October 2025

JMTA High Notes
October 2025 —Vol. 29, no. 2
The general meeting and program for October was held on Thursday, October 9th, at 9:30am in the Mandarin Presbyterian Church choir room, 2501 Loretto Road.
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President’s Pen
Dear Colleagues,
We are hosting the FSMTA State Conference this week in Amelia Island! Click here for more information: https://www.fmta.org/. If you would be able to help as a room monitor or usher, please contact Cheryl Dubberly at [email protected].
Our November meeting will be held on Thursday, November 13th, at 10:15am (different time this month) at the Mandarin Library Branch on Kori Road, with a program on Lion Theory by Rhonda Danielson, followed by our Holiday Potluck! Please contact Sandy Stewart with what dish you plan to bring. More information on page 6.
We hope to see you this year in some of the many opportunities JMTA has to offer. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Angie Holt
President, JMTA
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Table of Contents

MEETING MINUTES
September . . . . . . . . . . . 2 - 4
TREASURY REPORTS
September . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Monthly Programs
November . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
State News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
District IV News
Student Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
JMTA Student Recitals
October JMTA Recital . . . . . . . . 9
Over Coffee With
Workshop Presenters . . . . . . 10
Application Deadline Reminders . . . 13
AREA CONCERTS AND RECITALS . . . .14
Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
(click on link)


Welcome New Member!
Ciaran Abuan ________________________________________________________________________

MEETING MINUTES

September Meeting Minutes
Jacksonville Music Teachers Association
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Mandarin Presbyterian Church
9:30am

Welcome & Call to Order at 9:34am by president Angie Holt.

Attendance:
In-person - Angie Holt, Betty Atkinson, Daniel Holt, Ronald Touchton, Sandy Stewart, Denise Homsley, Sandra Roberts, Sunny Choi, Christine Couch, Mary Gniech, Anita Renfroe, Lorraine Sears, Kama Rasmussen-Li, and Rhonda Danielson

Zoom - Paulette Kilts, Cheryl Dubberly, Christine Couch, Mary McKee, Lynn Freeman, Stefanie Batson-Martin, Erin Bennett

Parliamentarian: Lynn Freeman - No report

Secretary Minutes: Rhonda Danielson
Minutes from May 2025 were accepted as read.

Treasurer’s Report/Budget Review: Lorraine Sears
Checking balance: $9,305.12
Business Shares (Savings) balance: $5,198.98
Total Assets: $20,089.23
Cheryl made a motion to take $5,000 out of our business shares account and put it into a 13 month CD. 2nd by Ronald Touchton. Motion carried.
Lorraine has filed our 990 form.
Proposed 2026 Budget was presented – Motion to approve by Denise, 2nd Anita. Motion carried.

Communications & Internet Media: Angie Holt
Newsletter will go out September 12.
Angie will update our officer names on the FSMTA website.

Vice President of Membership: Mary McKee
Mary will send a welcome to new member Michelle Wise.
Anita suggested coming up with a way to recognize new members at the conference.
Mimi Xinyu Zhang is also a new student member who lives In St. Augustine.

Programs/Meetings: Open position
Program today will be members sharing Teaching Tips.
October 9 meeting will be a celebration of the upcoming conference with sign-ups for volunteer positions. Ronald will see if we can hold Oct. meeting at his church. Mary suggested checking with the library.

Committee Reports:

Social - Sandy Stewart passed around a sign-up for refreshments.

Student Recitals - Christine Couch & Gavin Taylor
Recital dates & applications are on the website.

Proton Therapy Recital - Sandy Stewart will set a date in October for the 2026 recital.
Sandy asked if anyone would prefer a different venue. A few suggestions
were made: Assisted Living residences, Shands Hospital, and Hospice.

Scholarship: Open position

Student Day: Angie Holt

Altruistic: Sandra Roberts
A sympathy card was sent to George Sanchez, and a stay-in-touch card to Betty.

