busily preparing for the Music Literacy Program!

I want to take this article to focus on one specific testing area: Sight Reading. This is the one that tends to stress my students out the most. They’re so concerned with making a mistake that they “can’t see the forest for the trees.” This is a wonderful opportunity to talk about how to tackle a new piece. It doesn’t matter how many times we have introduced new pieces to them (on a weekly basis, every lesson for years!), when we ask them to sight read something new, they become a deer in the headlights. So, when preparing for the MLP, we will do at least two practice tests.

During the first one, I talk them through it. “What’s the key signature? What’s the hand position? Do your hands move ever?” I have them count through the rhythm in their head, think through each hand, maybe even play on their laps! Then they play through it. We talk through what went well, what they should have maybe spent some more time thinking through, and the second test they do all the prep on their own. By the time they get to our event, the test is a piece of cake. Ultimately, student success and literacy is our main goal, and whatever makes them successful is a win!

Music Literacy Program: March 2024

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Melanie Stroud, WSMTA Music Literacy Program Chair

‘Tis the season for the Music Literacy Program!

Testing is happening all over the state, in these next few months. Students are learning, and the MLP is here to help you assess that learning! I can hardly believe how user-friendly the website is, for finding everything you need as a teacher or as a chapter chair. The tests remain password protected, in order to maintain the integrity of our program, and things are running smoothly. One thing that may not have come to your chapter’s attention is the fact that the Ed Board decided to once again provide certificates. We had attempted to have chapters print their own off the website last year, but you spoke and we listened! Many chapters picked up packets of certificates at the State Leadership Conference in Yakima in September, but if your chapter still needs certificates, just shoot me an email! I have certificates and seals ready to go in the mail as needed, and am happy to send them your way. Happy testing!

Music Literacy Program: Fall 2023 Updates

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Melanie Stroud, WSMTA Music Literacy Program Chair

As I sit writing this article, sipping a pumpkin spice latte, I hope that you all are enjoying the beginning of fall as much as I am! The new year is underway, students are learning and thriving, and I am looking forward to this year’s Music Literacy Program! The biggest changes to the program this year involve our amazing WSMTA website and the dynamic duo of Mary Grant and Kirsten Carlson. If you are your chapter’s MLP chair, everything you could possibly need is right at your fingertips on our website!

Mary Grant has created a Chapter Chair Checklist to make sure you don’t forget any steps. The online Chapter Questionnaire lets us know when your event will be held, when you want your registration open, and what areas of testing you are planning to offer. Once your registration window opens, your teachers go to the “register students” button and take care of that. When your registration closes, you send them back to the website to pay! (Make sure you set a firm deadline for that, so you can get your chapter rebate promptly!) When the payment window closes, you fill out the “Chapter Rebate Request,” and we get things handled on our end to get you your money so you can pay for your event!

When your whole splendid affair has ended, you fill out the “Chapter Participation Profile,” to let me know how everything went. This form goes to me, Samantha Yeung and Kirsten Carlson. I send out gold seals for your students who achieved honors status on their theory exams and Samantha puts the high honors names in the Clarion. My hope is that this whole process has been streamlined in a way that is super user friendly, and makes the life of your Chapter Chair easier. Happy Fall, everyone! 



Music Literacy Program: Happy New School Year!

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Melanie Stroud, WSMTA Music Literacy Program Chair

Happy new school year, my amazing colleagues!

Our State Vocal and Instrumental chair, Jane Melin, has been hard at work this summer with a group of awesome string teachers to add to our offerings for the MLP! See her article with more exciting information on that. I hope you are all excited for a new year of teaching. One of my favorite things is pulling out my brand new calendar and filling it with my new schedule, lesson plans, dates for recitals, etc.

One of the things I include in my lesson plans for the year is MLP prep! Once a month I have each student rotate through practicing for each of the MLP testing areas. They clap through a couple of exercises at their level for this year’s tests, practice sight reading, do some ear training exercises, theory practice, scale review, etc., so by the time we get to the date for my chapter’s MLP, they’re all prepared and feel ready! Honestly, though, even if the MLP did not exist, having a plan for continuous review in these areas can only be a good thing. That is part of what I love about the Music Literacy Program. It takes things I should be doing anyway and puts them in the forefront of my planning, gives me a scaffold for my curriculum for the year.

