Take 5 for OMEA

Welcome to the Oregon Music Education Association's monthly e-newsletter, "Take 5 for OMEA." This e-newsletter has the most current news and information all in a 5 minute or less read. You can view past e-newsletters by clicking here.

Please visit our website at www.oregonmea.org for the latest on news and information at OMEA. You can visit our calendar page by clicking here.

Welcome back, music educators! Explore our highlighted back-to-school resources to support your year ahead. Whether you’re a seasoned educator or embarking on your first year as a teacher, we’ve got you covered with helpful tools and information.

OMEA Mentorship:

Are you in your first 5 years of teaching music in Oregon?

Or, are you an experienced educator ready to support our new teachers?

Start the year strong - Join our new OMEA Mentorship Program!

Give the gift of support to yourself, a new teacher, or someone who just moved to Oregon.

Find out more and apply HERE

Dutch Bros Coffee's story began in 1992 with brothers Dane and Travis Boersma, who left their family's struggling dairy farm in Grants Pass, Oregon, to pursue a new venture. They purchased an espresso machine and a pushcart, setting up shop near the railroad tracks. The brothers, of Dutch ancestry, named their company Dutch Bros, honoring their heritage. They initially offered flavored coffee to friends and family before venturing into the community, quickly gaining popularity for their unique drinks and friendly service.

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

Registration for the conference open October 1st via register.opusevent.com. Please register by December 31st to lock in the reduced rate, costs increase on January 1st.

The Graduate Hotel's block will open on October 1st as well, a link to reserve rooms will be sent via email and social media.

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

The School of Music & Theater is located within the hub of musical and theatrical activity in the Pacific Northwest, only three blocks from the Portland Center for the Performing Arts. It maintains close ties to the Oregon Symphony, Portland Opera, Portland Jazz Orchestra, Portland Piano International, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Chamber Music Northwest, Oregon Repertory Singers, Artists Repertory Theater, Portland Center Stage, Milagro Theatre, and Third Rail Repertory Theater, among other organizations. Faculty and students alike interact with these performing organizations in various ways.

OMEA All-State 2026 has a great lineup of guest conductors and we encourage you to invite your students to audition!

OMEA All-State is held at the OMEA State Conference, January 15 - 18, 2026 in Eugene.

View more information about this year's conductors here.

Updated All-State policies:

All involved in the application process for OMEA All-State should read through the updated OMEA All-State policies in the information packets linked below.

Student Application Form: Turn in to OMEA teacher

• When students apply for All-State, they will need to turn in the application form to their OMEA teacher, found on the last 2 pages of the information packet.
• This application needs signatures from the student, the parent/guardian, school principal, and the OMEA music teacher, and collects the information teachers need for the Opus application.
• The form also confirms that the participants understand and agree to the Policies and Procedures of OMEA All-State.

Information and Application form found here:

• 2026 All-State Elementary School Information
• 2026 All-State Middle School Information
• 2026 All-State High School Information

Please make sure your NAfME/OMEA membership is current (click here) so you can upload your auditions via Opus.

All-State Audition materials and more can be found at:

https://oregonmea.org/all-state/

Upload audition materials via Opus:

https://audition.opusevent.com/Account/Login

Kristi Stingle

OMEA All-State Chair

allstatechair@oregonmea.org

Beacock Music has been a family- owned company since we first opened in 1976. In addition to Vancouver, we have two additional locations! Eugene opened in 2018 and Albany opened in 2022. They both have full service repair departments, full School Services Division, plus band and orchestra instruments, guitars, percussion, digital pianos, accessories, and print music!

Please read our September OMEA Advocacy & Public Policy Newsletter! Contents include:

Welcome Back To School 🍎

Welcome Stephen 🎉

Advocacy Committee – Come Join Us! 🗓️

Get To Know Your School Board 📌

Updates From The Oregon Capitol 📝

Arts In Education Week: September 14-20, 2025 🎶

Public Policy & Advocacy Goals For The Year ✅

Links 🔗

Laura Arthur
OMEA Public Policy Chair

publicpolicy@oregonmea.org

Stephen Marshall

OMEA Advocacy Chair

advocacy@oregonmea.org

Linfield’s Department of Music offers creative opportunities for musicians of all levels and skill sets regardless of major.

Whether you’re here to major or minor in music or participate in one of our ensemble groups, you will work closely with world-class faculty and perform side-by-side with professional musicians.

Our undergraduate program will prepare you for lifelong engagement with music as performers, educators, conductors, composers, thinkers, listeners, and writers.

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

We are seeking candidates of all backgrounds, teaching levels, and disciplines! If you are interested in serving or would like to nominate someone, please reach out to Ben Lawson.

OMEA Awards

Please visit our nomination website for OMEA Awards. Contact Ben Lawson if you have any questions.

Ben Lawson

OMEA Past President

ben.lawson@redmondschools.org

Travis Moddison is a real estate broker dedicated to serving southern Oregon with professionalism and value. He also runs a YouTube channel providing information on Oregon, and updates on news/events impacting Oregonians. In addition to real estate, Travis is an active musician with the Rogue Valley Symphony and raises ducks as a hobby. He loves to have evening jam sessions with his wife and three sons.