Community Service Awards: Stefanie Batson-Martin
Students who usher or volunteer at the conference can get community service hours.

Ethics: Betty Atkinson
No report

Archivist/Historian: Paulette Kilts has sent a few items to MTNA to add to the 150th anniversary celebration in 2026.

Wellness Liaison: Open position

New Business:
None

Announcements:
State Conference 2025 – Anita Renfroe
Everyone is welcome to review the conference schedule to check for errors.
Parking will be free for all attendees.
Cheryl Dubberly mentioned some teachers who do online workshops - Christina Whitlock, Janna Williams, and Dr. Elizabeth who also has who also has YouTube videos about teaching students on the spectrum. Angie will send more information in the next newsletter.

Adjournment at 10:36

Respectfully Submitted,
Rhonda Danielson, Secretary ________________________________________________________________________

TREASURY REPORTS
9/10/2025 Filed SOC
Ordered new checks (60)
Required minimum on accounts: CD min. $500
Checking min $5000. Fee $12.95
Money Market min. $100
Savings min. $5
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TREASURY REPORTS
September
Checking: Rate .10%
Expenses
09/18/25 Check #1054 A. Holt (Pres. Conf.) $250.00
09/29/25 Check #1057 FSMTF donation $15.00
Deposits
09/16/25 Check #27811 (Dues) $90.00
9/30/25 Interest - Business Checking $0.76
Current Checking $8,303.15
Warren Fund $827.73
   TOTAL Checking Account $9,130.88
Business Money Market (Scholarship): Rate .60% ($1000+)
Expenses
Deposits
   TOTAL Business Money Market Account $138.23
Business Shares (Savings): Rate .10% ($100+)
Expenses
09/16/2025 transfer to new CD 5000.00
Deposits
09/30/25 Interest - Business Shares $0.23
   TOTAL Business Shares Account $199.21
18-23 Month Business CD: Rate 2.95% Matures 6/7/26
Expenses
Deposits 09/30/25
Interest - CD $13.23
TOTAL Business CD Account $5,460.1313
Month Promo CD: Rate 4.16% Matures 10/16/26
Expenses
Deposits 09/16/25 transfer from Savings 5000.00
09/30/25 Interest $8.56
TOTAL Promo CD Account $5,008.56
TOTAL ASSETS as of Sep. 30, 2025 $19,937.01
Submitted by Lorraine Sears 10/07/2025
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9/10/2025 Filed SOC
Ordered new checks (60)
Required minimum on accounts: CD min. $500
     Checking min $5000. Fee $12.95
     Money Market min. $100
     Savings min. $5
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MONTHLY PROGRAMS

November Meeting, Program, and Holiday Potluck!

MEETING
The JMTA November meeting and program will be held on Thursday, November 13, at 10:15am, at the Mandarin Branch of the public library, 3330 Kori Road, 32257, off San Jose Blvd. (not far from where Keyboard Connection used to be).
NOTE: Please be sure to note the time for this meeting, at 10:15am, with the program and potluck afterward.

PROGRAM
Rhonda Danielson will be presenting this month’s
program after the meeting, at approximately 11:00am, on using Lion Theory software for online practice and testing of music theory. This can be used for
Student Day theory practice and for learning music
theory in general!

HOLIDAY POTLUCK
We are having a holiday potluck after our November meeting! The meat will be provided. Please contact Sandy Stewart at [email protected] by Tuesday, November 11 with what dish you plan to bring.
(There is no meeting or program in December.)
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State News

Join us at the 2025 FSMTA State Conference! Thursday-Sunday, October 23-26, 2025

Courtyard and Springhill Suites 2700 Atlantic Avenue Amelia Island, FL
Click here for more information: https://www.fmta.org/
If you would be able to help as a room monitor or usher, please contact Cheryl Dubberly at [email protected].
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District IV News

Student Day

FSMTA District IV Student Day will be held on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at Mandarin Baptist Church, 11244 San Jose Blvd., 32223. The application deadline is Friday, March 6. For more comprehensive information, please view the September JMTA newsletter under District IV News.

