Tag: conferences

Conferences

Day 4 Highlights from NCKP 2025

Joy Morin

[Click to read Day 1, Day 2, or Day 3.]

I began the morning by recording a podcast episode with my friend and conference roomie, Amy Chaplin of Piano Pantry. Click here to take a listen!

Then, I headed downstairs to attend a showcase session by Alfred Music. Davis Dorrough and crew highlighted a variety of their latest publications, including Rare Recital Treasures edited by Ingrid Jacobson Clarfield and Kevin Chance, a folio of early Florence Price works, Sandpaintings by Connor Chee, Saga Land by Elizabeth Swift (video game inspired pieces for early to mid intermediate levels), Take the Stage by Angela Marshall (creative performance pieces for early to mid elementary levels), and the Solo Celebration series by a variety of Alfred composers. I love hearing about what’s new!

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Conferences

Day 3 Highlights from NCKP 2025

Joy Morin

[Click to read Day 1 or Day 2.]

Once again, first thing in the morning I went to the exhibit hall to the make sure my Marketplace Table was arranged and ready for the day.

The conference schedule on Friday, July 25 began with a showcase session — presentations given by exhibitors. I attended the one by Hal Leonard. I always enjoy hearing the showcase sessions from the major publishers in order to hear about the latest publications. This session didn’t disappoint. I got to hear Glenda Austin’s incredibly expressive playing, highlighting her Solos for the Sanctuary series and Lyric Waltzes. Charmaine Siagian highlighted a new book called The Eugenie Rocherelle Collection in honor of Rochelle, who passed away earlier this year. Jason Sifford shared about his latest publication titled: “Play Piano Again” — an interesting book for adult students that pulls from the beloved music of John Thompson. And Brendon Fox talked about new releases in terms of classical piano publications.

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Conferences

Day 1 Highlights from NCKP 2025

Joy Morin

Last week, July 23-26, 2025 I attended the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) — an event held by the Frances Clark Center biennially in Lombard, Illinois, near Chicago. Here are some highlights from Day 1, Wednesday the 23rd. Hope you enjoy!

I drove out early Wednesday morning, leaving my home near Ann Arbor, Michigan at 4am. (Perhaps I am in the minority, but I would rather make a 4-hour drive in the early morning than the evening prior!)

This year, NCKP kicked off with a new event: an optional, one-day Innovation Summit. Because I had volunteered to be a discussion leader for the summit, I arrived around 7:30am to report for a brief meeting.

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Conferences

Highlights from NCKP 2023

Joy Morin

Last week, I attended the 2023 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) held July 26-29, 2023. I have to say it felt so great to be there face-to-face with fellow piano teacher friends old and new, especially because this was the first in-person I’ve attended since the pandemic!

This morning as I was completing NCKP’s after-conference survey, I realized that I have been attending every NCKP since 2011. That’s a total of seven NCKPs so far!

If you’ve never attended the NCKP, I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list. It’s similar to the MTNA National Conferences in many ways, but it’s a slightly smaller conference and they do certain things a little bit differently. It’s organized and sponsored by the Frances Clark Center — a non-profit association dedicated to honoring and furthering the legacy of piano pedagogy Frances Clark (1905-1998). NCKP meets biennially, always in the same location (Lombard, IL — outside Chicago), which for me is convenient because I can drive there in about four hours.

Anyway, in this lengthy post, I’d like to share a variety of highlights and bits of news from NCKP 2023. Read on!

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Conferences

2022 MTNA Virtual Conference Recap

Joy Morin

A couple of weeks ago, I joined a few piano teacher friends to virtually attend the 2022 MTNA Virtual National Conference from March 26-30, 2022. Although I definitely prefer in-person conferences over virtual conferences, I have to say that joining up with some buddies to watch the sessions together was a really excellent second option!

My friend Amy Chaplin (of PianoPantry.com) was kind enough to offer to host us in her home…and even cook for us! The rest of our crew included Christina Whitlock (of The Beyond Measure podcast) and Janna Williamson (intermediate repertoire guru offering a fantastic YouTube channel for piano teachers).

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Conferences

2021 MMTA State Conference

Joy Morin

Just popping in for a quick post today!

Last weekend, I attended an incredible 2-day state conference put on by the Michigan Music Teachers Association. I feel so fortunate to be part of such an amazing organization of music teachers here in Michigan. It was an outstanding event — definitely high on my list of memorable conferences. Huge thanks goes to the efforts of many hardworking folks behind it all. Oh, and can I also add, it felt SO good to be back at an in-person music event.

