Florida State Music Teachers Association
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  • Home
    • Legal Documents
    • Districts
    • History
    • Past Presidents
    • Commissioned Composers
    • State Archives
    • Local Archives
  • News & Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Newsletters
    • FSMTA Conference >
      • Conference Book Archives
      • Planning Materials
      • Visual Media Archives
    • FSMTA 2023 In-person Conference
    • Members In the News
  • Student Activities
    • FSMTA Non-Competitive Events
    • FSMTA Competitive Events
    • MTNA Competitive Events
    • Winners
    • Collegiate Corner
    • College Council
  • Foundation
  • Join
  • Members
    • Membership Directory
    • Certification
    • Wellness
    • Online Teaching
    • Manuals, Handbooks & Forms
    • Judging
    • Annual Awards
    • Executive Board Minutes & Reports
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    • FSMTA Executive Board
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FSMTA Brief History*


An assignment to write a one-page history of FSMTA only allows the briefest outline. Inaccessibility of the archives necessitated reliance on memory, which is certainly not infallible. Apologies are herewith made for inaccuracy of dates. Many important events took place in the early years that had much influences on the direction of this association. However, the writer did not become a member until 1949, and has no way of learning about events prior to that time. [*compiled circa 1984 by Lucille W. Sellers]

  • 1934    Organization of Florida State Music Teachers Association
  • 1935    First State convention
  • 1953    Affiliation with Music Teachers National Association
  • 1956    Certification Plan implemented, with first certificates issued
  • 1958    Membership requirements adopted, with Provisional Category added
  • 1959    First issue of Florida Music Teacher [our own magazine]
  • 1960    First State Contest for Students; First District Convention
  • 1961    First Independent Teachers Recital; Affiliation of our magazine with Florida Music Director
  • 1962    Two-year terms for Officers made official
  • 1963    Studio Plan for Achievement certificates adopted; Election of District Presidents
  • 1966    First State Student Day
  • 1967    First District Student Day
  • 1968    First election of President-elect
  • 1970    First workshop for Judges; Publication of the first Student Activities Handbook
  • 1971    Publication of the first Judges Manual
  • 1973    FSMTA incorporated, and the Foundation established
  • 1981    Membership Secretary office created
  • 1983    New membership requirements adopted; duties of First VP shifted to Membership Secretary
  • 1998    Venice MTA deactivated
  • 2000    Lake County MTA deactivated
  • 2002    Began the FSMTA website
  • 2005    Redistricting took effect (from 10 districts down to 9 districts); state newsletter moved online
  • 2008    Moved the official legal documents and FSMTA Handbook to the state FSMTA website; held state conference in the summer for two years on a trial basis
  • 2010    Digitized all the Student Day materials and moved them to the state FSMTA website
  • 2013    Two Local Associations in District 9 merged (Greater St. Petersburg MTA and Upper Pinellas MTA) and became Greater Pinellas MTA
  • 2015    All archives at UCF were scanned and digitized, now held on the state website
  • 2016    All FSMTA materials, forms, and registrations are now digital
  • 2017    Vero Beach MTA deactivated; New Wellness Committee established
  • 2018    Historic bylaws revision vote to remove the degree requirements for membership in FSMTA
  • 2019    Endorsed the RCM program (Royal Conservatory of Music) as an additional avenue for our students to be assessed; Peace River MTA deactivated
  • 2020    First Virtual Conference (totally online) due to COVID-19 Pandemic. Interactive Conference Book with YouTube videos embedded; used Zoom for live EB meetings and General Sessions of the Conference; started Facebook Live broadcasts on the FSMTA Facebook page; started Google Business page; added "Ads and Funding" pages to the website for Newsletter, Email, Online, and Conference ads and sponsorships
  • 2021    Added online Lion Theory exams for written and aural theory for Student Day
  • Added FSMTF State Foundation Fellow Award
  • Added VP for FSMTA Conferences as a voting position on the Executive Board

Organization of The Florida State Music Teachers Association
Jacksonville, FL ~ March 23, 1934 (abridged)
   - Marie Lesesne Ford, Publicity Chairman for the Music Teacher’s Association of Jacksonville.

