Going to the GMEA conference
A music major's perspective
by Jessica Allen
Issue date: 2/8/10 Section: A&E
Someone once asked a friend of mine, who's a music major, "What do you music majors do all day? Sit around the chapel and play hot cross buns on the recorder?"
Apart from being rather offensive to those of us who dedicate our lives to studying and performing music, this question was, at its root, uninformed.
To put it in perspective, last week a group of students and faculty from the Piedmont Music Department went to the Georgia Music Educator's Association Conference in Savannah.
Sure, there were some kicks and giggles, but most of our time was spent either in seminars, performances or at the Piedmont booth doing hands-on recruiting the school.
The culmination of the trip was a late night concert by the All College Band, in which two of Piedmont's very own, Benji Stegner and Breigh Redding, participated.
GMEA Conference provides a place for current and future music educators of voice, choir, piano, band and orchestra to expand their horizons, share and receive ideas with other educators, and refresh their minds.
In Savannah, there were over 50 possible seminars hosted by some of the premier music educators in the state in addition to the many performing middle school, high school and college choirs, bands, orchestras and pianists.
These sessions were a great opportunity for us, students and faculty alike, to remember why it is we do what we do: We love music and we want others to love it, too.
I know there are some people who will never take what we do as seriously as they take, say, Calculus.
But after the GMEA Conference, I had a renewed vigor and validation for my job as a music major.
So I must say, although music is extremely fun, there's more to it than hot cross buns.
By the way, that music major to whom the "hot cross buns" question was posed later took that very melody and composed five variations on a theme of "warm, sticky rolls."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a future Georgia music educator.
Apart from being rather offensive to those of us who dedicate our lives to studying and performing music, this question was, at its root, uninformed.
To put it in perspective, last week a group of students and faculty from the Piedmont Music Department went to the Georgia Music Educator's Association Conference in Savannah.
Sure, there were some kicks and giggles, but most of our time was spent either in seminars, performances or at the Piedmont booth doing hands-on recruiting the school.
The culmination of the trip was a late night concert by the All College Band, in which two of Piedmont's very own, Benji Stegner and Breigh Redding, participated.
GMEA Conference provides a place for current and future music educators of voice, choir, piano, band and orchestra to expand their horizons, share and receive ideas with other educators, and refresh their minds.
In Savannah, there were over 50 possible seminars hosted by some of the premier music educators in the state in addition to the many performing middle school, high school and college choirs, bands, orchestras and pianists.
These sessions were a great opportunity for us, students and faculty alike, to remember why it is we do what we do: We love music and we want others to love it, too.
I know there are some people who will never take what we do as seriously as they take, say, Calculus.
But after the GMEA Conference, I had a renewed vigor and validation for my job as a music major.
So I must say, although music is extremely fun, there's more to it than hot cross buns.
By the way, that music major to whom the "hot cross buns" question was posed later took that very melody and composed five variations on a theme of "warm, sticky rolls."
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a future Georgia music educator.
Be the first to comment on this story