The 2025 ACDA Fall Choir Workshop will be on Friday, October 10 at Silverton High School. This year’s event will once again be a leadership workshop for high school students and their teachers along with a middle school honor choir. (Please note that there will not be a coinciding adjudication training held on this day.) An adjudication recertification will take place later this fall. Please see the ACDA website at oregonacda.com for event details and registration.

Kathy Briggs

OMEA Choir Chair

kathy.briggs@smapdx.org

www.oregonacda.com

Bandworld features the American Band College of Central Washington University hosted in southern Oregon each summer. WIBC's ensembles are auditioned and meet annually in the fall in SeaTac.

Northwest Band Camp is a one-week summer music camp that combines individual and group music instruction along with tons of fun recreation time that give young musicians the opportunity to meet with many other similarly interested students in a fun, friendly, inspiring, and musically intensive environment.

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..

Jen Bell

OMEA Band Chair

BELL_JENNIFER@salkeiz.k12.or.us

https://www.oregonbda.org/

The Oregon Symphony was founded as the "Portland Symphony Society" in 1896, it is the sixth oldest orchestra in the United States, and oldest in the Western United States. Its home venue is the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland's Cultural District.

We want to hear what your students are creating! We’ve made some changes to our state’s student composition contest to be inclusive of more music genres and methods of creating music. The OMEA State Composition Contest was created to promote music literacy, music theory, and creative composition for students at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. Students are encouraged to submit original compositions written in any style, genre, or format, whether traditional, contemporary, or experimental. Works may be created for any combination of instruments, voices, and sounds, and may include traditional, electronic, songwriting, and loop-based approaches.

Students can now submit in two categories:

1. Traditional Notation. A PDF file of the music written in traditional music notation is required (handwritten and converted to PDF, or generated with software such as Sibelius, Noteflight, MuseScore, Dorico, etc.). An MP3 recording is required (live or MIDI generated). A short description (up to 250 words) must accompany the piece, describing the creative process, tools used, and musical inspiration.
2. Electronic, Songwriting, and Loop-based Music. A lead sheet, lyric/chord sheet, or a screenshot/video of the DAW project is required. An MP3 recording/export of the music is required. A short description (up to 250 words) must accompany the piece, describing the creative process, tools used, and musical inspiration.

In either case, submissions must be original (no copyrighted loops, samples, or melodies unless cleared/licensed proof is provided).

Other contest requirements:

• Minimum Length of Composition:
• Elementary Composers (grades K–5): 1 minute
• Middle School Composers (grades 6–8): 2 minutes
• High School Composers (grades 9–12): 3 minutes

• To submit:
• Compositions must be submitted electronically by an OMEA member teacher on behalf of the student through a Google Form (link at top of page).
• The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2025.

Judging and awards:

• Compositions will be assessed based on the following rubrics and ranked by three (3) individual judges. Rankings will be compiled to determine the winners in each category.
• Traditional Composition Rubric.
• Electronic, Songwriting, and Loop-based Music Rubric.
• Results will be announced mid-December.
• Winning students and their parents will be invited to attend the OMEA State conference banquet in January to be celebrated in person and to receive their trophy. Winning students, an audio file of their composition, and their teachers will be recognized online (OMEA website).

2026 Composers’ Symposium (High School Only)

Up to ten (10) high school OMEA Composition Contest Finalists in the Traditional Composition category will be selected to participate in the Composer’s Symposium sponsored by the Oregon Coast Youth Symphony Festival at Newport in April. Selected students will receive individual instruction (in-person & via Skype/Zoom) from December through April from a professional composer at OSU. Each student participating in the Symposium will receive a $250 scholarship from the Festival and have all expenses paid (motel, food, etc.) during the Symposium. More information about the OCYS Festival and Composers’ Symposium is available by contacting Dr. Michael Dalton at dr.michael.dalton@gmail.com .

http://youthsymphonyfestival.org/

Kathy Briggs

kathy.briggs@smapdx.org

Traditional Composition

Jason Rodgers

jrodgers@woodburnsd.org

Electronic, Songwriting, and Loop-based Music

Distinguished teachers, talented students, and supportive public: these are the people who make the Department of Music at PLU a nationally recognized center for musical learning, serving, and sharing.

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.

Jessika Smith

OMEA Jazz Chair

jessika_smith@parkrose.k12.or.us

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. Join us! Membership in POSA comes with benefits: reduced admission to workshops, use of our instrumentarium, and the knowledge that you are doing your part to spread the word about Orff Schulwerk in the Pacific Northwest. POSA is a chapter of AOSA, the American Orff Schulwerk Association.

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

YMA's mission is to provide young people with a unique personal experience in the visual and performing arts, where they share creative interests in a positive environment that builds confidence, enhances self-esteem and reinforces a sense of community.

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.

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.

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

• OMEA Advocacy
• Advocacy Resources
• Program Standards for Music in Oregon Schools

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 Chair

navarro16@gresham.k12.or.us

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

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!