Here is the link to register: https://www.jaxmta.org/district-4-student-day.html
When registering, choose which section each student would like, morning or afternoon. All their activities will fall into their chosen section, including a non-graded recital, where each student can play one of their Student Day pieces for their peers.

For repertoire lists, sample written theory and aural theory tests, keyboard skills information, adjudication forms, etc., they are all on the FSMTA website (fmta.org). Click on Student Activities on the home screen, and then FSMTA Non-Competitive Events. Scroll down to Members of FSMTA, click on log in here, and use the current password of Chopin, which is case-sensitive. (The FSMTA password changes every October, and as a member you will receive an email from their website admin with the new password each year.) Or you can click here to go to the website, where there is also a Handbook of Student Activities for more detailed information:
https://www.fmta.org/student-day-handbook.html

Music Masters STUDENT DAY CURRICULUM
In addition, an independent teacher has created an optional curriculum to help you prepare your students for the keyboard skills, written theory, and aural theory testing with helpful workbooks for each level. These follow the same leveling and guidelines that are provided in the Student Activities Handbook on the FSMTA website. These materials will assist students in mastering the FSMTA guidelines for Student Day. The contact information is as follows: Music Masters, 4111 NW 79 Ave., Coral Springs, FL 33065. To order, email Sue Colvert at Music Masters at [email protected]. The phone number is 954-752-2856.
For their hard work and preparation, each student receives a beautiful certificate, and a medallion if they receive achievement. If they receive honors in their judge audition and at least an achievement in their written theory and aural theory, they also receive an honors ribbon from the State, and are invited to perform in the Honors recital held in the Recital Hall at UNF.
Please let me know if you have any questions.

- Angie Holt, District IV Student Activities Chair
[email protected]
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​JMTA Student Recitals

The October JMTA Student Recital was held on Sunday, October 19, 2025, at River Garden Senior Services, coordinated by Christine Couch; here are a few photos from the event. The next student recital will be held on Sunday, December 14, at Arlington United Methodist Church, with an application deadline of December 5 to Gavin Taylor at [email protected].

Over Coffee With . . .

2025 State Conference Workshop Presenters’ Conversation with Past FSMTA President Paulette Kilts

This month we are presenting JMTA member Paulette Kilts’ conversation with 2025 State Conference Workshop Presenters Gail Berenson, Linda Cockey, and Charles Turon.
From the FSMTA June newsletter:
You are invited to attend a “Health, Wellness, and Wholeness in the Music Studio” book workshop presentation at the 2025 FSMTA State Conference October 23-26. The presentation will be made by co-authors Gail Berenson, past president of Music Teachers National Association and current Florida State Music Teachers Association member; Linda Cockey, former editor of the MTNA e-Journal, and Charles Turon, past President of FSMTA and current FSMTA member. Gail and Charles are currently co-chairs of the FSMTA Wellness Committee.

PK: What events in your teaching or personal life stimulated your interest in musicians’ health and wellness?

Gail: I began a daily exercise routine several years after I joined the Ohio University faculty. One day, during my daily run, I accidentally tripped and injured my knee. The physical therapist I saw was excellent and, by coincidence, we started discussing the similarities between musicians preparing to perform and athletes preparing for competitions. Ultimately, we began traveling around the state, co-presenting sessions for music teacher groups on ways to stay healthy and, if an injury occurs, recovering from it, whether an athlete or a musician. Essentially, this served as the introduction to my involvement in musicians health, which became an important part of my life from 1988 on. From there, I went on to take an amazing musicians’ health course at Northwestern University, taught by musicians’ health pioneer, Dr. Alice Brandfonbrener, in the summer of 1991: “The Medical Problems of Musicians: A Survey for Performers and Teachers.” In the fall of 1991, I initiated a wellness class at the Ohio University (OU) entitled “Performance Preparation.”

