President's Message
Stephanie Puhl-
Young, soprano
with her
accompanist and
vocal coach Janet
Smith gave a
beautiful recital
featuring works by
Cole Porter, Hugo
Wolf and Cécile
Chaminade. Thank you Stephanie and Janet! It was
good to see those of you who were able to attend the
Sunday, October 19 branch meeting: attendance 18.
Thank you for showing your support through your
presence. Many thanks to Judy Lee for offering
Pianoforte Studio for our meeting.
Sandely Miller distributed the reprinted directories at
the meeting. She will bring them again to the 10:00
a.m. Wednesday November 19 meeting at Orchepia
Studio.
Melody Lu has received 23 completed “Member
Interest” forms. Those who have not already done so,
please fill out the form and mail it to Melody as soon
as possible. We need to hear from you!
Our Monster Concert was a huge success due to the
very creative and great organizational skills of our
chair, Ana Marie Eckstein, her very kind and helpful
husband, Andréas Eckstein and Joan Katz, our new
M.C. co-chair. Thank you very much for making the
MTAC Irvine fundraiser a huge and resounding
success!
I want to thank Dr. Scott Smith, Concerto
Competition chair and Mirand Wu, the co-chair for
organizing our 2008 competition winners' recital.
Thanks to Scott and his success in securing the UCI
symphony orchestra, Stephen Tucker conductor, our
winners will play with the orchestra at the Irvine
Barclay Theatre. Since these two concerts are listed as
part of the orchestra's concert series, our branch does
not have to rent the hall as we did in the 2006 concert.
We hope that this arrangement will continue next year!
One of our members almost fell prey to a bogus email
requesting a piano teacher. You would be well
advised to not respond to any e-mails saying such
things as “Your urgent help is needed” or someone
trying to get you to cash a money order, etc. A lot of
these types of e-mails give out of state or country
phone numbers and U.K. and other foreign country email
addresses. If you do respond to an e-mail
looking for a music teacher ask for specifics and if
they are in any way vague, do not pursue it.
As previously mentioned in the October newsletter,
we will be running the Romantic Festival on Saturday
and Sunday, February 21 and 22. We have also
decided to go ahead and run the Baroque Festival
immediately after the Bach Festival on Sunday,
February 22. Our dedicated and efficient Festival
chair Miranda Wu, and co-chair Angela Yu will give
you further details in the January newsletter.
Dropping the Romantic Festival has generated some
disappointment and changes so I feel that I should
explain our motivation. The main reason for this
decision was that we were offering so many events
during the year and not seeing enough member
interest in helping with these activities. As you know,
over the past year I have encouraged members to
volunteer for various jobs that would help lighten the
workload of the board and make way for fresh,
enthusiastic helpers. I cannot say that my efforts have
availed much; out of our 130 members, just 21 used
the on-line job list sign-up and we have received only
23 completed member interest forms. It seems the
majority of members who volunteer their services are
the same ones who have been helping out; although
their willingness is greatly appreciated, we need
greater member involvement.
In my September 2007 message I stated the following:
“… “it takes a village to raise a child”… It is
analogous to active member participation to build and
maintain a prosperous organization.”
I feel truly fortunate to belong to such a wonderful
branch as MTAC Irvine and to serve a very talented,
highly creative and warm membership. Our branch’s
strength rests with you, and that is why we need your
help with our many and varied activities. In
participating you will ensure the continuation of our
current programs, the musical advancement of all of
our students, and a prosperous organization. Please
don’t be shy; we are here to aid you: let’s put your
talents to work for our branch!
I look forward to seeing you all at our November 19th
meeting, 10:00 at Orchepia Studio.
Best wishes for a wonderful Holiday Season,
Vivian Lee R. Field