Newsletter Nov 2006

Our Losses

Member Kay Newman

We were all saddened by the sudden death Monday October 23rd of our dear friend and loyal Mu Phi, Kay Newman. She had attended the last Mu Phi meeting, had been to church on Sunday and attended an evening lecture there. She had planned to announce at the library on the 29th and host our November meeting. She had tickets to see “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and had been researching this event by reading the play and seeing the old Elizabeth Taylor movie. She volunteered for Mu Phi, sending out our publicity for the concert series and keeping our scrapbook as Historian. She had also volunteered over many years at Lovers Lane Methodist Church, in the schools and at the Dallas Museum of Art.

I traveled with Kay to Eastern Europe and to Spain and saw her so eager to meet our traveling companions and so interested in the history and stories we heard from our guides. Sharing a love of music, art and history, we attended concerts in historic buildings and sought out galleries and offbeat sights in our free time. She was an ideal traveling companion!

Many of us attended her memorial service and met her two daughters, son and other family members of whom she was so proud. We will remember her as a dear lady, active to the end and an engaged participant in life.

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Tena's Husband - Greg Hehn

After a long bout with diabetes, Greg Hehn died on September 13. Glen Hehn, the only son of Tena and Greg, was here from England and gave a nice remembrance of his father at the service on Sept 23rd. Many Mu Phis were also in attendance and our former member Nancy Laine, now of San Antonio, played some beautiful organ selections at the service. Our condolences to Tena who is also now dealing with her own health issues. She is undergoing chemotherapy for a tumor that was partially removed in early September. She is also teaching again; we wish her well and see her as whole and healthy. The club will make a donation to our Scholarship Fund in Greg’s memory.

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Meetings
Monday Nov 13 7:30 Top	Chimneyhill Clubhouse, 9223 Emberglow 75243 - Mary Williams, hostess Program: Diane Dillard, violin Sarah Collins, clarinet Co-hostesses: Phyllis Wilson, Kaleena Lourd and Meghan Gomen

Monday Dec 11 7:30 Top	Changed to: Home of Edie Pfautsch Program: Susan Poelchau and the Dallas Ensemble of Viols will play music of John Dowland, the English Orpheus Co-Hostesses: Sylvia Lerch, Melanie Priest and Sandra McMillen
Please contact Mary Ann Taylor if you would like to perform in November or December. Note: Edie was to host the May meeting and we are looking for someone to offer a home for May 12. We’ll let you know where that meeting will be later.

Chapter News

Song Contest

There will be a new Mu Phi songbook. Want to have your composition in it? Ask Susan Poelchau for details.

Newsletter

Remember, this newsletter is for November and December and we have no January meeting. So keep it around for reference, or check the website to keep up. Our next deadline will be January 20th. Send your news to Mary Williams: txtravel@flash.net. Check out our website periodically. It’s a winner!

Dues

Remember that members over 80 can request Emeritus status; they pay no international dues and $10 to our chapter.

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Membership

We lost three members to death this past year, two have declined to renew and we gained two new members. Increasing our membership is one of our challenges as a chapter. Our ages are increasing and our members are not able to continue to support the chapter in all the projects we would like to have. Find out if your musical friends are Mu Phis and invite them to come to our meetings; suggest people for Special Election – so that we might increase our membership.

Kurt-Alexander Zeller says, “Alumni membership Fraternity-wide actually declined by 58 from 2005 to 2006. So my challenge to you all is to keep recruiting in 2006-2007! Special Election is a wonderful membership tool – as I read reports from the alumni chapters around the country, over and over I discover that many of the most active, committed members of alumni chapters are members who had no college experience of Mu Phi Epsilon at all; they joined as alumni members. Keep asking – remember that “no” is really just the beginning of “not now;” if you keep the channels of communication open, someday what once began as a “no” may turn out to be the heart of “another member.”

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Alumni Chapter Awards

Kurt-Alexander Zeller, our Alumni Advisor, announced alumni awards for this past year in his last letter to alumni chapters:

Best Alumni Chapter – Austin

“…presented excellent musical programming, provided assistance to the Mu Phi Epsilon booth at the TMEA convention, worked with the Mu Theta chapter at University of Texas on several projects, provided scholarships to deserving Mu Phi Epsilon members, participated in SERV and other service activities, and supported both the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation and Fraternity financially through individual member contributions and bequests…[and] added five new members.”

