The Peninsula Music Teachers Association

Every year, the Peninsula Music Teachers Association invites 4-5 guest lecturers, performers, pedagogues, scholars, writers, clinicians, or even physical therapists to deliver a presentation relevant to today's professional music teacher. If you would like to share a presentation of yours or learn about how to view one of these inspiring programs please reach out to PMTA Vice-President Ben Corbin at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

About The Presentation

"Stayin' Alive in the 21st Century! Thinking Outside The Box!"
"Times have changed...As teachers, we need to "reinvent" our methods to meet the needs of our students today.  This workshop will include ways to "shake up" our studios to create a "dynamic" teaching atmosphere for productive students.
This session will offer:
New ideas to energize and inspire our teaching
Ways to be creative and relevant to the needs of our students
Ways to inspire and encourage
and to Remind us WHY we love teaching!"

About The Presenter

For over 45 years, Roma Scriven has maintained a private piano studio throughout the Roanoke Valley and surrounding areas.  She continues to be an active member in the Music Teachers National Association.  Her leadership skills have been evident as past Education Director for the Roanoke Symphony, president of both the Virginia Music Teachers Association and Roanoke Valley Music Teachers Association. She has and continues to serve in many chairman positions for both organizations. Roma continues to be an adjudicator for various festivals, state competitions and a clinician on both the state and national levels.
                 
Roma holds a BA degree in Piano Performance and MA in Music History and Literature from Radford University. Presently she maintains a teaching studio of 30 well prepared and highly motivated piano students! In addition to her teaching she subs for many of the churches and is the pianist for Grandin Court Baptist church.
 
A strong advocate for the arts, Roma feels every opportunity needs to be given to children in the form of music.  Her main objectives in teaching are to challenge, motivate and excite students about their piano studies. Lessons are meant to be a time for individual expression and progress, an “event” in the making. 
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About The Presentation

"Technique without Tears"
"We need technique, we want technique, but we hate to practice technique…Unless we find a
technique regimen that piques our interest, that motivates us, that even makes practicing
technique enjoyable. What is technique? It is the freedom to play with comfort, with facility and
with a beautiful sound, and the ability to deliver on the demands of our repertoire. This
curriculum of studies and exercises works for beginners to advanced students and is adaptable to
any teacher’s philosophy. We will discuss systems that make it easier to teach and learn
everything from scale fingerings through chromatic double thirds.​"

About The Presenter
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Nancy O'Neill Breth teaches piano and chamber music to students of all ages in the Washington, DC metro area. Nancy collaborates with teachers at home and throughout the country. She’s headlined a number of state MTA conferences, and 2020 marked her fifth appearance as a presenter at MTNA’s national conference, as a clinician in Pedagogy Saturday and again as a lecturer later in the week.
Her latest projects for teachers and students are Effective Practicing, a collection of short You Tube videos for pianists, and a clickable list of Modern Piano Music.
Breth's piano and chamber music students are frequent laureates in state, national and international competitions. Several appeared on National Public Radio’s “From the Top”; three of her duet teams won MTNA’s national Piano Duet competition. Her students have been privileged to attend Aspen Music Festival, the Tanglewood Institute, Indiana University Piano Academy, Greenwood Chamber Music Camp, and the International Institute for Young Musicians; some received music degrees from Indiana University, the Frost School of Music, University of Maryland and from the Conservatories of Juilliard, New England and Eastman. Several former students hold piano professorships in university schools of music.
Nancy worked as a collaborative pianist and arts presenter in the United States, Latin America and Asia. The Washington Post praised her “superb musicianship”, calling her Music Connection concert series “brilliant” and “imaginative”. The Mexico City News wrote that Breth’s Camerata de Mexico “offers the best chamber music in Mexico.” In New York City Nancy was producer/director of a children’s opera by Michael Colgrass, and built an acclaimed chamber music program for the children of Roosevelt Island.  
Nancy taught piano, chamber music and pedagogy at Washington DC’s Levine School of Music for many years. Due to her innovative curriculum building and event planning as chaired of Levine’s Chamber Music Department, the number of adults and children studying chamber music at the school grew from around 40 to almost 400. 
Nancy has written for American Music Teacher, Keyboard Companion and Clavier Magazine. Her publications have sold over 50,000 copies worldwide. They include The Piano Student's Guide to Effective Practicing, the Parents’ Guide to Effective Practicing, Practicing the Piano, and a set of elementary piano trios after John Gay’s The Beggars Opera, all published by Hal Leonard Corporation. She is active in three Music Teachers Associations, and enjoys frequent judging jobs at home and throughout the country.

About The Presentation

“Schubert’s Three Sets of Impromptus: Opus 90, Opus post. 142, and Opus post. D. 946.”
 
This lecture-recital will introduce three sets of impromptus by Schubert.  Each work will be discussed in accordance with various musical aspects and Schubert’s life.  Select impromptus will be demonstrated throughout the session.  Following the lecture, Opus post. D. 946 will be performed.

