Updates! (aka a preview of my SHELLS article)

Hello SED!

Hope you all are excited for convention.  It’s just days away.  The weekend will be packed with fun and excitement as well as important business.  Please make sure that you are checking your email, facebook, twitter, and tumblr for any last minute updates.

It’s been a long time, but I would like to remind you that I will be recognizing the chapters that participated in Service in Music Month back in October at convention.  Afterward, I will post their accomplishments on the blog with pictures.  Didn’t get a chance to participate in Service in Music Month?  No worries.

Despite the fact that the term is coming to an end, there are still projects for you to participate in.  You can still participate in the Service Database Challenge.  All you have to do is submit entries via the SED Website – http://www.kkytbs.org/sed/tbs/index.html.  You can find more information about that at http://sedvpsp.tumblr.com.  The winning chapter will receive a commemorative brick in the walkway outside Stillwater Station in Oklahoma.

You can also view the Women in Music History blog series at “The Corner” so be sure to check that out as March is Women’s History Month!

I will also be collection scrapbook pages at District Convention.  The district is asking for one scrapbook page from each chapter and colony in the district. Please include pictures of your chapter supporting music, serving the bands or the community, and having fun social events. The dimensions of the SED scrapbook are 19.5” x 16.5”. Please make sure that your page is cut to these dimensions so that it can be added to the scrapbook.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know of some other things that will be going on at convention.  Just as we did last year, we will be raffling off two $25 e-gift certificates to One Greek Store.  They are a local Gainesville Greek Paraphernalia store and they have awesome stuff. Tickets will be $2 a piece.  It is open  to Sisters and Brothers alike.   The drawing will take place at the banquet, but the winner need not be present to win.  All we ask is that on the back of your ticket you put your full name, TBΣ or KKΨ, chapter, and email address.  We will contact you if  you win.  Proceeds will go to buy percussion instruments for a local elementary school music class.

There will be a card making station, much like the one at DLC for everyone to make cards and have them sent to Wava.  The station will be located in the marketplace.  Please be sure to stop by there when you get a change and make a card for her.  Pictures are welcome and highly encourage.  You can also donate art supplies!  Again, Sisters and Brothers are welcome!

Can’t wait to see you in Orlando! Get pumped!

Love in Sisterhood!

René Mark

2010-2012 SED Vice President for Special Projects

Women in Music History – Tau Beta Sigma: “Fortitude and Courage” (entry 3)

In honor of our 66th Anniversary today, today’s Women in Music History features none other than Tau Beta Sigma and her founders.  This is just a brief history of the founding of our organization.  This information and more can be found on the National website, www.tbsigma.org.    A Tau Beta Sigma history book, TBS: The Early Years, is in the works and I can’t wait until its release.   In the mean time, you can attend the history workshops at convention (there will be on this year!), contact the National Historia – Lisa Croston, and visit the National Archive facebook page. 

“The first practical idea for establishing a “band sorority” for college and university bandswomen came about during the spring semester of 1939. Wava Banes, along with Wava Banestwo of her classmates (Emily SoRelle and Ruth La Nell Williams), took the idea to director D.O. Wiley of the Texas Technological College Band.  The idea, patterned after Kappa Kappa Psi, began to come together the following semester and resulted in the campus organization Tau Beta Sigma.  Much like the Fraternity, Tau Beta Sigma’s purpose at Tech was to serve as an honorary service and leadership recognition society, but was designed especially to provide the important additional social, educational, and other positive experiences needed by women in the band.  The fledgling organization petitioned for recognition as an official campus organization from Dean of Women Mary Doak in spring 1940.

During these initial meetings of 1939-40, the women elected officers and began work on sorority crests and jewelry.  The first officers of the organization were:  president, Wava Banes; vice-president, Emily SoRelle; secretary, Lillian Horner; treasurer, Nita Furr; reporter, Barbara Griggs; and faculty sponsor, Mrs. D. O. Wiley.  Miss SoRelle provided all of the sketch work on the emblem and shield that were adopted as the official emblems of the sorority.  However, two of the founding members, Wava and Emily, graduated at the end of the spring 1940 term.  As band enrollment changed due to participation in World War II, the girls of the Tech Bands Emily SoRellecontinued to develop the fledgling organization.  By October 1941, TBS had begun communications with the National Executive Secretary of Kappa Kappa Psi for assistance in becoming a national organization.

