Monday Notes, Jan 19, 2026

Thank you to everyone who made this year's All-State Music Festival & In-Service Conference a huge success. It was great seeing everyone, sharing ideas, and catching up! What a great yearly event! Here is to a great semester. Please review the following to make sure things run smoothly.

Ready for round two? Here is to a great event this week in Portales. Please see the important reminders below:

• Schedule
• Rhythm Section Reminders

• Drummers need to bring their own cymbals and sticks. Tarpley's Music is providing full drum kits with bass drum pedals. That said, some drummers prefer to bring their own pedals.
• Guitarists and bassists need to bring quarter-inch cables, extra strings, pedals, picks, etc.
• If needed, bassists need to bring their own upright bass with quarter-inch cable jack.
• Percussionists need to bring their own hand/auxiliary percussion if called for in the parts.

General Music members, please follow this link and vote for your preference for the 2028 Conference. Voting will close on February 9th.

Please check your calendars to make sure you have the following state contest dates:

• April 14-15, 2026 - State Choir Contest
• April 16-18, 2026 - State Concert Band Contest
• October 24, 2026 - State Marching Contest
• January 6-9, 2027 - All-State Music Festival & In-Service Conference (UNM)
• January 21-23, 2027 - Jazz All-State (NMSU)

It’s time to elect a new Executive Committee. The elected members will shadow the current officers for the remainder of the year and officially assume their roles in January 2027. Please review the timeline below:

• January 26 - Membership verification (in order to vote you must have a current membership on this date)
• February 2 - Email ballots sent and voting begins
• February 14 - Voting closes
• February 16 - Election results announced

Thank you to the following candidates who have agreed to be on the ballot. We’re excited to have such a strong and dedicated group willing to serve.

PRESIDENT

Tyler North

Melissa Rice

VP COLLEGIATE

Melissa Ryan

Angela Winter

VP GENERAL MUSIC

Valerie Collins

Drew Wichman

VP GUITAR

Genevieve Leitner

Gwen-Marie Lerch

VP ORCHESTRA

Luis DeVargas

Kristen Pickens

VP CHOIR

Jhordan Granger

Anton Tan

VP BAND

Steve Iliff

Karen Padilla

VP JAZZ

Joshua Dumais

Aaron Lovato

Do you have names you would like the council to consider for adjudicators for the State Band & Choir Contests? Submit names here.