About The Presenter
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​ Pianist Susan C. Ha is an active soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral soloist throughout the United States.  She has appeared at the Carnegie Hall, Interlochen Center for the Arts, World Piano Conference, and Intercollegiate Music Association.  Solo performances have included concerto appearances with Shenandoah Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Mason Symphony Orchestra of Michigan, New River Valley Symphony Orchestra, James Madison University Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra of the Eastern Shore.  Other performance engagements include College Music Society’s conferences, New Music Norfolk, Music and Meaning: Views from the 21st Century, the Investiture of the 28th President of the University of Cincinnati, Summer Arts Festival of Blue Lake, and Accent 12.  She has also performed at Oberlin College for the National GP3 Conference, Southeastern Composers League in Louisiana, violin and piano recitals with the associate concertmaster of Kimpo Philharmonic Orchestra of Korea, among others.  Right before the pandemic started, she went on a state tour with the Virginia Opera as a collaborative pianist.  She frequently performs with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra as an orchestral pianist/keyboardist.  
 
As an arts advocate, Ha is the coordinator of Virginia Music Teachers Association’s annual concerto competition.  She had taught at Blue Lake Arts Center, The Lincoln University, the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and Communiversity Program at the University of Cincinnati.  She serves as an official rater for the AP Music Theory Exams by ETS.  Her D.M.A. in Piano Performance with cognate areas in Music Theory and Piano Pedagogy and M.M. in Piano Performance were completed at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with pianist Awadagin Pratt. Her B.M. in Piano Performance with honors is from James Madison University.  Dr. Ha is on the faculty of Norfolk State University as an Associate Professor of Piano where she is serving as the Chair of the Department of Visual and Performing Arts since Fall 2021.

About The Presentation

"Teaching Universal Skills in the Piano Lesson to Improve Performance and Benefit Life"
Universal skills are highly valued and sought-after the world over.  Job descriptions routinely ask for skills in problem-solving, analytical thinking, creativity, focus, etc.  Colleges and universities consider universal skills a critical aspect of students’ educations.  Music teachers have long said that their students learn more than instrument proficiency, they also pick up universal skills along the way.  Yet, where is the course that teaches universal skills systematically and comprehensively?  Surprisingly, for all their importance, universal skills have largely been left for student populations to develop on their own.  And we all know just how well something is learned if students are left to their own devices -- not very well.
To address this need, Dylan Savage has written the first systematic and comprehensive book on how to teach universals skills within the traditional music lesson to improve performance and benefit life.  In this lecture demonstration, he will show how his method can easily be applied in the music lesson without disrupting the standard format.  He will demonstrate at the piano how he teaches universal skills as they are first applied to music and then transferred to life.  
Dr. Savage has been teaching universal skills in applied lessons at the university level for some twenty years and has found that they not only can maximize a student’s performance levels, they can significantly benefit students in any aspect of life as well.  
The book The Transposed Musician: Teaching Universal Skills to Improve Performance and Benefit Life reveals just how transformational the piano lesson can be.

About The Presenter

Dylan Savage is a Bösendorfer Concert Artist, a Capstone Records Recording Artist, and a winner of the Rome Festival Orchestra Competition.  He is author of the book The Transposed Musician: Teaching Universal Skills to Improve Performance and Benefit Life, GIA Publications.  It is the first book to present a comprehensive and systematic method for teaching universal skills within the context of the music lesson.  Dr. Savage is co-author of the piano pedagogy book A Symposium for Pianists and Teachers: Strategies to Develop the Mind and Body for Optimal Performance, Heritage Music Press.  He is the author of numerous articles found in Clavier, Clavier Companion, American Music Teacher, and Pianoforte magazines.
Dr. Savage pioneered the use of slow-motion video analysis to help pianists improve performance and minimize injury.  His research in biomechanics, wellness, and entrepreneurship has resulted in numerous master-classes at top music schools and national / international conferences.  For decades, Savage has used live music performance to teach in-depth practices of universal skills and continuous improvement to people in non-music disciplines.  Applying universal skills to the study of music and to life is the foundation of his studio teaching at UNCC.  His work has been featured in television spots on NBC and PBS affiliates.
Savage is Professor of Piano at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte.  He has degrees in piano from the Oberlin Conservatory and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.  Drawing inspiration from the outdoors, he can often be found skiing, hiking, biking, or canoeing.  

About The Presentation

“Fun With Scales…Really”
This workshop is all about the teaching and playing of scales. Is scale practice a daily routine for yourself and your students? Or is it more akin to pulling teeth, a “lost cause” or a Sisyphusian exercise in futility? We will review and explore why they are important, take a fresh look at how we teach them (yes, folks, much of this this WILL be controversial), and show some ways to help you to never get bored playing or teaching them ever again!

About The Presenter
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 Steinway Artist Eric Ruple is on the piano faculty at James Madison University.
He enjoys an active career as a solo and chamber musician, including several
performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and Steinway Hall in
New York. He is also pianist for the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, including
principal keyboard role in the ongoing “Harry Potter Live” concerts. He was also
featured in Bernstein’s “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs” with the VSO Jazz Ensemble.
His recording “Musica Incognito” with hornist Ian Zook has earned unanimously
positive reviews from several national and international publications. He is
president of the Shenandoah Valley/JMU Chapter of the American Liszt Society
and is a regular adjudicator in Hong Kong. In 2019-2020, he served as Interim
Director for the JMU School of Music. He received his doctoral degree from the
University of Michigan.