I had a wonderful time visiting three chapters last year, so if you’d like to have me out to share more about the MLP with your group, send me an email! I’m here to support you and your chapters in any way I can, as you venture forth into this new year of Music Literacy!

Happy Teaching, all!



Music Literacy Program Theory High Honors 2022-2023

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Congratulations to the following students and teachers! Students scoring 98% or higher on the Written Theory portion of the Music Literacy Program are awarded High Honors.

Clarkston-Lewiston Chapter

Tracy Henriod: Aletheia Cole (6), Ella Bouterse (3), Grant Wilcox (2), Ryan Gottschalk (1)
Stephanie Hill: Hailey Bond (4), Charlie York (3)

Lynden Chapter

Emily Bailey: Sam McGough (1), Hannah Van Winkel (1)
Bethany Hilt: Molly Smit (1), Cole Hilt (2), Luke Hilt (4), Lane VanderWoude (4)
Lulu Johnson: Lani Brooks (1), Avery Rennie (1), Dylan Van Driel (3)
Meg Krieg: Cooper Morris (3), Logan Pinkham (9)
Tammy Rutgers: Clara Bajema (1), Sophie DeWaard (1), Macy Faber (1), Karen Jones (1), Ruth Klein (1), Vance Elton (4), Helena Lindsay (4), Macie Miller (4), Addison Puckett (4), Grace Stevens (4),
Fischer Blok (5)
Karen Scholten: Lexi Dykstra (1), Liam Foote (1), Kenzie Lankhaar (1), Emma Davis (2), Kamsen Kottelenberg (2), Rylea Lodder (2), Jude Samora (2), Cassie DeMooy (3), Natalie Elenbaas (4), Andie
Lowe (4), Meleah Kottelenberg (6)
Amy Vandenberg: Ella McKee (2), Jenny Stober (3)
Sherry VandenBos: Corah Vander Mey (2), Brysen Korthuis (3), Ava Tyler (5)
Alissa Veeneman: Kennedy DeBruin (1), Jaclyn Som (1), James Den Hartog (3)
Karen Visser: Naomi Stuart (1), Paisley VandenBos (1)

Pullman Chapter

Jill Schneider: Kaitlin Chi (3)
Jani Stoehr: Elliott Heckman (3), Quinn Hughes (3)
Michelle Mielke: Anton Chen (1), Cannon Cordova (5), Claire Chen (1), Colin Liu (3), Gage Boren (1), Georgia Colvig (7)

South King County Chapter

Joanne Corr: Shyam Ramesh (4)
Mary Kaye Owen: Lucas Dumitrescu (1), Drew Chmielewski (1), Mark Pittenger (4), Alyssa Shull (4), Lia Yi (3)
Julie Swienty: Rose Myers (2), Sarah-Jane Sherwood (4)

Bellingham Chapter

Barbara Borries: Sophia Johner (3)
Kim Bowman: Jared Manookin (1)
Debra Chang: Sam Canepa (3)
Lorraine Earle: Sia Ericksen (2), Rae Parks (2), Amanda Buck (4)
Andrea Rackl: Zoe Steyn (1), Zakary Jansen (5), Caleb Knapp (7), Alena Naviaux (8), Shayla Rehfeldt (9), Liam Connor (10)
Kaitlyn Ronstadt: Bennen Majors (1), Soren Pruett (1), Sierra Widman (2), Noah Jaffer (4), Mary Packard (4), Jenna Lind (4), Emma Wilson (7)
Eva Sauve: Braden Le (1), Willa Fitzenrider (1)
Judy Widrig: Ema Horja (8), Maria Horja (9)