Linda: During my doctoral studies, I was required to take courses in performance anxiety, learning and memory for musicians, and the history of piano technique, where we discussed the many technical approaches to playing the piano. These courses were eye-opening to me, and I became very interested in optimal technical approaches to playing the piano that were pain-free and approached piano technique from an entirely new perspective than I had been exposed to. Understanding that performance anxiety could and should be discussed was life changing. When I had an opportunity early in my teaching career to teach a new course, I team-taught a course titled Wellness in Performance with an athletic trainer and psychologist. We taught it for over twenty-five years. The course focused on the physiological, psychological, and practical aspects of playing an instrument or singing.

Charles: My interest in musicians’ health and wellness began with my own playing-related injury that took place nearly thirty years ago. Although I knew about the physical problems pianists and other musicians sometimes encountered, I was under the mistaken assumption that using safe, efficient technique was enough to protect me. After I suffered a physical injury near the end of a chamber music performance, I was eventually diagnosed with a problem that originated in my neck. Over time, I realized that education about the musician’s body was just as important as efficient technique to ensure good health and longevity. Since these events took place as I was embarking on my doctoral degree, I was well-positioned to focus my studies and research on prevention education. It was at that time that I developed a passion to share what I was learning with other teachers in the field.

PK: How was the “Teaching for Health, Teaching for Life” MTNA wellness initiative a motivator for writing the book? Have FSMTA members had any input in the initiative?

Gail: When I moved to Sarasota, Florida, in December 2016, I immediately joined FSMTA. I had met Charles Turon at some wellness sessions at MTNA conferences, but we didn’t know each other well. Becky Barlar, FSMTA President at the time, invited us to come together as co-chairs of the FSMTA Wellness Committee, which we continue to co-chair today. We felt it important to initiate a process by which FSMTA members could educate themselves on the topic of musicians’ health. We encouraged all our members to join THTL and although we made sure that every state conference contained a wellness presentation, we felt it was difficult to convey this important information to everyone. Ultimately, we decided that compiling this information into a book made available to everyone was a better way to communicate this very important information. When MTNA approached us about authoring this book that they would publish, we were thrilled and accepted their amazing invitation. It has taken us well over a year, working together, and ultimately handing over the book to Amazon to publish. We are honored and so pleased to make this critical information available to musicians and music teachers around the world and hope it makes a positive difference in the lives of teachers and students everywhere.

PK: How do health, wellness, and wholeness fit together, and what do they have to do with teaching music?

Charles: Wholeness provides a pedagogical context for integrating health and wellness into our everyday teaching. Learning, practicing, and performing music involves the whole person, so it stands to reason that teaching music involves teaching the whole person. Over the past forty years, we have learned a lot about the important role that teachers play in promoting students’ physical health and psychological well-being, but putting that knowledge into practice presents several challenges. The answer to the second part of this question can provide a practical basis for addressing students’ health and wellness as an integral part of our instruction. To paraphrase the famed pedagogue Frances Clark, “teach the student first, music second, and the piano (or any other instrument) third” – a philosophy that shifts our focus from teaching music to teaching music students. If we then add the word “whole” to Frances Clark’s statement so it becomes “teach the whole student first,” we place all the interrelated components that learning, practicing, and performing music entail beneath the single umbrella of wholeness, including health, wellness, and much more. 

PK: Who is the book designed for?
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Linda: This book is addressed to all studio music teachers of all levels and ages, and for all instruments and voices. It is also appropriate to use for a pedagogy course (both undergraduate and graduate) and any professional or nonprofessional musicians interested in the health and wellness of musicians. The book is designed in an easy-to-read format and focuses specifically on the whole student and all the components that make up teaching wholeness to all students.

