Dear friends and colleagues,

As the days get much shorter, and colder, I am thinking of our lives and how they seem to go in cycles too...there are times when our focus is concentrated and we feel effective and inspired in our teaching, and there are times when we are tired or overwhelmed and are just struggling to be present in each of our situations...our lessons, our work, our concerts, our classes; our relationships. Life is so full.

And then I get to thinking about how lucky we are to work (and play!) in the medium of music. Each day is different, and brings new challenges and new gifts. Our students each interact with us in a unique way, through the language of music. We constantly get the opportunity to look at something from another's point of view, and also to help our students to see other ways of doing things. It can be as simple as how you lift your arm, wrist and hand to release a note...or as complex as how, when, and how much to pedal through a phrase, and how far down should the pedal be depressed! There are so many variations.

Last weekend was our State Music Conference, at Millikin University. There were many different offerings each day. I enjoyed the talk Eric Sutz did about the Great Chicago Boogie Woogie Pianists. He played and described their styles as he spoke, and gave us perspective on what kind of hardships they went through, and how they developed their signature sounds.

Another talk was by Samuel Gingher, a Doctoral student at U of I, that was called "Preluding at the Piano." He has done some fascinating research and found examples of music written in the 18th and 19th centuries to teach improvisation in a classical style.

"What Ever Happened to Beauty?" - The title of this talk, by Michael Luxner, conductor of the Millikin -Decatur Orchestra, intrigued me. Yet his talk itself was extremely esoteric, and a little hard to follow, and Luxner himself summed it up by saying "All I really want to say to you is - read the books of Susanne Langer!" Susanne Langer is author of "Feeling and Form" (1953) and "Philosophy in a New Key" (1942). He felt that her ideas on music-making as Art were transformative for him, and that they would be for others too.

My favorite offering at the conference was a Pedagogy session with Logan Skelton, titled "The Brotherhood of Peoples: Folk Styles in the Music of Bela Bartok." I learned so much in this session, about the incredibly different polyrhythmic patterns that Bartok heard and recorded in his wide travels, through not just his own Hungary, but throughout Eastern Europe, Russia and some of the Arabic lands. As he collected, recorded, studied and then composed in the style of these different cultures, he came to believe that his purpose as a composer was to show "the brotherhood of peoples" through music. It was a fantastic session, well-documented, with many specific examples - both recorded and played live - to highlight each style that Skelton was speaking of. Wow!

So I have come back from the conference refreshed, and ready to jump back into my daily musical life. I hope that you have some great moments of your own to share that you experienced there, or maybe you have been a little bit inspired to consider attending our State Conference yourself next year in November. It was announced that it will be held at Moody Institute in Chicago - much closer!

Meanwhile, here at home, our own fantastic members, Helen, Bev, Jennifer and Vonnie, will be presenting to us a session this Monday, November 17th, on sharing your studio ideas with your colleagues, called "Start a Studio Crawl." Be sure not to miss this! And remember it is at the Barrington Library, 505 N. Northwest Hwy, in Barrington, at 9:45. If you have been busy over the weekend, with the Gold Medal Recitals Saturday, and the AIM Exams Sunday, you may need the grounding presence of a normal meeting.

Next month we have no official meeting but our Holiday party on December 8th, at Mary Anne Block's home! What a fun way to get into the spirit of the holidays with a little informal get-together. Put this date on your calendar and come get to know at least one other person a little better. Who knows? Maybe you can relax a little!