Kitsap Chapter

Becky Beckwith: Ada Morton (2), Daysha Davis (2), Emma Knight (3)
Rachel Doornink: Amaia Martinez (4)Haywood Hicks (2)
Debra Florian: Ally Soetaert (4), Julie Castillejo (6), Kail Taylor (6), Luca Castillejo (8), Scarlet Griesemer (4)
Mary Grant: Chloe-Evelyn Chong (4), Dalton Abrams (2), Emmett Bates (Levvel 2), Francesca Zaballa (5), Jake Pentzer (5), James Hunt (2), Meena McConnaha (4), Regan Voss (4), Sebastian Zaballa (5), Tiange Li (5)
Megan Hennings: Aria Tirohn (2), Gwen Williams (1), Kajsa Haas (1), Sabella Crus (3), Sadie Simpson (2), Shelby Hamilton (1)
Dianne Johnston: Daisy Gemmer (8), Jacob Kushner (7), Madeline Zacher (8), Nathan Kelley (5)
Melanie Kurtzbein: Caley Haydu (5), Dario Oishi (2), Hailey Vaught (6), Mikayla Samonte (5), Misky Raska (4)
Carmen Larson: Corabella Gray (1), Elowyn Steele (4), Loyce Rodriguez (1), Seraph Adkins (1), Serena Martin-Kogan (3)
Diane Layton: Gabe Watson (4), Erin Sy (3), Daphne McClendon (3), Grace Nelson (5), Roger Shi (7)
Julene Martin: Daniel Quinn (5), Luke Nielsen (1), Melissa Martin (6), Stephanie Burden (4)
Jane Melin: Coral Marsh (7), Ellie Vergara (2), Gregory Griesemer (1), Heidi Jordan (1), Leelia McKeel (1), Rylie Carr (2)
Farida Roberts: Austin Roberts (3), Callie Rogers (2), Clara Boulch (1), Gianna St.Hilaire (2), Peter St.Hilaire (2)
Krista Seely: Lillian Bell (4), Sofia Kochevar (4)
Melanie Stroud: Alice Johansen (2), Caroline Stottlemyer (1), Chloe Schneider (1), Miriam Burns (1), Nataly Martin (2), Peter Martin (1), Rachel Fuller (2), Rebecca Fuller (2), Sienna Parmalee (1)

Lake Washington Chapter

Selina Chu: Megan Bobby (1)
Laurie Ketron: Einar Peterson (1), Elise McNamara (3), Marissa Wang (4), Audrey Wang (6)
Cherry Li: Evan Song (2)
Makiko Meyer: Isabella Omori (2), Julia Kataoka (3), Vihaan Prakash (3), Ananya Kota (4), Aishwarya Kota (8)

Snohomish Chapter

Tien-yin Chen: Luke Hu (2), Emily Fan (4), Lori Ma (4), Charie Chang (5), Sophia Hu (6)
Natsuko Goldman: Clayton Lawardy (2), Mitchel Lin (2), Enzo Salcedo (3)
Sarah Hall: Aasini Thyagarajan (1), John Tran (3), Veda Duvvuri (4)
Arlene Hicks: Quang-Thai Nguyen (4)
Maria Khavin: Maya Wolff (1)
Karin Larsen: Janelle Gustamente (1), Misheel Myagmarbat (1), Mildred Peterson (1), Minjin Myagmarbat (3)
Chanelle Lucero: Maria Hoff (6),
Patti McElroy: Brady Falconer (1), Allyana Gray (1), Anya Lin (2), Talon Lin (3), Gracelyn Griffith (4), Raelyn Oetzel (5)
Jacqueline Pierson: Jace Johnsen (1)
Rachel Preston: Lewis Kieley (1)
Amy Riffle-Kouyeas: Peyton Robens (3), Gabi Gonzales (4)
Maria Sier: Mila Li (2), Katia Madison (2), Ellis Morey-Leber (2), Vincent Westerman (3), Carolyn Xu (4)
Jan Toy: Kenneth Guidon (1)

Eastside Chapter

Samantha Yeung: Sydney Castillo (2), Audrey McAlee (2), Will Goldsworthy (2), Jasper Wood (2), Saisha Kashyap (3) Olivia Galang (3), Owen Hatsukari (3), Sameera Kashyap (3), Juni Clouse (4), Evan Humphrey (4), Aiden Hatsukari (5), Olivia Scott (5), Anna Chou (6), Kendan Guest (7), Kylen Guest (10)
Betsy Randolph: Uma Bhushan (4), Jai Bindlish (7), Meet Khare (2)
Holly Seneker: Ananya Kkrishnan (2)
Yimo Zhang: Adela Hemingway (3), Mariska Vasniak (4)
Paul Turel: Prishna Mody (4), Anjalika Mukherjee (4)
Eliana Yi: Natalie Lemelson (1), Gabriel Steijn (1)
Gloria Tzuang: Rowan Goldman (4), Charlotte Foster (3), Daniel Sohail (3)

