About

The Jacksonville Music Teachers Association (originally the Music Teachers Association of Jacksonville, Florida) was organized on November 20, 1918, at the suggestion of Mrs. John Calvin Wells.  Officers nominated and elected were :  President, Mrs. Charles Davies; Vice President, Bertram Wheatley; Recording Secretary, Miss Margaret Haas; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. John Doe; and Treasurer, Mme. Mary Mansfield.  Committee Chairmen were as follows:  Miss Julie Conniff, Bertram Wheatley, Mrs. Andrew Mencke, Mrs. John Calvin Wells, and Professor William Meyer.

Founded on an idea brought from Kansas City by Aurelia Jones Baker, our Association has sponsored the Music Rally program, now called Student Recitals, since 1927.  The Association’s participation in National Music Week dates from 1929, when a ten-piano festival was held.  The multiple piano concert has been the Association’s contribution many of the years since 1947.

Through the efforts of Mrs. Lloyd Jones, Chairman, Mrs. Jessie Jay deVore, Mrs. W.B. Ford, and Mrs. M.B. Byrd, then President of the local Association, the Florida State Music Teachers Association was organized in Jacksonville on March 23, 1934, with Mrs. M.B. Byrd elected President and Mrs. Charles M. Wells elected as Corresponding Secretary.  Mrs. Ford was the publicity chairman when the Association was formed.  Special credit belongs to Mrs. Byrd for her never-ceasing effort for achievement and firm faith in ultimate success.

The Association is a charter member of the Musicians Club of America, 303 Minorca Avenue, Coral Gables, Florida, which was founded in 1939, by Dr. Bertha Foster, and is a home for retired musicians and teachers.  A collegiate scholarship was established in 1948, and was named in memory of John C. Entenza, Jr., in 1949.  It has helped many young and worthy Jacksonville students to begin their college careers.  The Association is a charter member of the Jacksonville Council of the Arts (now called The Arts Assembly), which was organized in 1948.

The Jacksonville Music Teachers Association, Inc., is affiliated with the Florida State Music Teachers Association and the Music Teachers National Association.