Our guest artist was Norman Krieger; guest conference clinicians were William Chapman Nyaho and Heather Nelson Shouldice (have you checked out her podcast on MLT?); and we also heard from a number of our own MMTA members presenting 20-minute talks.

I also just wanted to let you know that I recently switched my blog over to a new web hosting service. My site has been running on the slow side — perhaps you’ve noticed? After much troubleshooting and tweaks, I finally decided it was time to switch to another service and a faster plan. Things seem to be running super fast now, which makes me a happy camper. I hope your user experience on my website will feel great thanks to the increased speed!

If you have feedback or ever encounter any problems with my blog, don’t hesitate to let me know. I’d love to hear from you!

Your turn: Getting back to state conferences now… For those of you who are members of MTNA, what has been the status of your state organization? Have they been able to remain active in one way or another during the pandemic?

Conferences

NCKP 2021 has begun!

Joy Morin

A few months ago, I mentioned this summer’s 2021 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP) virtual conference. The pre-conference sessions officially began TODAY (yay!). I’ve been happily enjoying some wonderful virtual sessions already this afternoon, and am so excited about the programming over the next few weeks. The NCKP planners have chosen a wonderful app that allows for connecting with other attendees while enjoying the virtual presentations. It’s the next best thing besides being in-person with my teacher friends and colleagues.

In this year’s NCKP, I am involved with two different sessions. The first is a presentation about a personal project with my young daughter, Aria, and our first year of Early Childhood Music sessions at home together. (I’ve been putting my ECM certification through the Gordon Institute for Music Learning (see GIML.org) to good use recently!) This session will take place during the pre-conference this Friday the 16th from 1:05-2:00pm EDT. Here’s the full description:

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Conferences

MTNA and NCKP: Two Virtual Conferences You Won’t Want to Miss in 2021!

Joy Morin

After getting my first taste of a national conference as a college student, I made a commitment early on in my career to always ensure I was making enough income to be able to afford professional development opportunities like these. There’s nothing like investing in yourself — you’re your greatest asset! Experiences like conferences can reap long-lasting benefits for improving your teaching, improving your business, and keeping yourself fresh and motivated in your career as a piano teacher.

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic might still be putting a “pause” in larges in-person events, but we can still connect virtually! I am pretty excited about TWO upcoming music teacher conferences that are going virtual for 2021.

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Conferences

Summer 2019: NCKP, South Shore Piano Camp, OregonMTA, and More

Joy Morin

Hello, readers! Summer is gone, and we’re now into the groove of the new school year. My last blog post shared the details of my recent Piano Teacher Retreat, held August 1-3, 2019. The rest of August went like a blur, due to a variety of travel. Here’s a little bit of a catch-up post!

NCKP 2019: July 24-27

Backing up just a step… The week before the retreat, I attended NCKP 2019. It was a phenomenal conference, as always!

I attended so many great sessions. My favorite was a session given by Louis Svard, presenting on “The Musical World of Infants: What It Can Tell Us About How Children Actually Learn Music.” She has a blog called The Musician’s Brain you can check out here.

I had the privilege of presenting two sessions during NCKP, both on Wednesday as part of the Pre-Conference Seminars. First, I gave a session for the Wellness Track called “Lessons for Piano Teachers from the Alexander Technique.” In this session, I share my experience as a student of the Alexander Technique and how taking AT lessons has impacted me as a musician and piano teacher.

Later that afternoon, I also presented one of my favorite talks: “Piano Method Mining: Gems from Past and Present.” In this session, I provide a survey of piano methods from past to present, highlighting the ones consider most notable and still useful today. The room was full, and I received such wonderful feedback afterwards!

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Conferences

MTNA 2019 (6): Wednesday, March 20

Joy Morin

[Click here to go back to Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, or Day 5.]

Wednesday is always the final day of the MTNA national conference. There were two morning sessions on the schedule.

8:00am Teaching The Way We Learn: Applications Of Edwin E. Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT), by Amy Chaplin & Joy Morin

Amy Chaplin and I were so pleased when we were notified our proposal was accepted back in June! It was an honor to be able to give our presentation about some of the core principles from Gordon’s Music Learning Theory (MLT) at a national conference.

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Conferences

MTNA 2019 (5): Tuesday, March 19

Joy Morin

[Click here to go back to Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, or Day 4.]

On Tuesday morning, Ruth, Christina, I spent some time in the exhibit hall, checking out more booths and shopping for music. 🙂 For example, we visited Eik at her Sproutbeat booth.

While in the exhibit hall, I bumped into Sam Holland and took the liberty of introducing myself. He and I have been corresponding recent via email, because I am serving on the conference planning committee for the next OhioMTA state conference (October 24-26-, 2019) and Sam is going to be our guest pedagogue!

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