Dear JJ,

Greetings from the Oregon Music Education Association! Click here to visit our website.

The following email includes OMEA's March News.

Make sure to Click View entire Message at the bottom to see all of the content.

40th Annual Music In Our Schools Month® - THANK YOU! 

Thank you to everyone who engaged in MIOSM ® activities in March! If you like a participation certificate, fill out this form from NAfME by APRIL 15.  Some highlights from across Oregon:

Douglas County celebrates 'National Music in Our Schools Month' with courthouse concert

Music In Our Schools Month, Eugene 4J (Instagram)

MIOSM proclomation from Governor Kotek

MIOSM promoting music education and personal development, Oregon ArtsWatch

MIOSM, Oregon City School District (Instagram)

MIOSM, Salem-Keizer Music & Theatre (Facebook)

If you have another highlight to share, please send any pictures or links to advocacy@oregonmea.org. 

‼️Advocacy Action – Tell Congress to Save the Department of Education

We need you to advocate today to ensure federal funding is provided for music and arts education!

Why This Matters to Arts Education: Without a dedicated federal education department, policies that ensure access to arts education—such as Title IV-A which supports a well-rounded education, and the Assistance for Arts Education program, which is dedicated to supporting the arts—could potentially disappear. These changes may create disparities in arts education funding and access, disproportionately affecting underserved communities and students who rely on federal education support.

Take Action Now: The Arts Education Alliance is fighting back by endorsing the Department of Education Protection Act (H.R. 433). This crucial bill would safeguard ED from being dismantled and ensure continued federal support for education, including music and arts education.

CONTACT CONGRESS

We need your voice to make a difference. Contact your members of Congress today and urge them to:

1. Oppose Actions to Dismantle the Department of Education

2. Support the Department of Education Protection Act (H.R. 433)

Use this easy to fill out form to contact your representatives in Washington DC. It only takes a few minutes! 

Updated Advocacy Resources

• The OMEA Advocacy webpage has been updated!  Find a new version of the Advocacy Toolkit with tons of helpful links.

NAfME Professional Learning

Looking for more professional development opportunities? See all of the NAfME webinars on their Professional Learning Calendar.  

LINKS

• OMEA Advocacy
• Advocacy Resources 
• Program Standards for Music in Oregon Schools
• National Music Standards One-Page



Need advocacy support? Contact advocacy@oregonmea.org

We are the Oregon Music Educators Equity professional learning community! If you have a brilliant resource, song, approach, or idea that you want to share with other music educators, please share it here.

Equity Highlight - Check out the NAfME Equity Resource Center 

NAfME DEIAB Resources from the Diversity Equity Inclusion Access and Belonging Resource Center - 

NAfME offers position statements, legislative information, webinars, academic journal articles, blog posts, and more to help answer your questions and guide your decisions as a music educator. Featured Resources are - Fact sheets, guides, webinars, talking points, reports and more to equip music educators with the tools you need to succeed in the classroom and to help advance the profession.

Click below and log into NAfME to view the Resource Library. Search the NAfME Resource Library with the terms Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, or Access for more related resources.

View All Resources

Cynthia Navarro

OMEA DEI Co-Chair

navarro16@gresham.k12.or.us

Amanda Sarles

OMEA DEI Co-Chair

asarles@siuslaw.k12.or.us

Please click here to read more about OMEA's candidates for Elementary School Music Chair and Jazz Chair. Ballots will be emailed to current and retired members on March 15th, voting will expire the evening of April 15th.

Elementary Music Chair Candidate

Allison Halvorson

Joseph Gale Elementary School

Forest Grove

Jazz Chair Candidate

Cory Francis

West Salem High School Salem

Jazz Chair Candidate

Jessika Smith

Parkrose Middle School

Portland

Jazz Appreciation Month (fondly known as "JAM") was created right here at the museum in 2001 to recognize and celebrate the extraordinary heritage and history of jazz for the entire month of April.

JAM is intended to stimulate and encourage people of all ages to participate in jazz - to study the music, attend concerts, listen to jazz on radio and recordings, read books about jazz, and more.

This year’s poster artwork features a portrait of jazz legend Lester Young (1909-1959). The portrait comes from LeRoy Neiman’s brilliantly colored 2005 Big Band painting depicting notable jazz musicians in performance. Nicknamed “Pres”—short for President, Lester Willis Young is among the most respected saxophonists of the 20th century. With an innovative playing style, a slick fashion sense, and his cool cat slang, Lester Young’s influence on jazz music and culture is profound.

