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| Workshoppers' Social Page |
Do you have some news to share? A recent honor? Or perhaps a special event on the horizon?
Click the link below to let us know so we can help everyone stay connected. CMA Social Page Update |
We've recently received a note from Florida Level II Certified Creative Motion Teacher - Ty Miller:
Dear Phyllis and all my dear Windswept friends:
Greetings on the 58th Annual Windswept Music Workshop! Even though I am not with you in person, I feel like I am as Creative Motion is a part of everyday of my life. In fact, this summer has been filled with exploring Creative Motion and Eurhythmics principles with beginning. middle and advanced music students at 3 (two-week) music camps for the First Coast Community Music School. Last day of camp is next Friday, August 1st!
Larry and I are doing well...inspite of the fact that the condo is still not finished. The renovation has had some 'side trips' - which should not have been too big of a surprise, but still means that we are not settled in our home.
I am sorry this is reaching you so late...somehow or another I had computed Windswept to be the last week of July. Look forward to hearing about your grand week!
Lots of love to all,
Ty |
Paula Pepperstone (WMW '07) has just moved to a new home near Cleveland, OH and has welcomed another new addition to the family. You may email her at cantorpepperstone@gmail.com New address is: 2861 Shaker Crest Blvd, Beachwood, OH 44122
Doug Jones begins his doctoral program in Lexington, KY. Best wishes, Doug! His new address: 430 Redding Road #2202, Lexington, KY 40204. You can email Doug at doug.jones3@insightbb.com |
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Just as Windswept 2008 was set to begin, we learned of the passing of Rachel Sherman, long-time Creative Motion teacher and colleague. An obituary article from the Columbus, Ohio may be read by clicking here. Rachel will be missed, but we celebrate her very long a productive life and many fondly recall her contributions to Creative Motion.
Another article celebrating her painting which was published in August, 2007 is excerpted here. |
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Windswept 2007 was dedicated in part to the celebration of the life and contributions of Rachel Sherman - long time teacher of Creative Motion who celebrated 100 years in 2007. (She was born in January 1907!)
Workshop participants prepared a special gift for Rachel filled with drawings, stories and messages of gratitude for her contributions to the work. A video message from many of her friends on the faculty was also prepared. Her reply to her dear friend and long-time neighbor Marilyn Alcala is at right. |
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My Dear Marilyn,
I thank you for the beautiful books which I received in the mail. I was truly overwhelmed by your thoughtfulness, the beautiful paper throughout where each wrote a note and the DVD where I come face to face with all of my dearest friends at Windswept.
What have I done to deserve this? 100 years is possible but I do not recommend this many years for everyone. You need an energized body that Creative Motion provides.
I want to thank every one of you for remembering me and for the gifts.
Love, Rachel |
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Sad News to share from St. Louis. Long-time teacher of Creative Motion and charter member of the Creative Motion Alliance, Inc. Gay Arnoldi-Browne passed away in February 23, 2008. She is survived by her husband John, daughter Amy and two grandchildren, three great-grandchildren. To read more about Gay, click here.
Robert A. Pohl, passed away on March 13, 2008. Bob, for the past 31 years was the husband of long-time Creative Motion instructor Doris Pohl. You can read Bob's obituary here.
Floral arrangements were sent to the memorial services on behalf of the Creative Motion Alliance. Our thoughts and prayers are with both Doris Pohl and Jon Browne. If you'd like to send a personal note to either Doris or Jon, contact Phyllis Pasley for for their contact information.
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John Morrison has recently been granted Consultant Certification from IBM Corporation. Congratulations!
- - - John is also preparing for his next voice recital - March 9, 2008 - where "Love Songs" will be celebrated. The recital will feature the works of Mussorgsky, Schubert and Tosti. The concert will take place in Chicago and begins at 3pm. Contact John for more information. |
Many years ago, Phyllis Pasley was involved in a charity project to raise money for homeless families by recording arrangements of Christmas carols along with another singer and guitarist, and the occasional flute and piano. To round out the recording, Phyllis wrote a title track - "Room at the Inn." One of the sisters who had long ago fell in love with the recording worked at the St. Louis headquarters, was recently relocated to Philadelphia. Introducing her fellows to the recording, they loved it! Out of the blue - the choir at her new convent requested permission to sing this piece to open their Christmas season. What a pleasant surprise!
