9:30-10:00 PRE-MEETING
Presenter: Dr. Mary Beth Molenaar
Program: Show and Tell
Members are invited to participate in our Pre-meeting this month. In an old-fashioned “Show and Tell” format, we will share things that we picked up at a conference this year!
Did you purchase a solo or book that you are sure will be a hit with your students? If so, play a snippet. Maybe you’d like to share something you learned or some inspiration you came home with. Did you grab a new game to try in your private or group lessons? We’d love to hear a bit about it – AND we’ll have some new (and old) games out to check out during the coffee break. Come play!
Mary Beth Molenaar will be our host for ”Show and Tell.” If you’d like to participate, please reach out to her to get on the list. “m-molenaar@northwestern.edu.”
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Beth Molenaar teaches private and group piano lessons to children and private adult lessons in the Northwestern University Music Academy. She received her Doctor of Music degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Northwestern where she taught keyboard and pedagogy classes in addition to serving as director of the Academy for many years.
Mary Beth has learned so much from NSMTA speakers and from other teachers in our discussions. She values her service at the local and state level and continues to learn in those positions. She served for over ten years as the state AIM piano revisions chair. Currently she writes exams and is working on a revision of the state string syllabus. She was named a national MTNA Foundation Fellow in 2010.
In addition to teaching and performing, Mary Beth enjoys learning new languages and making art.
10:00-11:00 BUSINESS MEETING
Meeting will be led by NSMTA President, Heidi Mayer.
Refreshments to follow, provided by Hospitality Chair, Grace Juang.
11:00-12:00 PROGRAM
Presenter: Kevin Chance, Associate Professor of Piano, University of Alabama
Program: Exploring the Vault: Expanding the Intermediate Repertoire Canon
Join me to explore underappreciated works from all style periods that are ideal for developing intermediate students into young artists.
BIOGRAPHY
Kevin Chance serves as Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Alabama where he coordinates the Gloria Narramore Moody Piano Area. As soloist and collaborator, Kevin has performed throughout the United States and abroad, and recent orchestral appearances have included Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto and the Beethoven Triple Concerto, Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and Saint-Saëns’s Le Carnaval des animaux. He also serves are principal keyboard of the Tuscaloosa Symphony. Performing regularly as a chamber musician, Kevin has been a member of the Semplice Duo with flutist Cristina Ballatori for the past 24 years, and their performances have included world premiers at the National Flute Association Conference as well as recitals in Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Alabama, and New York as well as Mexico, South America, and Europe. In 2025, they released a new disc of American flute music on the Centaur label.
Kevin has recently received a number of accolades for his teaching. Most recently, he was named a 2025 Foundation Fellow of Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), and he was named as a Leadership Board Faculty Fellow for the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences for excellence in research and teaching. In 2019, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Steinway and Sons Music Teacher Hall of Fame in New York City and was named 2019 Music Educator of the Year by the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa. Additionally, he was named the 2015 Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Music Teachers Association. Kevin maintains an award-winning studio of college and pre-college students, and his students have garnered awards at the national and international levels. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he frequently presents at the MTNA National Conference as well as state and local music teacher organizations throughout the country. In January 2021, Kevin served as the headliner clinician for the University of Georgia Piano Symposium, and each summer, he serves on the faculty of the New Orleans Piano Institute each summer.
Kevin holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Louisiana State University, and Birmingham-Southern College, and his former teachers include Barry Snyder, Constance Knox Carroll, Anne Koscielny, Ann Schein, William DeVan, and Betty Sue Shepherd. Kevin recently served as President of the American Matthay Association for Piano, and he currently serves as President of MTNA for the 2025-2027 biennium. He also recently joined the roster of Alfred Publishing with his first three-volume series co-authored with Ingrid Clafield, Rare Recital Treasures.