SCMEA Piano Division Newsletter

Good morning SC Piano friends. As promised, here is our final SCMEA Piano Division Newsletter of the year! As usual, the SCMEA State Spring Piano Masterclass & Honors Recital was a huge success this past weekend. We welcome back Andrew Jackson High School, Charleston School of the Arts, and High Point Academy to our festivals this year! The event took place at Parkside Presbyterian Church in downtown Charleston. Dr. Eunjung Choi from Claflin was our Masterclass Clinician, and she had a great way of getting students to approach their pieces with musicality in mind. She brought something special out of the three students. Those of you who attended the Recital portion of the event witnessed some fine performances. Students improved since the Festival and are to be commended--Congratulations!

👏👏👏

You can find these 3 things in this newsletter:

• The approved 2025-26 SCMEA Piano Division Calendar in jpg and PDF format below.
• Instructions on submitting sessions to our 2026 SCMEA Conference and/or submitting a Performing Ensemble Application. Both are due June 15th.
• Pictures from our 2025 Spring Piano Masterclass & Honors Recital

You may notice that next year's Piano Festival structure will be slightly different. We will run 2 rooms concurrently for the Lowcountry site. This will push the Upstate site's normal date a week up, but it will also give us more time (especially in the Spring) to give teachers some lead time to notify students and families of all who are selected to perform at the Honors Recital in the hopes that more students can participate.

Lastly, it has been an honor and a privilege serving as President for the last two years. When Hunter Cox and I began 5 years ago, we set out a vision and overcame many obstacles to transition the Piano Division from one led by a talented and sage Piano university professor to one run by classroom teachers that is for ALL piano programs in their various forms across SC. My hope is that you recognize that the legacy I leave behind has been a time of vision, organization, opportunity, connection, relationships, and tremendous growth. I appreciate all of you who have helped, brainstormed, and supported our small yet mighty organization's legitimacy as we continue to flourish in this time of transition. I look forward to continuing to support all of you as the Piano Division Past President in the next two years! Thanks once again to outgoing Treasurer, Chuck Bateman who has kept the books for 5 years, and for Laura R. Cameron who has served for two years and will do another term as Secretary.

Andrea K. Quinn

SCMEA Piano Division President

Director of Piano & Orchestras

James Island Charter High School

andrea.quinn@scmea.net l https://www.scmea.net/divisions/piano-division/

Please complete this FORM if you would like to present at the 2026 SCMEA Conference, scheduled for February 5-7, 2026 at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center in Columbia, SC. The deadline for submissions is June 15, 2025. Notifications of acceptance will be made by October 1, 2025.

We are actively seeking some talented colleagues at the K-12 or collegiate levels to give piano-specific sessions at the 2026 SCMEA Conference. More specifically, we are looking for sessions for:

• The non-pianist
• The group piano novice, or teachers split between music areas
• Music Technology in the Group Piano classroom
• Best practices and repertoire session for more experienced programs
• A grant writing session to fund new and existing piano programs across the state.
• Here is the Performing Ensemble Application if anyone would like to be considered to be the 2nd-ever Piano Performing Ensemble at our 2026 Conference. The deadline to submit is June 15, 2025.

Help us make the 2026 SCMEA Conference the BEST YET!

Our membership voted and here are the results of our By-Law changes:

Item 1 Passed:

President-Elect - shall perform the duties of the President in the event of his/her absence, shall serve as membership chairman of the Division, will act as chair of the Lower State and Upstate Piano Festival, and shall act as an aide to the President in carrying out the purposes of the Division.

Item 2 Passed:

Article IV. Officers, Sec. 2: If any board member vacates their position prior to the end of their term, a special election will be held. The exception to this is if the Past President vacates their position early, it will remain vacant.