​There is, naturally deep pleasure felt by the Music Teachers Association of Jacksonville in the successful realization of the goal set out for in its work through the past two years, in the formation, during the recent convention of the Florida federation of Music Clubs, of the Florida Music Teachers Association, and it will be forgiven for feeling, also, some pride in the many expressions of congratulations uttered by those who come from throughout the State to take part in fine manner of something regarded; by all interested as an important step in the right direction for the progress and protection of music, musicians, and teachers.

Given a place on the State program for March 23, our local association arranged a sequence of events, beginning with a fine music program, which took place in the ballroom of the Carling Hotel following the completion of the session, which included the election of the new Federation State officers. After this program, the assembly adjourned to the main dining room of the hotel for the conference Luncheon. First planned for a gathering of sixty, almost at the last minute changes had to be made to accommodate eighty.                        

During the course of the luncheon, Mrs. M. B. Byrd, [president of the Music Teachers Association of Jacksonville] called on many of those present for short talks, giving opinions and suggestions on the matter before the conference, among those   who responded were Mrs. Arthur L. Johnson, retiring State Federation president, Mrs.  Leroy Smith, new State Federation president; Mrs. O.G. Heistand, National Board Member for Florida; Mrs. Frank W. Brown, President [of the] Friday Musicale, Jacksonville; Miss Margaret Haas, honorary State President, past National Corresponding Secretary, honorary Member, M.T.A. Jacksonville, Mrs., Chas. E. Davies, first president of the local M.T.A., and one of its most faithful and highly valued members throughout all the years of its existence. …..Every speaker, no matter how brief, had something helpful and encouraging to say, in every case approving the organization of a State music teachers’ association and believing it necessary. In addition to the spoken words, letters were also read … from prominent and well known musicians in the State, unable to be present, but with us in spirit and desire for the State association.

Mr. W.E. Ducwitz, Stetson University Music Dept.; Dean Ella Scoble Opperman, State College of Women, Tallahassee, Miss Bertha Forster, Conservatory of Music, Miami; Mana Zucca, Miami, Florida’s best known composer; Mr. Harve Clemens, Rollins College; Mr. J.W. deBruyn, University of Florida, Mr. E.B. Kurcheedt,  Daytona Beach;….and last but not least, a letter from Mr. C.M. Tremaine, head of the National Bureau for the Advancement of Music, who, being unable to accept our invitation to be present as speaker,  sent what amounted to a written address of fortifying, analytical, and constructive criticism, and, also, sent our local organization other matter which has proved most helpful and guiding. Every letter read contained the highest praise, approval of object and effort. 

These features concluded, Mrs. M.B. Byrd was elected chairman pro-tem, and Mrs. Jesse Elliot, secretary pro-tem, of the organization details. Mrs. Byrd began routine by appointing….a committee on constitution and by-laws, Mrs. William Boyd, chairman. After a committee consultation, Mrs. Ford read to the assembly the constitution and by-laws as prepared, which were accepted, as read, unanimously.  Following this, Mrs. Byrd… named the nominating committee…. Ballot slips were distributed while the nominating committee was preparing its list of names; this, read and accepted, voting proceeded rapidly. The reading of returns met with hearty applause, and many warm expressions of pleasure…to us, members of the local M.T.A.; comes additional happiness in having our president honored in being chosen as the first president of the State Association. For two years this has been her best-loved “brainchild.” Others have had the same idea but to Mrs. Byrd must go the credit for bringing it out into the open, presenting it to our local group as something we could and should do for all engaged in our profession in our beloved and Sovereign State of Florida, thus ultimately helping the cause of MUSIC.

Our first effort at consummation, made last year at Tampa, failed through a combination of circumstances unavoidable, and possibly because the idea had not had time to penetrate fully; but this only deepened out intentions – fixed our determination to “carry on’, and try again, and it was a proud moment when Mrs. Lloyd Jones, chairman of the special committee on state-wide organization, prepared her if-at-first-you-don’t-succeed-try-again letter, sent out to the two hundred teachers all over the State who last year had sent us practical evidence of their  interest in and desire for the affiliation.

