What a fantastic Winter Conference! I was inspired not just by the quality of the sessions but also by the presence of our membership and the cohesion of the Bay Section Board. A huge thank you to San Jose State and Dr. Harris and Dr. Hollinger and her students in particular for hosting the Conference and for all their hard work.

The Kitka session was one of the first sessions in the morning on Friday. The voices of the three women Janet Kutulis, Juliana Graffagna and Natalia Ukrainska filled the room with an amazing sound! Kitka is a nine-woman ensemble based in Oakland that specializes in women’s vocal music from eastern Europe. They began in 1979 as an amateur ensemble and conduct vocal workshops, community service activities, in-school programs, broadcasts, recording and publication
projects, master artist residencies and comissioning programs. They tour regionally, nationally and internationally and have an extensive recording library. In the session, they taught the participants how to sing a Russian folk song as well as to dance to the same melody. Janet described the different vocal techniques to sing the Russian folksongs. It was a fun session and I wish it had been longer.

Jim Munzenrider, a local specialist on steel drum music, brought his students from Nueva School in Hillsborough, to demonstrate different styles of steel drum music. I was particularly impressed by the level of complexity of the music. It seemed to be a music of movement patterns as each of the students learned to negotiate the different landscapes of each of their drums. Steel drumming is not a standardized art form. Each pan maker makes the drums to his own formula. The music is learned by rote and entire symphonies are learned four bars at a time!

As I watched the sessions, I began to think of the ways we educators engage our students in our classes. The students today want to learn the music that they hear in the world around them. The growth of folk music, fiddling, bluegrass, jazz, rock, mariachi, steel drums, gospel, eastern European folk music has been exponential in recent years. Our responsibility as music educators is to explore different styles of music with our students. According to the American Federation of Musicians, 110,00 of its membership perform all styles of music: alternative rock, hip-hop, jazz, country, folk, rock, big band, gospel, reggae, Christian rock and classical. The world is getting smaller especially with the rise of the internet as a form of communication and information. We can explore other cultures through its music and begin a journey towards a more global understanding. Check out sites like the World Music Store http://www.worldmusicstore.com/ and Smithsonian Global Sound at: http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org. In Santa Clara County alone, there are numerous multicultural arts organizations that could serve as resources for educators. They can be found at http://www.artsopolis.com/org/listing. Every cultural group found in the Bay Area has its own an arts or cultural organization. Arts Council Silicon Valley is also a tremendous resource and point of contact for groups in your area.

We’re in the second semester of the teaching year. I hope the Winter Conference gave you an infusion of new ideas and new ways of thinking! Best wishes for continued success as you navigate your way through Spring.