In June 1943, the Tech women petitioned the Grand Council of Kappa Kappa Psi to become an auxiliary part of the National Fraternity as an active chapter. Accepting the group under these circumstances, however, would have entailed a complete revision of the Kappa Kappa Psi constitution. With World War II in progress, it was unsure as to when the National Chapter would hold their next convention where the issue could be brought to debate. Rather than postponing action on the women’s request indefinitely, the women at Texas Tech approached A. Frank Martin, Grand Executive Secretary of Kappa Kappa Psi, in January 1946 to provide assistance in forming their own national organization, just as the National Fraternity had done in 1919. Until a national convention of Kappa Kappa Psi could be held and the matter clarified, Tau Beta Sigma could be considered the “sister organization” of the Fraternity. The Grand Council of Kappa Kappa Psi agreed that Tau Beta Sigma could share in all fraternal publications.

Through the assistance of A. Frank Martin, the ritual and National Constitution were completed.  Likewise, the Balfour Company completed designs for the sorority badge Ruth La Nell Williamsand pledge pin.  When applying for a national charter, D.O. Wiley and the girls at Texas Tech again turned to A. Frank Martin and offered to turn over their work and the name Tau Beta Sigma to the women’s band sorority at Oklahoma A&M, known as Kappa Psi, to submit the articles of incorporation in Oklahoma.  Through this act, the chapter at Oklahoma A&M would become the Alpha Chapter.  As part of this agreement, the chapter at Texas Tech, Beta, would be known as the founding location of the Sorority and the members stipulated that Wava Banes would be known as the Founder, the agreement also specified that the 1st National President would be from the Beta Chapter.

Similar women’s organizations at Colorado University and the University of Oklahoma submitted petitions to join with the Texas Tech and O.A.M.C. chapter prior to the official charter being received.  On March 26, 1946, a charter was granted by the Department of State for the State of Oklahoma legally establishing “Tau Beta Sigma, National Honorary Band Sorority,” later amended to “Tau Beta Sigma.” On May 4 of 1946, the members of the Lillian HornerAlpha Chapter traveled to Lubbock, Texas, to officially install the women of Texas Tech as the Beta Chapter of the National Sorority.
Since that time, Tau Beta Sigma has expanded to over 230 campuses across the Unites States. 

More detailed information about Tau Beta Sigma from 1939-1947 can be found in TBS:  The Early Years published by the Tau Beta Sigma National History & Archives Committee.”  
All content taken from www.tbsigma.org 

Barbara GriggsBetty Grace PughNita Furr

Women in Music History – Nadia Boulanger (entry 2)

The composer, conductor and teacher Nadia Boulanger was born into a highly musical family. Her mother was a celebrated singer and her father was a composer who also taught the violin at the Paris Conservatoire; his mother had been a Russian princess. Boulanger entered the Conservatoire at the age of ten, her teachers including Vierne, Fauré and Widor, and by the time she was seventeen she had won first prize in harmony, counterpoint, fugue, organ, and piano accompaniment. Two years later she took the second prize in the Grand Prix de Rome for composition. In the same year, 1906, she became the assistant to the organist Vallier at the church of the Madeleine in Paris. From 1909 until 1924 she was assistant professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire, in 1913 completing an opera, La Ville morte.

Nadia’s younger sister Lili, born in 1893, a most gifted composer and the first woman to be awarded the coveted Prix de Rome outright at the Conservatoire, died prematurely in 1918. After her death Nadia stopped composing, and henceforth dedicated her life to teaching and to making her sister’s music better known. From 1920 to 1939 she taught at the École Normale de Musique, and in 1921 she was appointed professor of harmony, counterpoint, and composition at the American Conservatory of Music in Fontainebleau, continuing these teaching duties there until her death in 1979. In 1921 she made her first trip to the USA, where in 1925 she lectured on music at Rice University, Houston, Texas, published her Lectures on Modern Music, took part in the first performance of Copland’s ‘Organ’ Symphony as soloist, and commenced her career as a conductor in America.

She was to go on to appear as a conductor with the symphony orchestras of Boston and New York, the first woman to do so. Among her most memorable interpretations were her performances of Fauré’s Requiem, a work which she did much to establish in the repertoire: a recording of one of her broadcast performances has been released. Her influence as a teacher on American students of music in particular was immense: among her pupils were Aaron CoplandWalter Piston and Roy Harris, as well as the English composer Lennox Berkeley. In 1937 she became the first woman to conduct an entire concert of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, and in 1938 she directed the first performance of Stravinsky’s Concerto,Dumbarton Oaks in Washington DC. Boulanger was resident in the USA between 1940 and 1946, where in addition to her conducting she taught at many American schools of music including Juilliard, Radcliffe, Wellesley, Longy, Mills, and Yale.

Returning to France in 1946, she was appointed professor of accompaniment at the Paris Conservatoire. This appointment was followed in 1950 by the directorship of the American Conservatory of Music at Fontainebleau. Boulanger taught privately, accepting as a pupil virtually anyone who approached her, and also at the Yehudi Menuhin School in England; in addition, she was named maître de chapelle to the Principality of Monaco, a post she retained until the end of her life. Held in universal esteem as a musician of profound understanding and capability, she died at Fontainebleau in 1979 aged ninety-three.

