Members in the News
Mary Beth Purchase Named 2024 MTNA Florida Fellow
Mary Beth Purchase has been teaching piano from her home studio in Pompano Beach, Florida since 1985. She joined MTNA and has been continuously volunteering with its affiliates culminating with the State and Foundation presidencies. Mary Beth is a Music graduate from Florida Atlantic University, Summa Cum Laude. She has permanent certifications at the MTNA and FSMTA levels, was inducted into the National Guild of Piano Teachers Hall of Fame and is certified to adjudicate at all levels. Mary Beth still resides in Pompano Beach with her husband of 43 years. She has four grown children and enjoys 18 grandchildren. |
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Martha Meir Named 2023 FSMT Foundation Fellow
Dr. Irena Kofman Receives FSMTA Excellence in Teaching Award
Marc Hebda Receives 2023 Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award
Amy Turon Award for Outstanding Service to a FSMTA Conference
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Charles Norman Mason Named 2023 MTNA Distinguished Composer of the Year
Becky Barlar Named 2021 MTNA Florida Fellow
Dr. Charles Turon Named 2020 MTNA Florida Fellow
Norma Mastrogiocomo Named as 2019 MTNA Florida Fellow
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Two Foundation Fellows Revealed at the 2018 Conference
Joanne Smith
Donald Waxman
Joanne Smith
- Professor Emerita from University of Michigan
- She founded and directed the Piano Pedagogy Laboratory Program there
- She developed graduate degree programs in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Michigan that were selected by the National Association of Schools of Music as one of four models of pedagogy curriculum
- She taught 18 summers at Interlochen Music Camp
- Also taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University
- She successfully advocated for the addition of a school of music at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she joined as faculty member in the early 2000’s
- She served as President of Michigan MTA and on the Executive Board of FSMTA
- She was selected MTNA Teacher of the Year in 2002
- She started the Steinway Piano Competition in Southwest Florida, where she has also served on Boards of the Southwest Florida Symphony, the Steinway Society, and the Naples Music Club
- Since 1979 has attended every MTNA Conference except one
- Edits and consults for FJH Publishers
Donald Waxman
- Graduate of the Peabody Institute and the Juilliard School of Music; his teacher at Peabody was Elliott Carter
- Received Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Paris, the Delius Prize for chamber music, and the gold medal at the Kang Nung (Korea) Music Festival
- Winner of the RCA Composition Prize and two-time winner of the Gustav Klemm Composition Prize
- Composer of chamber, choral, symphonic music, and piano pedagogical works
- Music performed by Houston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, National Gallery Orchestra, among many others.
- Composer-in-residence for Lynn University Conservatory’s New Music Festival in 2013
- Chosen for Composer of the Year by New York, California, and Florida as part of MTNA Commissioned Composers Program (FSMTA commissioned him in 1997; the commissioned work was Variations on a Waltz of Diabelli for clarinet, cello, and piano).
- The late Robert Silverman said “Donald Waxman’s contribution to the piano teaching literature is without equal among today’s pedagogical composers for its originality and its fresh harmonic and rhythmic language.”
- His teaching literature has been called “an American Microkosmos.”
- His teaching pieces encompass all levels and include recital pieces, etudes, piano duets, and other ensemble pieces.
- In his own words, Donald explains “I wanted young students to be working in a language more varied than that of so many piano method books. I wanted students to be playing and hearing music written in a wide variety of intervals, modes, and tonal and chromatic combinations that go beyond the extreme limitations of music based primarily on triads.”
Wanda Wiranis Recognized as MTNA 50-year Member - 2018
Mid-State MTA Members featured in Clavier Companion - 2017
Mid-State MTA members Dr. Judith Jain and her faculty members at the New Tampa Piano and Pedagogy Academy, Aline Giampietro and Jane West, are featured in an article on pages 16-17 in the January/February 2017 issue of The Clavier Companion.
Mid-State MTA members Dr. Judith Jain and her faculty members at the New Tampa Piano and Pedagogy Academy, Aline Giampietro and Jane West, are featured in an article on pages 16-17 in the January/February 2017 issue of The Clavier Companion.