The publication of this book was sponsored by MTNA and is available for purchase online through amazon.com:
https://www.amazon.com/Health-Wellness-Wholeness-Music-Studio/dp/BODVVBMCYM ________________________________________________________________________
Application Deadline Reminders

JMTA December Student Recital – December 14
Application deadline – December 5
District IV Sonatina and Sonata Festival – February 7
Application deadline – January 19
District IV Concerto Competition – March 14
Application deadline – February 20
JMTA March Student Recital – March 29
Application deadline – March 20
District IV Student Day – April 11
Application deadline – March 6 
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AREA CONCERTS AND RECITALS

Click on each link for a calendar of upcoming performances:

The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Events
Click on link for more information and tickets:
Events | Jacksonville Symphony

University of North Florida Music Events
Click on link for more information and tickets:
https://www.unf.edu/coas/music/events.html

Florida State College at Jacksonville
Click on link for more information and tickets:
fine-arts-calendar.jpg (2550×3300)

Friday Musicale Events Click on link for more information and tickets:
https://fridaymusicale.com/events/
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St. Johns Cathedral Music Events
Click on link for more information and tickets: https://www.jaxcathedral.org/events/
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Find A Teacher Section on Jaxmta.org
Teachers, please take a moment to check out your information on our Find A Teacher page on the JMTA website (jaxmta.org). If you would like any changes made, or if you’re not listed yet and would like to be added, please contact Angie Holt at [email protected] with the verbiage you would like put in.
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Did You Know?
Residents of Duval county, if they have a Jacksonville Library card, can use the many electronic resources from the https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/digital-library. Getting a library card is free. All that's needed is your driver's license and sign up in person at any of the 21 branches.
The card allows the use of Kanopy - which has free streaming movies, documentaries, educational resources [older teens/adults]. I saw a documentary "Making the Grade" which profiled Irish students and piano teachers whose students are preparing to take the Irish Royal Academy of Music Examinations. It was funny, moving, informative, and relatable, especially seeing snippets of the teacher's lessons in action and how the students feel about piano and their teachers overall. I highly recommend members watch it (and explore the other resources available from JPL)! - JohnWillard Utuk
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Need a Sponsor?
Does anyone in the JMTA need a sponsor or need help in any way? If so, John Scott, owner of Jacksonville School of Music & First Coast School of Music, is interested in helping our organization. If interested, contact John at [email protected]. His direction phone number is 904-248-1848.
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Music Exchange
Do you have too much music collected in your studio? Is there some you think you'll never use? Bring your unneeded music to any JMTA meeting. Bring home something new to you! Look for the "Free Music" spot. Music does not have to be brand new.
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Have you found us on Facebook?
Follow JMTA on Facebook for the latest happenings, photos, videos, and more!
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Events Calendar
Please view our website for any updates or additions to these events, as well as for more details including application deadlines: www.jaxmta.org.

Thursday, October 23-Sunday, October 26 As Scheduled - FSMTA State Conference: “Unlocking Musical Treasures” Marriot Courtyard and Springhill Suites complex, Amelia Island

Thursday, November 13 10:15am – Meeting, After – Program and Potluck, JMTA General Meeting, Program, and Holiday Potluck Mandarin Library Branch, 3330 Kori Road, 32257

Sunday, December 14 3:00pm JMTA Student Recital, Arlington United Methodist Church, 1400 University Blvd.N., 32211

Thursday, January 8, 2026 TBA District IV Meeting and Program TBA

Saturday, February 7 As Scheduled District IV Sonatina and Sonata Festival, UNF Recital Hall, 1 UNF Drive, Building 45, Room 1200, 32224

Thursday, February 12 TBA JMTA General Meeting and Program TBA

Thursday, March 12 TBA JMTA General Meeting and Program TBA

Saturday, March 14 As Scheduled District IV Concerto Competition, UNF Recital Hall, 1 UNF Drive, Building 45, Room 1200, 32224

Sunday, March 29 3:00pm JMTA Student Recital, All Saints Episcopal Church, 4171 Hendricks Ave, 32207
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Stay tuned for more events to come! High Notes is distributed on the first of the month excluding June-August and December. All submissions are due by the 20th of the month prior to distribution. Submissions may be sent to [email protected].