Sunday, February 9, 2025

FROM Sue Bachus, TFMC  District 6-4 Festival Chair

Hello Festival Teachers, 

Why was the All-State Festival cancelled?  It takes a team of key people to make the All-State Festival happen each year. Much of the previous Bulletin-related computer work for the All-State Festival was done by Mary Thomason, who passed away almost 2 years ago. Last year's State Festival was still utilizing the previous Bulletin. The software programming for this year's State Festival is connected to the new Bulletin…. which is still a mess with significant errors and multiple updates.  

Festival cannot function without updated software and Bulletin updates are continually coming in. All of the changes with each new update must be converted and then re-coded, along with lots of other information, into the software. This is one example of the kind of work Mary did. Mary's contribution to helping make the All-State Festival function smoothly cannot be overemphasized. Mary was a great resource and her loss is still being felt.

 NFMC Theory Coordinator, Heather Rathnau, who created the Theory Time workbooks and the State and District theory exams, also passed away. Additionally, there were other experienced people, who were directly involved in making the All-State Festival happen, who have since either passed away or are unable to help due to various reasons and issues. 

District 6 Competition. This week, we will review the TFMC District 6 Competition that was created about 3 years ago. It was approved by TFMC and NFMC leadership. We have spoken to a few of our teachers and they are relieved and excited about having a District 6 Competition. We believe it will energize the teachers and students. It’s unfortunate that we can’t have a state level competition, but there’s nothing we can do about that. We CAN have a district level competition, which includes 90-100 teachers in the Austin area, San Antonio area, and surrounding towns. It should be a nice size competition that we can promote as being a positive alternative to an unfortunate situation.

 Registrations and Information. The new Competition will be ready to accept registrations very soon. The Competition shares elements with both the District Festival and the All-State Festival, but state and national leadership said the Competition must be different.

Example: Participants can choose 2 solo pieces, a concerto movement, duo, or duet, etc.

The selection of all pieces performed are at the discretion of the participant.

The composers of all pieces performed may be from any nationality.

The competition will accept unedited video submissions and may offer a limited number of in-person performances. All participants will receive a rating sheet and competition certificate (and maybe a new District 6 Competition ribbon). Monetary awards will be available for the highest scores at the upper levels. More info soon.

Timing. Registrations and payment will be online and due by April 15. Video submissions will be due by May 1. Late submissions will not be accepted. Judging will take place in May/June and results will be announced in June.

 Fees. Fees have not been finalized. Teachers will collect fees from their students and use the online form to submit payment. Payment will be due by April 15. 

 Please let us know ASAP if you and your students are interested in participating in the TFMC District 6 Competition. We will be happy to provide competition and registration information as soon as it is available.  We can make this competition work for all our District 6 Teachers and Students. We welcome your input. We welcome your help! We want to hear from you!

Competition email: d6competition@gmail. com.