Callie Barbour has relocated to Sunny California. For more info - email Callie!
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| More composers in the CMA family! Mary Ann Fritz has recently been published. Her composition "Wondrous Grace" is now in print. It appears in the March-April 2008 issue of The Church Pianist (Lorenz). Congratulations! |
Mary Cohen is still very busy with more exciting changes and accomplishments. She has recently moved, and accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Iowa and was selected to present at the Community Music Activity International Seminar in Rome in the summer of 2008: "Meanings and Practices of Select US Male Prison Choirs." (see
http://www.isme.org/en/community-music-activity/next-seminar.html) The research she will be presenting will be published in a book: 'The Arts of Imprisonment: Control, Resistance and Empowerment'. This is to be published
by Ashgate in 2009 (as part of their Advances in Criminology series). My chapter will be called, "A Safe Haven in Prison: Empowerment through Choral Singing."Congratulations, Mary! |
| Jennifer Isenhour's 6th Grade Beginning Middle School Band (130 strong) performed "Little Drummer Boy" among other selections on 12/7/07. Hear a bit of the performance on YOU TUBE - here. |
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Eric Kesler has a new home! He and his wife Sara now reside at 2385 Council Rd. Graham, NC 27253. Congratulations! email Eric here.
Justin and Jennifer Isenhour recently traveled to Spain to perform in a festival celebrating community bands. They had a wonderful and memorable trip.
John Morrison was recently featured on a recital called American Classics in September 2007. Congratulations, John! Click here for more information.
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Raychl Smith has a NEW -- new address and a new job! She can be reached at 184 McGill St. Concord NC 28025. Here new school is called Weddington Hills Elementary. Congratulations Raychl! email her at: mountainmusician@hotmail.com
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On Sunday afternoon, August 12, workshopper Karen Moyer, who is a staff announcer for WRR-FM, the classical music radio station in Dallas, Texas, wanted to honor Creative Motion and Bob Smith for the experiences she had at the 2007 workshop. She hosts a program called "Command Performance", the purpose of which is to feature compositions that the public requests be played. But this time Karen took her own initiative to program Carl Maria von Weber's "Invitation to the Dance". The performer was the renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson. In introducing the work, she said:
"Our next piece is completely different. It's filled with all kinds of 19th century charm. This is the waltz know as 'Invitation to the Dance' by Carl Maria von Weber. And we have a lovely story which starts in the introduction. We hear the gentleman inviting the lady to the dance, and by the time the coda comes around, he is escorting her back to her seat. This request is in honor of Dr. Robert Smith, who is a piano professor at Southwestern Theological Seminary, and he recently gave a world class performance of this very piece at a Creative Motion seminar." (That would be our most recent faculty recital - Windswept 2007!)
Thanks, Karen, for bringing attention to Creative Motion in this way!! -(RCS)
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Dr. Robert C. Smith shared the following information about the Van Cliburn Competition in Ft. Worth.
June, 2007. No matter how you spell it (or conjugate it), the word "amateur" still has at its root the meaning "to love". Here in Fort Worth this is the week of the Van Cliburn Competition for amateur pianists. It is a very moving experience for many of us pianists in particular.
The scene is this: In a high-charged atmosphere of marketing, corporate support, and even some snobbishness, the more famous Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (for professionals) succeeds on many levels for the aficionado: a real piano festival, people coming from everywhere for a week of extraordinary music making, local support, wealthy people housing future piano world stars, etc... No complaints about that from me, of course!
But in the "off" years folks with real day jobs come from all over the world at their own expense, many of them without a real competitive attitude of "having to win" to be happy, to do the same thing as the professionals: Take a deep breath, walk on stage in front of a sizeable audience of paying customers, and play their hearts out in front of a panel of distinguished judges for the "Amatuer Cliburn Competition". 75 are chosen to come. 25 make it to the semi-finals. These are people from professions such as: an attorney from Harrogate, Tennessee; a homemaker from Rock Hill, S. Carolina; a retired tennis coach from France; an internet technology administrator, an aerospace and defense industry executive from Rockville, MD; and an International Relief Operator who was a high school and music school dropout before volunteering to help the Kurds in their struggles to get health services.. For a whole list of the people and their professions, go to www.cliburn.org.
