The North Shore Branch of the BCRMTA sponsored and produced many exciting and innovative events/programs in 2023.
Workshop: Helping Diverse Learners Succeed
We started the year off with an exciting and informative workshop which we held on Sunday, January 15th, entitled Music Teaching and Therapy, Helping Diverse Learners Succeed as Musicians and in Life, with clinician Birgitta Giesser, B.Ed. (Music), BMT, CMT, NMT. Many North Shore members attended, and we had several members from the surrounding Vancouver area attend as well. The workshop touched upon music training to improve auditory perception and cognitive functions, as well as exercises for pitch recognition, basic rhythm recognition, sound location, to name only a few.
Students Recitals
Eight (8) Branch Student recitals were held in 2023. These recitals occurred on the 3rd Sunday of every month (excluding September, March and the summer months, July, and August). Recitals of note were the Hallowe’en and CMW recitals held in October and November.
The year 2023 Marked the 50th edition of the North Shore Music Festival,
unfortunately delayed because of Covid. Long-serving and retiring organizers; Diana Marr, Pat Holme, and Alice Rada, (as well as the 50th anniversary), were celebrated with a reception and big cake. The Festival was held from February 25th to March 25th, 2023. The adjudicator line-up for the 2023 Festival was very impressive and included:
•Dory Hayley
•Libby Yu
•Itamar Erez
•Jonathan Der
•Karen Lee-Morlang
•Raul Valesco.
Despite a snow-day cancellation, the North Shore Music Festival forged ahead and was very successful.
Lions Gate Sinfonia Collaboration
There were three main events with this collaboration. Auditioning students were chosen to either attend a Masterclass with Ian Parker and Clyde Mitchell on April 30th, perform with a small String Ensemble from the Sinfonia on April 29th, or perform with the full LGS Sinfonia Orchestra at the Pianos Galore concert, at the North Shore Centennial Theatre on Saturday, May 6th. All 3 events provided an exciting and life-time achievement reward for participating students.
Edward Duan, a student of Ralph Markham won the National CFMTA Competition in 2023.
Student of Branch teacher, Ralph Markham; Edward Duan, winner of the BCRMTA BC Piano Competition performed Sunday, June 11, 2023 at St Francis in the Wood Church, North Vancouver. Duan was selected for the “Young Artist” tour of BC, sponsored by the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Associations (CFMTA) and was the winner of the BC Registered Music Teachers’ Association Piano Competition in September. Edward went on to win the National CFMTA Competition in July2023.
The North Shore Branch held its first “Round Table” event/discussion after our November General Meeting, which was very successful, insightful and satisfying to hear input from fellow members.
Our Christmas lunch, held at Northlands Golf Restaurant, was a nice chance to connect with our fellow teachers in the busiest season of the year.
Marcia Meyer