Outstanding Alumni Service Project for 2006 – Dallas

“[It is a] series of 18 free Sunday afternoon public concerts that Dallas Alumni hosted at the Central Library of the Dallas Public Library. This series of free concerts for the people of Dallas has continued uninterrupted since 1937. In its 40th anniversary year, the Dallas Times Herald recognized the program with a special civic Beautification Award, ‘not for what the eye beholds but for what the ear hears.’ That was almost 30 years ago, and the series is still going strong, presenting enthusiastic audiences with excellent performances from local, national, and even international talent – one of their 2005-2006 performers was en route between professional engagements in New York and Hawaii. This service project has been recognized before (in 1999, the Professional Fraternity Association honored it with its Outstanding Community Service award as the best Community Service project by any professional fraternity in any discipline, not just music), but it is so ambitious, excellent, and long-lived, and it exemplifies so many of our goals in service through music, that the IEB felt this project deserved to be acclaimed once again.”

Noteworthy Alumni Chapter Project – Cincinnati

“…creating a dialogue between all the professional music fraternities on the campus of one of our country’s most competitive music schools, the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati”

Award for Exceptional Service to the Fraternity – Denver

“…identified the gravesite of our founder Elizabeth Mathias Fuqua in Greeley, CO, and spearheaded the placement of a commemorative marker there similar to the one that was dedicated at the grave of our other founder, Dr. Winthrop Sterling…”

Outstanding Yearbook – Denver

Alumni Chapter Website – Dallas

“I urge you all to check it out at http://www.muphiepsilondallas.org. There’s more great information about Dallas Alumni available online than about almost all the rest of the alumni network put together.”

Best Chapter Newsletter – Dallas

“Dallas narrowly edged out very tough competition from Boston, Washington DC and Portland to take home the award for the best chapter newsletter as well.”

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Library Concert Series Calling all volunteers for the library series! Claudia Jameson, chair of this project for several years, is stepping down at the end of the spring season. Cherie Bell, who has been assisting at the Sunday concerts, also finds life too busy to handle everything due to her new teaching job. We thank these ladies for many hours of dedicated service that have given so that this project could continue smoothly. Our fall series has ended, but we will begin again in February. If we as a chapter want to continue this program, we must have volunteers. It is an award winning series, a service to our community for the past 73 years (!) and an opportunity for performers to have a venue. We are in need of people to come to the library on Sundays to help with programs, set up the easel and assist patrons. We need more participation from all the membership in helping on Sundays – even once or twice a year. It’s difficult for many of us to make a regular commitment, but perhaps an occasional visit to the library would be possible. Please tell Susan you will help in some way with this project. Top Sunday Concert Series: Spring 2007
Feb 4	Sherna Armstrong, mezzo-soprano: "My Soul Music"
Feb 11	Ron Houston, viola, and Inmi Houston, piano
Feb 18	Violin Students of Jan Sloman
Feb 25	Sara Chason, soprano and Nancy Pollnan, mezzo-soprano
Mar 4	Nova: Choral group from Wilshire Baptist Church, Doug Haney Director
Mar 11	Linda Irwin, piano and Chamber Musicians
Mar 18	Justin Gray, Piano
Mar 25	Dallas Camerata Woodwind Quintet - Jackie Akin, Flute, Frances Estes - Oboe, Jerry Brumbaugh - Clarinet, Kelbert Taylor - Bassoon, Nita Redmond, French Horn And the Dallas Doo-Wop Vocal Band: Glenn Redmond, Ralph Hamm, Jerry Barnett and Jack Andrews (did you see the big article in the DMNews last weekend in Oct. about them?)
Apr 15	Soo Hyun Cho, Piano
Apr 22	Michie Akin, piano
Apr 29	Rinna Saun, piano
All concerts are at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library Auditorium (except for Sept 17th in the 4th floor gallery) 1515 Young Street, Dallas TX Sundays at 3:00 PM Concerts are FREE and open to the public www.muphiepsilondallas.org Top

Member News

June Tighe is living in an apartment in McKinney. The address in the yearbook is correct, but the phone number is her daughter’s number, where she had been living. She no longer has e-mail. (Contact the webmaster or president for her new phone number.) She is doing well with a heart monitor and neighbors and family look in on her.