As a teacher Nadia Boulanger concentrated on developing the musical ear of her pupils through a strict application of musical techniques, and on encouraging each to develop his or her own individuality. She took the role of a guide, teaching music in all its aspects. She herself had an astonishing musical memory: one of her pupils recalled that Nadia looked at one of her scores for a few seconds and said, ‘My dear, these measures have the same harmonic progression asBach’s F major Prelude and Chopin’s F major Ballade. Can you not come up with something new and interesting?’

Nadia BoulangerAlthough regrettably her published recorded output was small, it was extremely influential. In 1937 HMV issued three sets of discs featuring her work: the Piano Concerto in D by Jean Françaix, which she conducted; the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, in which she and Dinu Lipattiwere the duo pianists with a vocal ensemble; and the first recordings ever to be made of the music of Monteverdi: a selection of his madrigals, which she directed. These last recordings have been described as revelatory and ‘…one of the purest treasures the gramophone has given us’. Although Nadia was credited with being one of the first musicians to perform Monteverdi in modern times, she took delight in pointing out that the composer d’Indy was the first to do so in France, ‘…but he made the mistake of performing it in French.’ She also recorded excerpts from Charpentier’s Médée, and from the operas of Rameau; Claude’schansons, and a disc of French Renaissance vocal music. Of the many quotations attributed to her, one of the most descriptive of her own personality was, ‘The essential (conditions) of everything you do… must be choice, love, passion.’

Biography taken from www.naxos.com

SED SCRAPBOOK!

In preparing for everything else with  convention, the scrapbook slipped under the radar! However, it is not too late to get started!

I’ll be taking submissions for the Southeast District Scrapbook. The district is asking for one scrapbook page from each chapter and colony in the district. Please include pictures of your chapter supporting music, serving the bands or the community, and having fun social events. The dimensions of the SED scrapbook are 19.5” x 16.5”. Please make sure that your page is cut to these dimensions so that it can be added to the scrapbook.
 
These pages can be submitted in person on the Friday night of Convention (March 30th).  Please email me if your chapter would like to submit a page but will not be attending convention.

10 days! WOO! 
sedvpsp@tbsigma.org 

Women’s History Month Blog Series: Feature One

The first installment of the WHM Blog Series features this years’ Women In Music Speaker, Robyn Wilkes.

The Women In Music Speaker Series began during the 1997 District Convention season to tie into the mission of the sorority at that time.  Continuing through the years, this series has become a staple at all conventions and has continued to be a way to encourage members to continue their support of our current mission statement and learn more about women in the music community.

The National and District Councils are proud to present the 2012 SED Women In Music Speaker as Robyn Wilkes.

Robyn WilkesRobyn Wilkes is in her third year as the Director of Instrumental Studies at the State College of Florida inBradenton where she conducts the wind ensemble, orchestra, and teaches classes in music appreciation, music history, and music theory. In addition to her responsibilities at the college, Ms. Wilkes is also the conductor of the Sarasota Pops Orchestra, former conductor of the Sarasota Orchestra Youth Symphony, conductor of the Advanced Band for the Sarasota Orchestra Music Camp, and performs at area churches on trumpet and percussion. She received her B.S. Degree in Music Education, Magna Cum Laude, from theUniversity ofTennessee,Chattanooga in 1997 and attended theUniversity ofTennessee,Knoxville as a graduate assistant for the “Pride of the Southland” Marching Band, earning a Masters Degree in Instrumental Conducting in 1999.  She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Music Education atBostonUniversity with a research emphasis on popular music in secondary education.

Ms.Wilkes is a member of the Music Educators National Conference, Florida Music Educators Association, Florida Bandmasters Association, Florida Orchestra Association, Women Band Directors International, and the National Band Association. She served as Treasurer for the Seventh District of the Georgia Music Educators Association for five years and is currently President of the Women Band Directors International.  She has received the Silver Baton Award from that organization and has been recognized by GMEA for her outstanding contributions to music education in 2004 and 2006. In 2007, Ms. Wilkes was awarded the Citation of Excellence from the National Band Association in recognition of her band’s performance at theUniversityofGeorgia’s annual Janfest event.

Prior to coming to the State College of Florida, Ms. Wilkes was the band director atRidgelandHigh School inWalkerCounty,Georgia from 1999 to 2008 where her bands won numerous region, state, and national marching and concert band competitions.  During the 2008-2009 school year, she served as Instructor of Music atCovenantCollege onLookout Mountain,Georgia where she conducted the jazz band and chamber orchestra and taught classes in music history, music appreciation, and symphonic literature.