Dear JJ,

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

The following email includes OMEA's May News.

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

We need your voice! 

Next week, members of your OMEA Board will be traveling to Washington, D.C. to participate in the NAfME National Assembly. On Wednesday, June 11, as part of the 2025 NAfME Hill Day, OMEA board members will meet directly with Oregon's Congressional Delegation, Senators, and their legislative staff to advocate for music education policies and funding.  

We want to share your story – we've created a form for you to share your successes, challenges, and needs with Congressional Representatives from all across Oregon. We need perspectives and voices from all levels and content areas. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes. Please complete the form ASAP -- we are hoping to have data by June 6th.

Updated Advocacy Resources

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

LINKS

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

Need advocacy support? Contact advocacy@oregonmea.org

Updated Advocacy Resources

The OMEA Advocacy webpage has been updated – Find a new version of the Advocacy Toolkit with 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



Need advocacy support? Contact advocacy@oregonmea.org

The positions of All-State Chair and State Solo Contest Chair will be vacated on July 1st. Please thank Kristi Stingle and Stewart Schlazer for their years of service. Please reach out to them if you are interested in more information.

Erika Lockwood

OMEA President

lockwoode@nclack.k12.or.us

Timeline for OMEA All-State 2026:

May 1: Audition material will be available at oregonmea.org/all-state/

Sept. 1: Audition and application window opens on OpusEvent.com

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

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, "A Universal Language," 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.

OMEA will host two events at the conference for our collegiate music education majors: 



• A panel discussion on preparing for career / what you wish you knew before you started.
• Mock interviews 1:1 for future teachers in their final year before teaching.

If you are willing to participate in either of these, please reach out to Mari Schay.

Elizabeth Soper

OMEA Conference Chair

conferencechair@oregonmea.org

Congratulations to all of the students and directors for your performances last month at OMEA and OSAA championship contests!

Thank you to the contest coordinators, as well:

Gary Riler, Chamber Contest

Stewart Schlazer, Solo Contest

John Baker, Choir Contest

Dan Davey, Jazz Contest

Dave Sime, Band & Orchestra Contest

Please find results here:

2025 OMEA State Chamber Ensemble Championship

2025 OSAA State Solo Championship

2025 OSAA State Choir Championship

2025 OMEA State Jazz Championship

2025 OSAA State Orchestra Championship

2025 OSAA State Band Championship

Elections will be held in January for OMEA's next President. This is a six-year commitment:

2026-28, 1st Vice President

2028-30, President

2030-32, Past-President

If you are interested in serving on OMEA's Board, please reach out to Ben Lawson at ben.lawson@redmondschools.org.

New members of OMEA's 2025-2026 Board of Control are:

Hannah Abercrombie, 2nd Vice President

Allison Halvorson, Elementary Music Chair

Dana Henson, Conference Exhibitor Chair

Josiah Glaser, District 3 Chair

Kimberly Skondin, District 4 Chair

Dana Henson, District 13 Chair

Allison Hedgepeth, District 14 Chair

The Northwest Division has had a rich and productive history of 50 conferences that have been incredible professional development opportunities for teachers as well as a wonderful honor ensemble experiences for our outstanding student musicians with the All-Northwest Honor Bands, Choirs, Orchestras and Jazz Ensembles. Our current model of running these events is no longer viable as WMEA has made the difficult decision to move away from managing the NAfME Northwest Conference for the future. We would like to thank WMEA for the many years that they have worked with the Northwest Division to produce this conference for all of the membership in our six states.

On a positive note, the individual northwest states have really learned how to produce super effective state conferences, and the local conference for membership has really turned into a great option to partake of annually.

That is good news for everyone, but it affects the participation for a second amazing conference in the same calendar year, sometimes within a month of a state conference. The other issue is travel and the amount of time devoted to an event for students. As travel and lodging costs continue to rise, it becomes increasingly difficult to offer events that are not prohibitively expensive to teachers and to students when we need such large spaces to run these events in, but we want to get a good return on the amount of time invested as well for the money we need to spend.

The Northwest Board will be meeting this summer at NAfME's National Assembly to talk about ideas of new concepts that can be looked at for honor ensemble events as well as professional development opportunities for teachers in our six states, and we will be sharing those ideas as they take shape and form.

Great organizations evolve and change with the times, and the Northwest Division aims to still serve these important needs for our members. It just might not be the same delivery that we have been using for the last several decades.

Dusty Molyneaux

President, NAfME Northwest Division

dusty_molyneaux@gfps.k12.mt.us

Oregon ACDA is excited to welcome the incredible Dr. Angela Kasper as our headlining clinician for our annual Summer Workshop. The workshop will take place August 4-5, from 9:00 am-4:00 pm at Pacific University in Forest Grove. Registration information will be posted on the ORACDA website very soon. www.oregonacda.com Along with sessions from Dr. Broeker, there will be several varied reading sessions (Elementary, Middle, High, SA, TB, Collegiate, Community, Worship, and Jazz) to jumpstart your planning for the next school year.

Dr. Angela Kasper recently retired from Western Washington University where she conducted three choirs and taught undergraduate courses in choral methods. Before this appointment, she was Director of Choral Activities at the University of St. Thomas for 20 years during which time her choirs performed at national, regional, and state conventions of the American Choral Director's Association and toured extensively in Asia, Europe and South America.

In addition to her university responsibilities, Dr. Kasper presents for national, regional, and state conventions of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, the Organization of American Kodály Educators, and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. She serves as guest conductor for numerous honor choirs including the ACDA National Children’s Honor Choir in 2015, honor choirs at the Eastern, Southern, Southwest, North Central, Northwest and Central Division ACDA regional conferences, National Honor Choirs at numerous OAKE conferences, and all-state choirs in more than 35 states. International conducting engagements include honor choirs in Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Qingdao, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Dubai.

Dr. Kasper received her D.M.A. degree from the University of Oklahoma and her M.M. and B.M.E. degrees from Indiana University. Her research interests include authentic, respectful performance of music from diverse cultures as well as the exploration of varied vocal colors that are possible with this repertoire. Recently, she presented keynote speeches around the themes of community and inclusion within the choral experience and is serving on the National ACDA Committee for Diversity Initiatives. She served as guest editor of the April 2006 Choral Journal and has written articles for the Choral Journal in 2017, 2011, 2008, and 2006. Other publications include the July 2000 Music Educators Journal, the NAfME Spotlight on Teaching Chorus, as well as many local and regional music publications. The book she coauthored with Mary Goetze and Ruth Boshkoff, Educating Young Singers, is published with GIA. 

Kathy Briggs

OMEA Choir Chair

kathy.briggs@smapdx.org

www.oregonacda.com

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, Oregon.

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

Congratulations to all students and directors who have students performing at the Large Group, Small Ensemble, and Solo Contests. I know this season takes a toll, but your students sound amazing. It has been a pleasure to hear everyone’s performances!

I hope everyone’s year is wrapping up nicely, and that you enjoy a much-deserved summer!

1. Please turn in performance and clinic applications before the June 30th deadline! Let’s fill our conference with rich and stimulating orchestra content! Click here to access the applications.

2. There will be an OSAA Adjudicator Training and Certification/Recertification on August 1st at Mt. Hood Community College. See OBDA for more information.

3. Join OBDA (especially high school directors): It is cheap, and our orchestra voice is getting stronger with voting rights and board representation!

As always, let me know if you have anything to share with the orchestra community. I hope the rest of your spring goes quickly and enjoyably!

Brigid Mayer

OMEA Orchestra Chair

mayer_brigid@salkeiz.k12.or.us

www.orasta.org

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.

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

As you know last year Oregon Band Directors Association voted to add orchestra teachers as voting members of OBDA. We are currently looking to add an Orchestra committee and are searching for current orchestra teachers to head that committee. If you or another orchestra teacher would be interested, please let our current president Frank Petrik know. Any voting member or person on a committee needs to be a member of the OBDA.

Our middle school commission chair, Travis Freshner, would like some input from members going into the next commission project. Please complete the survey on the OBDA Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1YZgRDUcXc/? or contact Travis at travisf@sthelens.k12.or.us to share your ideas.. 

The OBDA would like to thank it’s members for taking to time to read and vote for the latest proposals. We have approved to extend playing down a level for required literature one more year. This allows band directors to use the list below their classification to better fit their groups. It is not required, but an option for those that are still rebuilding after Covid. We have also approved to keep and use the Sight-Reading Forms that were used this last year at state.

Thank you for such a great year.  

Jen Bell

OMEA Band Chair

BELL_JENNIFER@salkeiz.k12.or.us

https://www.oregonbda.org/

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.

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.

Jeff Chang (Washington MEA Jazz Chair) is compiling a list of jazz festivals in the Northwest for the 25-26 school year to publish. If you are hosting a jazz festival (not a league contest) where schools from Washington and Idaho would be welcome to attend, please reach out to Jessika directly for the link to the spreadsheet. You can find these events on OMEA calendar as well.

There are some great jazz camps going on this summer- links below:

UO Jazz Improvisation Camp: https://musiccamps.uoregon.edu/jazz/

Sherwood Jazz Camp: https://sherwoodbands.org/sherwood-summer-jazz/

Mt Hood Jazz Camp: https://www.mhcc.edu/community-resources/performing-arts-events/jazz-camp

Oregon Jazz Workshop: https://www.oregonjazzworkshop.com/

Jessika Smith

OMEA Jazz Chair

jessika_smith@parkrose.k12.or.us 

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.

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

The Oregon Coast Youth Symphony 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 dealer for Peripole® Halo® Recorders, Bergerault® Orff Instruments, Peripole® Percussion and the NEW Peripole® Classic™ Ukulele by Enya.

The Oregon Music Hall of Fame is a nonprofit organization created to help preserve Oregon's musical heritage. The focus of the OMHOF is to recognize and promote the legacy of exceptional musicians.

Are you teaching music technology? Curious or planning to? Are you being directed to add this to your curriculum or offer a class? The OMEA is gathering data on the current status of music technology classes in our schools: what’s being offered, what’s being planned, and what resources teachers have or need. Your insights will help guide future support, training, and collaboration opportunities across the state.

Click here to access the survey.

Jason Rodgers

OMEA Secondary General Music Chair

jrodgers@woodburnsd.org

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.

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.

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

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 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

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.

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!

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!

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