Sandra McMillen reports that her rotator cuff (shoulder) surgery went well she is on the mend. She has been doing the first series of therapy exercises and can already see improvement. A return visit assessed progress and she learned new, more advanced exercises. She says, “I am enjoying having my husband be my nurse maid! I intend to enjoy it as long as possible!!!”

Don and Wynona Lipsett made a two-week summer trip to Ballyshannon, County Donegal, Ireland. Don’s grandfather was born there, as were all of his ancestors over the past two centuries, so it was the perfect place to work on genealogy as well as to see the sights across the north half of the country. It was beautiful! And they now have confirmed that Don and Tony Blair are second cousins once removed! Cool!

Former Dallasite Nancy Laine has been practicing organ and sounds great! She has still another job at SW Bell, but hopes to be offered a retirement package when Bell is bought. (Yeah for retirement!)

Edie Pfautsch bit the bullet and bought a new Dell, in the expectation that her 15-year + old Mac might be in death throes soon. She is learning how a PC works and has a new e-mail address: epfautsch@aol.com.

Mary Ann Taylor’s son is attending Northwestern University as a music student and Pat Suitt has a student who has been accepted as a composition student at USC.

Julie Schmitt is helping her mother who lives in Kaufmann.

Adele Wilson, who has performed for us, is at Manhattan School of Music and is studying with the head of voice department at Juilliard.

Bettye Zoller Seitz has accepted a faculty teaching position with Collin County College and it includes a Monday class so she will not be able to attend Mon night meetings. She has a Flemish Double Manual harpsichord for sale built by famous instrument maker Peter Fisk. Contact her to see and play it if you are a harpsichordist. Or tell your churches or musical friends about it: btzol@aol.com.

Melanie Priest is now teaching at the DISD all-girl’s high school - Irma Rangel Young Women's Leadership School. She is teaching Geometry, Algebra, Academic Decathalon and an Advanced Handbell Choir. The school is in its third year of existence and is located in Fair Park next to the Science Place. She says she has an awesome group of handbell ringers and hopes to get them on stage for us sometime.

Wynona Lipsett has been the pianist for the "Fiddler on the Roof" production with the Mexia Theater Project. She says it’s her “3rd year to do so and it's kinda like old times doing high school musicals. It takes lots of time, but it's such fun! Hello to all! Mu Phi love.”

Cynthia and Dan Wadley announce the birth of their first great-grandchild, Aaron Michael Crain on October 8th. The parents are their granddaughter Sarah and husband Jeremy. They live in Nashville, but expect to come to Dallas the first week in December. Cynthia says Dan is looking forward to holding little Aaron. He is very weak, but his great attitude keeps him going.

Recovering from a summer fall is Sharon Kraus, who hurt her back. Priscilla Long had a bout with food poisoning and Rosalie Alexander is better, but in a wheelchair.

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Article

Music lessons help young child memories

Excerpts from

By Jennifer Kwan Wed Sep 20, 8:17 AM ET

TORONTO (Reuters) - Parents who spend time and money to teach their children music, take heart -- a new Canadian study shows young children who take music lessons have better memories than their nonmusical peers.

The study, to be published in the online edition of the journal Brain on Wednesday, showed that after one year of musical training, children performed better in a memory test than those who did not take music classes.

"[The research] tells us that if you take music lessons your brain is getting wired up differently than if you don't take music lessons," Laurel Trainor, professor of psychology, neuroscience and behavior at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, told Reuters.

"This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year," said Trainor who led the study.

Over a year they took four measurements in two groups of children aged between four and six -- those taking music lessons and those taking no musical training outside school -- and found developmental changes over periods as short as four months.

The children completed a music test in which they were asked to discriminate between harmonies, rhythms and melodies, and a memory test in which they had to listen to a series of numbers, remember them and repeat them back.

Trainor said while previous studies have shown that older children given music lessons had greater improvements in IQ scores than children given drama lessons, this is the first study to identify these effects in brain-based measurements in young children.

She said it was not that surprising that children studying music improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music.

"On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with nonmusical abilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ," she said.

Music training boosts the brain

BBC, September 20, 2006

Music appears to have a profound effect on the brain

Music lessons can improve memory and learning ability in young children by encouraging different patterns of brain development, research shows.