Even more important to me than their non-professional status is just the energy these folks give off as they sit down and pour out their souls: some are dressed to the hilt; others bring their scores; some are in very casual clothes. All are treated equally by the judges, it would seem, however. There are competitors from Switzerland (2), Australia, Brazil, Canada, and France included in the 75.
Below is the link to the Cliburn YouTube web site. If you are interested, I'd recommend as particularly beautiful: Matthew Hand (the relief worker); Henri-Robert Delbeau (medical internist with his pager visible on his belt!); Ann Herlong ( a repeat competitor from one or two previous competitions...could be somebody's grandmother); J. Todd Spangler (the attorney from Harrogate, TN); Chung Lee (Chinese architect from Washington state) http://www.youtube.com/vancliburnfoundation
Hopefully such a spirit as this in the music world can spread exponentially, with our prayers, so that we will make music (and all forms of beauty), not war!!.....Bob |
| Veteran workshoppers may remember Evelyn Walker, and the workshop in 1999 which was dedicated to her memory. Please visit her bio page to read about her granddaughter, Julie Walker. In the introduction to a recent article she recently credited Evelyn and her introduction to Creative Motion. It is amazing to see how the tiny seed of Creative Motion blossom and grow in so many different ways. Thanks, Julie - and Virginia Brown Murphy for pointing out this great article to us. |
Message from Florida finds Twila (Magsig) Miller fondly referred to as "Ty" renovating a new ocean front condo with husband Larry. She writes that this last year has been a creative one - new piano students and a 5 month project on African-American spirituals and a choir tour to Beaufort, SC where she was introduced to the Gullah Heritage (the people who were brought over on slave ships from Western Africa and settled in the sea islands.) . She is also teaching 6 weeks of summer camp in the area, but is already making some plans to return to Windswept in 2008. Best wishes to you, Ty!
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Message from Dr. Bob Smith about CM workshops in Texas with Dr. Harold McKinney and Concerts in Ft. Worth
1. Harold and Bob's recital at Southwestern Seminary on January 25, 2007 in Fort Worth, TX allowed Bob to show off one of our best examples of Creative Motion as heard on the tombone. I introduced Harold as "more than a trombone player", emphasizing his interest in things spiritual, and his dedication to the bigger picture of what it means to be a performer-teacher. I felt like the spirit of Creative Motion values was in those remarks.
2. The next night we were in Brownwood, TX at Liz Wallace's school, Howard Payne University, for a repeat performance. The highlight there was a Master Class during which Harold helped a very talented euphonium player achieve a lightness of note values merely by getting her (and the assembled listeners) to swing!
3. March 9th Bob played a beautiful piano solo arrangement of a "praise song", accompanied by the Fort Worth Symphony for our Southwestern Seminary School of Church Music Gala. It was an easy assignment, since I didn't need to memorize the piece, which was a calm and soothing rendition of the text ("How Deep the Father's Love for Us", arranged by Don Wyrtzen). All the better, then, for me to enjoy the full house, the world class hall, and the Hamburg Steinway used for the Van Cliburn Competition!...A "really big show" ...Bob |
| Grace (Gracie Farner) Halsey - An update - Married Andy Halsey in May, 2002, one daughter, Clara Ruth born in Dec. 2003; one son Benjamin born June, 06. Living in Charleston, MS where husband Andy is minister of the 1st Presbyterian Church. Musically, she received her Bachelor of Music degree in harp performance from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and her Master of Music degree at Indiana University. She has been the principal harpist for symphonies in Kentucky, Indiana and Alabama and recently- principal harpist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and taught at Belhaven College in Jackson,MS. Here's a link to her BIO from Belhaven College. |
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John Morrison presented his recital "Dreams and Reflections" on March 4, 2007, 3pm at Christ The Lord Lutheran Church in Elgin, Illinois. Accompanied by pianist Karina Kontorovitch and a string quartet, the program included works by Respighi, Renaldo Hahn, Richard Strauss, Russian composers including Shostakovich, and Samuel Barber's “Dover Beach." John worked with several language coaches to learn the Italian, German, French and Russian texts. To aid the audience in understanding the meaning of the various non-English texts, supertitles were projected on a screen near the singer. |
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| Did you know that Naomi, Wynona and Ashley Judd once lived on Margaret Allen's estate? click here for more on the story! |
KUDOS to the Creative Motion Alliance Executive Board for their continued support of this website and our other outreach efforts. It is helping us connect and RE-CONNECT with workshoppers all across the US. Cheryl Cheger-Timm found us online and sent the following note:
This is a voice from the past.