Olympia Chapter

Tina Wang: Elaine Hai (1, 2), Koyuki Sakae (1, 2), Bella Maio (1), Jessica Zhang (1, 2)
Sharon Crain: Rylee Braucht (1), Jake Burch (1), Eli Burch (1)
Ramona Allen: Alexander Morgan (7), Sally Gong (1), Charles Gong (4)
Maureen Johnson: Annalie Matthews (2), Sophia Lee (), Michelle Yarbrough (3)
Sue Dick: Kreigh Benedict (2), Kaden Blair (4), Violet Moreno (2)

Seattle Chapter

Jessica Andrews: Michael Bendickson (4), Caleb Byam (4)
Judy Chuvan: Emma Moore (3), Kite Robinson (3), Owen Saunders (1), Jinhan Xue (2), Steven Yin (2)
Mona Elsing: Emily Carr (5), Lucy Gilroy (5), Megan Gross (8), Thea John (3), Ria Keeney (6), Kenny Lewis (3), Jordan Slettebak (4), Roshni Tulsyan (5)
Abigail Habegger: Cecily Dobry (2)
Katie Levine: Beatrice Gould (2)
RoseMarie Tamburri: Iris Kaufman (8), Alan Xu (5), Karson Xu (5)
Gloria Tzuang: Danielle Kao (5), Madeleine Kao (5), Evan Lan (6)
Thom Stuart: Albert Keng (6), Haiyi Li (6), Grady Moore (3), Emily Sehn (1), Melini Sehn (5), Pia Sheth (4), Ruimin Su (7), Larry Zhang (8)

Mt. Rainier Chapter

Erin Oliver: Claire Strobel (1), Micah Gorham (2), Levi Gorham (4)

Tri-City Chapter

Carissa Cox: Eleanor Carlisle (1), Hudson Hatcher (4), Madelyn Ng (4)
Julianne Barnaby: Dorothy Jacob (5)

Clark County Chapter

Brenda Staub: James Kunz (2), Soren Keen (1), Elise Keen (3), Lane Wood (1), Zach Gillespie (3), Indi Jennngs (1)
Cinda Redman: Tray Filbert (1), Kevin Vo (1), Kyleen Vo (1), Tray Filbert (2), Veronica Woo (2), Kevin Vo (2), Samuel Liu (4), Emily Liu (7)

Edmonds Chapter

Brandi Bassett: Jenny Ivie (2)
Cathy Baylor, NCTM: Landon Cheung (2), Addison Wu (2), Ethan Melvin (3)
Frances Goei, NCTM: Harper Howell (2), Inga Marston (3), Caleb Buker (4), Colin Ip (4), Annie Marston (4), Janelle Ekpo (7)
Jennie Holland: Dina Samuel (2), Theodore Logan (2), Mira Jyoti (3), Jerome Logan (3)
Dr. Susan Hurley: Thaliana Schwager (2)
Roxanne Kar, NCTM: Jozef Kocaj (5), Logan Wardell (6), Ian Kinsella (8)
Mary Lieberman: Trystan Gallison (1)
Laurie McFarland: Jason Logan (2), Samuel Lambert (4), Aden Hitchcock (4), Daniel Buchholz (5), Mabel Hume (6)
Angela Michael, NCTM: Hayden Ingold (1)
Jeffrey Pettijohn: Lilly Laurente (1), Eashaan Gangwal (1)
Mary Beth Rogers: Angel Anthuwan (1), Arianna Langub (1), Anna Lee (1), Sharvaa Motghare (1), Grace Ngo (2), Bavanth Rajaseker (3), Nakul Kumar (5), Shravan Kumar (5), Auditri Das (5)
Tamara Wagle, NCTM: Annabelle Consiglio (3) Atlas Chua (5)
Stan Watkins: Alex Lau (2), Ezra Fields (3), Sridhar Raamakrishnan (3)
Kathy Wolf: Ananya Raghavan (2)