Young was raised in a musical family, and from a young age he would perform and tour all over the United States. In 1933, Lester Young settled in Kansas City and rose to prominence playing with the Count Basie Orchestra. His relaxed, free-floating approach set him apart from other sax players at the time. By 1936, the Basie Orchestra moved to New York City to cut their teeth full time in the city’s thriving jazz scene. Young continued performing with Basie and others, sitting in on recording sessions, and joining jam sessions with a host of Harlem’s best jazz musicians including Billie Holiday. Young’s musicianship continues to inspire generations of saxophonists who experiment with the “cool school” sound of jazz.

You can download the poster here.

Conference Survey

Thank you to all who attended the OMEA 2025 Conference: Resonance. Please spend a few minutes filling out our post-conference survey. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and used to improve our conference for future years. The survey can be found here.

OMEA 2026

Save the date! OMEA 2026 will be held at the Graduate Hotel, Eugene on January 16-18th.

Applications are now open to present or perform at the OMEA 2026 conference. New this year - submit a topic or presenter nomination! Have a specific topic or speaker you would like to see at next year's conference? Fill out the short nomination form to share your ideas! The conference planning team will take this feedback to recruit relevant and impactful sessions for our membership's needs. 

All application forms can be found here.

Elizabeth Soper

OMEA Conference Chair

conferencechair@oregonmea.org

Save the date: Timeline for OMEA All-State 2026

May 12: Audition material will be available at oregonmea.org/all-state/

Sept. 1: Details regarding OMEA All-State and registration via OpusEvent.com will be available and open.

Oct. 5: OMEA All-State auditions and application window closes at 11:59:59pm on OpusEvent.com

Kristi Stingle

OMEA All-State Chair

allstatechair@oregonmea.org

Here are some important links as we enter festival/contest season. All of these links can be found on the OSAA Choir Website: OSAA - Activities

Sight Reading Room Procedures the OSAA Choral Handbook, which includes updated Sight Reading Room Procedures and Instructions: Choir Handbook  The updated changes are designated by black italic lettering in the 6.8 Sight Reading Room section.

Required Choral Music List NEW Required Lit. List 7/21 - Google Docs Remember, only one (1) song in your contest set must be from this list. For the rest of the set, teachers are encouraged the choose a varied program of music that best showcases their students' and their ensemble's skills, and may include variations in divisi that best fit your ensemble. 

Approval Request for Required Repertoire Selection Approval Request For OSAA/ACDA Required Repertoire Selection    If your pre-1900 selection that does not appear on the Required Choral Music List, you must have it approved to be considered in alignment with contest rules.  The deadline to submit a request was February 28.

The new Oregon ACDA website is OREGON ACDA. It also has links to all of the above information.

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!

Kathy Briggs

OMEA Choir Chair

kathy.briggs@smapdx.org

www.oregonacda.com

Good luck to our secondary directors as we begin festival season! Remember to take care of yourselves during this busy time of year!

Brigid Mayer

OMEA Orchestra Chair

mayer_brigid@salkeiz.k12.or.us

www.orasta.org

Fellow High School Band Directors, I would like to remind you that as contest season is well underway you should take some time to review the Sight-Reading protocol and the OSAA rules. Check those student grades, check and double check your performance minutes as well as practice getting on and off the stage. Take the time to practice with the percussion on how to get on and off the stage, how to set up and what will each student be responsible for bringing on and off the stage. Both you and the students have put in countless hours to prepare the most musical, technically correct and awe-inspiring performance of the year and we all want to make sure no one is disappointed with penalties. Have fun with the last stretch and clear your music of all those little distractions.

Jen Bell

OMEA Band Chair

BELL_JENNIFER@salkeiz.k12.or.us

https://www.oregonbda.org/

The Oregon Jazz Adjudicator Database is up and running! The purpose of this resource is to provide festival coordinators with a comprehensive and diverse list of professionals who are interested in adjudicating and providing jazz education in a festival setting. Each person on the list provided their own biography, experience, preferences, etc.

The current Jazz Adjudicator Database can be found HERE. 

Those accessing the database should be able to filter and organize the list however they'd like (by location, instrument, race/gender, etc.), but won't be able to alter the spreadsheet's contents. 

It is not too late to be added to this list! Submit requests to be added to the spreadsheet by filling out THIS FORM.

Jessika Smith

OMEA Jazz Chair

jessika_smith@parkrose.k12.or.us 

Small Schools Music Educators!

Please find us on Facebook by clicking here.

Excitingly, NAfME has recently put together a Small Schools Initiative. The website for this initiative is full of useful videos and information provided by small schools music educators from around the country. You can find those resources by clicking here.

We all share a wonderful and sometimes challenging job. As such, we truly are one another’s best resources. From first-year teachers to established veterans, connection is key to our success! If I can be of any assistance to you this year, please feel free to reach out to me at any time. I am always thrilled to hear from other small schools music teachers.