Cheryl Cheger-Timm. Just wanted to let everyone know that i am back to being a full-time accompanist for the choirs and all the vocal majors and minors at Saginaw Valley State University. I find that I am still using all the feelings and techniques I learned from Margaret, Opal, Evelyn et al. I just love accompanying. The motion never stops. Thinking of all of you every time I play a Steinway. Lots of love.
Cheryl |
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Congratulations to 2006 Windswept Student Monitors Dan and Beth Dodson whose twin boys arrived March 27, 2007! The couple is busily caring for the little ones. Asher William and Alex Prentice Dodson. To see more pictures, click here. To view some of their 2005 wedding pictures, click here. |
| We have another published composer in our midst! Workshoppers may recall a piece by Mary-Hannah Klontz which was first explored in 2004 within the choral class. "It was so valuable to have that experience with the piece," said Mary-Hannah. Since then, the composition was "re-worked," entitled "Point Me to the Stars" and was recently selected to be a part of the Henry Leck Choral Series. Great news, Mary-Hannah! Find the piece here. |
| Dr. Jane Andrews will be performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City in spring, 2007. For more than 20 years she has accompanied the Arlington Master Chorale, a Dallas/Ft. Worth area choir and will join them on their travels and at their New York debut. Congratulations, Jane! |
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Congratulations to CMA Secretary,Mr. and Mrs.Eric and Sara (Childress) Kesler on their October, 2006 marriage. The couple honeymooned in beautiful Hawaii. Click to see some wedding pictures. The couple recently sold their home and will be moving soon. Good luck Eric and Sara!
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| .Dr. Harold McKinney recently completed a recording entitled “Saas Fee in Appalachia” with Paolo Knill featuring original compositions and improvisation. “It was a rewarding experience,” said Dr. McKinney, “and the resulting recording is very interesting indeed.” For a copy of the recording contact Harold at mckinnyhv@appstate.edu. |
Congratulations to Jennifer and Justin Isenhour on their wedding July 23, 2005. The couple currently resides in Fort Hill, South Carolina.
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Sarah Shafer who attended Windswept in late 1990's who is also daughter of auction queen Becky Shafer completed her master's degree in Elementary Education, from Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO in July, 2005. She has taken her first full teaching job and will left August 1, 2005 to teach at the Thai-Chinese International School in Bangkok, Thailand. Sarah will be in Thailand for two years. Becky reported that her two suitcases weighed 91 lbs, and 75 lbs. Plus two carry ons. Sarah, all your Creative Motion friends wish you well on this adventure!
Becky Shafer joined Sarah in Bangkok, Thailand in June of 2006. They plan to see an elephant farm, the bridge over the Fiver Kwai, take a barge trip through the countryside and travel in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, plus many other exciting things that Sarah is planning. Becky will have picture with her at the 2006 workshop! |
| Lora Little and her husband Greg have been leading the Edgar Cayce organization's (A.R.E.) search for evidence of the legendary island empire of Atlantis in the Bahamas, Yucatan, and Guatemala since 2003.Their underwater explorations at Bimini and Andros in the Bahamas were filmed during 2003 and 2004 by the History, Discovery, and National Geographic Channels and are featured in documentaries currently being aired on these channels. For more information access the Ancient Mysteries website at www.edgarcayce.org |
| