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Links in this Section Alabama Orchestra Association Penney Adair, AOA President
Inspiring! How else could I describe our February All State Festival? Each orchestra provided a full stage of eager and focused students. Of course, all under the direction of outstanding and captivating conductors. The Consort String Orchestra, under the direction of Jacquelyn Dillon, rose to a new playing level this year with well thought out literature that was both challenging and playable. A good time was had by all! The String Sinfonietta Orchestra, directed by Dr. Mark Laycock, worked tremendously hard during our 3 day weekend with a beautiful performance on Sunday to show for it and what a tremendous job by our Festival Orchestra which was directed by Jeff Meyer of Ithaca NY. The bar keeps going up and our Alabama students keep rising to the occasion! I would like to take the opportunity to thank some of the folks behind the scenes that really made the weekend the success it was. To all the section leaders and judges, thank you so much for your time and expertise of course but more importantly, the fair and equitable manner in which auditions and placements were handled. Students watch far more than our musical ability, and AOA is teaching musical excellence along with excellent character. Also to the parents, home teachers and AOA members who sacrificed their down time to help with stage set up, tuning and general rehearsal assistance where needed. This was a great help! Joe McCary, you’re the best!!! Thanks again to all. With such fond memories of our 2008 Festival, one can only be excited about the future and the upcoming 2009 Alabama All State Festival. Even though we are in the early stages of planning, the process is going smoothly and all is ahead of schedule. The Festival will be held at the beautiful University of Alabama School of Music again. A special thanks to Dr. Skip Snead for hosting us again! I’d like to mention some changes in personnel. Julie Hornstein is our new Executive Director and Daniel Jamieson has agreed to take over as Treasurer. Also, our new Vice-President/President Elect is Marcy Jedlicka. All our new officers will be fantastic additions to AOA and we’re pleased to have you on board! We’ll miss you Melissa Dufrechou. Good luck in Tennessee! I’m also happy to announce we’ve opened up a set amount from our general funds for a new summer music camp scholarship. This would be an application process and open to any student who participated in the most recent All State Festival and attending a summer music camp. Watch our web page for more news as forms are being written and guidelines set. AOA continues to help our Alabama students of music strive for the best and we’re proud to help them achieve their goals! AOA schedule of events: August 1: Music available on web site October 1-15: Auditions October 15: Scholarship applications due October 17: Deadline for District Chairs to mail audition DVD’s November 15: Results posted December 1: Acceptance forms due December 8: Begin music mail out February 12-15, 2009: Alabama All State Festival |