Best wishes for a great year!

Melissa Jmaeff

OMEA Small Schools Chair

melissa.jmaeff@sutherlin.k12.or.us

OMEA has a new, future-focused Mission and Vision statement along with a set of Core Beliefs that will guide our Strategic Planning for the foreseeable future. Many thanks to those who gave feedback in our Strategic Planning Survey, as well as members of the board who took the time over the summer to create these statements of accountability and purpose. 

MISSION: OMEA supports music educators and advocates for equitable access to a high-quality and comprehensive music education for all students in Oregon. 

VISION: OMEA will serve as the trusted source for music advocacy in Oregon and will strive to increase the quality and accessibility of music education in our state. 

Please click here to read OMEA's Strategic Plan in full.

The Executive Board took the time over the summer to edit and streamline OMEA's Policies and Procedures document. The Board of Control approved changes in September.

Please click here to read OMEA's Policies and Procedures.

Congratulations to Chad Rose of Wyoming, NAfME Northwest's President-Elect. Read more about Chad by clicking here.

A Tri-M® Music Honor Society chapter opens up a world of opportunities for students who have already shown themselves to be academically capable and musically gifted. Through performance and community service, they’ll develop confidence, creativity, critical thinking, compassion, and a host of other leadership skills sure to serve them well in school and beyond.

Click here to apply!

Click here to access NFHS publications and e-newsletter subscriptions.

Bandworld features the American Band College of Central Washington University and WIBC hosted annually in the fall in SeaTac.

Enjoy exceptional chamber music with Chamber Music Northwest's digital concerts available virtually at CMNW.org and live concerts in Portland, OR.

The Columbians Drum & Bugle Corps is a 501c3 non-profit organization serving the youth in the Tri-Cities, Washington, and surrounding areas.

Since 1750, Conn Selmer is the largest manufacturer and importer of band and orchestral instruments for students, amateurs, and professionals of all genres.

Students will have unique performance opportunities, music and theater clinics from industry professionals and by attending great shows.

Eugene Symphony is a professional orchestra performing classical, symphonic, and live music in Eugene, OR.

Delivering music since 1876. JW Pepper ® is your sheet music store for band, orchestra and choral music, piano sheet music, worship songs, songbooks and more.

Music education programs offering orchestra, band and jazz in Portland, Oregon. Celebrating our 50th anniversary!



Quality professional development in the Feierabend curricula in a fun, interactive way, so teachers can spend their time teaching.

Nova Music International offers services in music publishing, education, administration, summer camps, and events (workshops, guest conducting, clinics, adjudication, and festival management).  

The Oregon Ambassadors of Music continues to provide meaningful cultural experiences and extraordinary performance opportunities. Outstanding students from all over Oregon prepare music to perform in select cities throughout Europe.

The Oregon Children's Choir has served kids in Lane County for over 40 years. We offer excellent singing opportunities for kids in 1st through 12th grade.

The Festival is an outgrowth of ideas that formed in the Newport Symphony’s board and the Festival’s artistic leadership comes from the Music Director Adam Flatt.

Peripole is the exclusive dealers for Peripole® Halo® Recorders, Bergerault® Orff Instruments, Peripole® Percussion and the NEW Peripole® Classic™ Ukulele by Enya.

The Portland Orff Schulwerk Association serves music educators in Oregon and Southwest Washington, promoting and supporting the teaching and enjoyment of music for the whole individual.

Celebrate Portland’s most dedicated young musicians as they perform both classical favorites and rarely heard works, bringing an unrivaled energy to each piece.

Quartet Violins specializes in violin, viola, cello, and bass rentals and sales. We are dedicated to providing quality instruments in great condition at an affordable price.

 Southern Oregon University Music Program offers bachelor of music degrees, graduate programs focused on music performance & music education degrees.

Your copy should The music program offers a Bachelor of arts in music with 4 tracks: In all four, the liberal arts core curriculum is complemented by a deep study of music in applied private lessons, ensembles and the classroom.

The department supports large and small ensembles in vocal and instrumental music and up-to-date facilities for electronic music production and recording.

We specialize in repairs, sales, and rentals of band and orchestra instruments. We also offer sales, setups, and repairs on fretted instruments such as guitars, ukuleles, and bass guitars. 

Please click here to access OMEA publications. Issuu will now archive all OMEA publications dating back to 1948. These older editions will be posted as access becomes available for scanning.

Please contact JJ Sutton if you are interested in submitting an article for future publications.

Follow OMEA on Instagram at "oregonmusiceducation."

You can also follow OMEA on Facebook by liking "Oregon Music Education Association."

OMEA social media is a great way to receive news and updates in real time!