Canadian scientists compared children aged four to six who took music lessons for a year with those who did not. They found the musical group performed better on a memory test also designed to assess general intelligence skills such as literacy and math ability.

The study, by McMaster University, is published online by the journal Brain.

The researchers also measured changes in the children's brain responses to sounds during the year. They found changes developed in the musical group in as little as four months. Previous studies have shown that older children given music lessons recorded greater improvements in IQ scores than children given drama lessons.

But lead researcher Professor Laurel Trainor said: "This is the first study to show that brain responses in young, musically trained and untrained children change differently over the course of a year."

Brain measurements

The researchers focused on 12 children, six of whom attended a Suzuki music school, using a Japanese approach which encourages children to listen to and imitate music before they attempt to read it. The other six had no music lessons outside school.

They measured brain activity using a technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG) while the children listened to two types of sounds: a violin tone and a white noise burst.

All the children recorded larger responses when listening to the violin tones compared with the white noise - indicating more brain power was being deployed to process meaningful sounds.

In addition, all children responded more quickly to the sounds over the course of the year of the study - suggesting a greater efficiency of the maturing brain.

However, when the researchers focused on a specific measurement related to attention and sound discrimination, they found a greater change over the year among the Suzuki children.

Professor Trainor said this difference, coupled with the better performance of the Suzuki children in the memory test suggested musical training was having a profound impact. He said: "It suggests that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention."

Dr Takako Fujioka, of the Baycrest's Rotman Research Institute, also worked on the study. He said: "It is clear that music is good for children's cognitive development and that music should be part of the pre-school and primary school curriculum." The next phase of the study will look at the benefits of musical training in older adults.

Musical Training Benefits Kids' Brains

Washington Post: Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Young children who got a year of musical training outside school showed brain changes and superior memory compared with children who did not receive the instruction, according to a small new study published yesterday that followed a group of Canadian children.

Six children who took Suzuki lessons had larger and faster brain responses to musical stimuli compared with six children who had no lessons, based on measurements by a magnetoencephalograph, a device that monitors brain wave activity.

Besides having faster and larger brain responses to violin notes compared with the children who did not get the lessons, the musically trained children showed much more improvement on a test of general mental ability.

The study of children 4 to 6 years old is the first to show specific cognitive benefits from musical training among the very young. The researchers studied the effects of the popular Suzuki method because different Suzuki instructors all follow the same steps and because students are not selected on the basis of innate musical ability or mental skills.

"It is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with nonmusical abilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ than did the children not taking lessons," said Laurel J. Trainor, the lead researcher of the study at McMaster University in Canada. The study is being published in the journal Brain.

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Music Events

Kaleena Loard, flute

Kaleena Loard (flute) is a Mu Phi who was a member of Mu Chi Chapter. She and Megan Gomen (harp) have played for our chapter. She forwarded this to us:

Hey guys,

I want to let you know about a recital that I am having on Friday February 9th at 7:30 pm at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, TX. Megan Chiavetta and I are putting together a recital to raise money for mission trips for our Sunday school class for the next year. We have about 15 musicians donating their amazing talents and time.

It's going to be an awesome evening. There will be a variety of musical style, including classical, jazz, worship, and love songs. This is a Valentine's event, so bring your special someone, family, friends, anyone who likes music! There will be desserts and coffee/tea/water/etc. served. I will be playing in a little under half of the recital, with different sets of instruments.

Since this is a fundraiser, we are selling tickets to the event. Presold tickets are $10, and tickets at the door are $12. If you want to pre-buy your ticket, call or email me and I can take care of that for you. Or, of course, you can buy it at the door. Desserts and all of that are included in the price. If you, or someone who wants to come, has small children, free childcare is available. All they need to do is reserve a spot for their children by this Sunday, February 5th. If that's the case, just have them contact me and I can set that up for them.

I hope you all can come! The music is going to be amazing, and all of the proceeds are going to such a good cause. Let me know if I can answer any questions for you! I hope you are all having a great day!

Kaleena

Jazz Series

The Downtown Library has a Saturday Jazz series – 4th floor. Check the schedule at http://dallaslibrary.org/pdfs/jazz2007.pdf

Tower Arts Series

Also check Highland Park United Methodist Church’s Tower Arts programs: http://www.hpumc.org/pages/music_Tower_Arts_Series
The Vienna Boys Choir will perform Feb 20th at 7:30 pm.

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