…We congratulate the new Florida Music Teachers’ Association, promising our help and full cooperation right on, if and when needed.

State Associations - Florida
   ~ from A Centennial History of the Music Teachers National Association by Homer Ulrich, © 1976

Interest in establishing an association of Florida music teachers began in 1918, when Mrs. M.B. Byrd sought to enlist her fellow teachers in a state organization. The purpose of that organization was to seek official recognition, and high-school credit for applied-music study done under private teachers. For over a decade the idea was kept alive, although little progress was made in carrying it farther.

In 1932, the then-president of the Jacksonville MTA, Mrs. Lloyd Jones, revived the idea by appointing a committee to study the advisability of forming a state MTA; Mrs. Byrd was named chairman. After an abortive attempt in 1933, an organizational meeting was held in Jacksonville in March, 1934, the  Florida State Music Teachers Association was founded with over a hundred members, and Mrs. Byrd was elected president. FSMTA became affiliated with MTNA in 1953.

The effort to gain recognition for applied-music study soon became successful, for the Florida School Bulletin of December, 1938, carried a statement that "credit may now be offered for adequate private instruction." But the continuation of that success hinged upon the development of a satisfactory plan to certify teachers as to their competence. Such a plan had been inaugurated in 1936 and was considerably modified on several later occasions. When MTNA issued its Model Plan in 1954, a committee on certification, under the chairmanship of Merle Holloway, brought the Florida plan into conformity with MTNA's suggestions.

​Officers of FSMTA have been active in other areas as well. A scholarship committee, established in 1934, provides liaison between FSMTA and the institutions of higher education in the state. Similarly, a music-education committee has served a liaison function with the public schools since 1941. The activity of that committee culminates in an annual Student Day, which includes examinations in performance and theory and a student honors recital. And a theory committee, active since 1952, has prepared a theory manual for the use of private teachers. And on another level, FSMTA member Karl Kuersteiner served as MTNA's president in 1957.

​The official history of FSMTA, prepared by Etta Martin and R. E. I. Chumbly, pays considerable attention to the Association's practice of bestowing honorary memberships upon individuals for outstanding contributions to music; Louis and Sidney Homer are specifically mentioned, although they were not Association members. And the contributions of Merle Holloway are noteworthy in this connection; for Miss Holloway, of Tampa, served on forty-seven committees, was chairman of nineteen, elevated to eight different offices, and served as FSMTA president for two years, 1943-45. A high point of her administration was to provide active liaison between Florida's six professional music associations.

Convention sites and presidents of FSMTA in the past twenty years have been the following:
  • 1956   Winter Park        Owen F. Sellers
  • 1957   Tallahassee        Owen F. Sellers  (Postponed to February, 1958, to meet with the Southern Division)
  • 1958   Jacksonville        Alvah A. Beecher
  • 1959   Daytona Beach    Alvah A. Beecher
  • 1960   Miami Beach       Lucille W. Sellers
  • 1961   Sarasota             Lucille W. Sellers
  • 1962   Tallahassee         Ruth Butler
  • 1963   Gainesville          Ruth Butler
  • 1964   St. Petersburg     Elmer P. Magnell
  • 1965   Jacksonville         Elmer P. Magnell
  • 1966   Deland                Jane R. Sterrett
  • 1967   Miami Beach        Jane R. Sterrett
  • 1968   Sarasota              Natalie Adcock
  • 1969   Tampa                 Natalie Adcock
  • 1970   Pensacola            Gerson Yessin
  • 1971   Tallahassee          Gerson Yessin
  • 1972   Gainesville           Bernice M. Hack
  • 1973   Jacksonville          Bernice M. Hack
  • 1974   Cocoa                  R. E. L. Chumbley
  • 1975   Winter Park          R. E. L. Chumbley
​
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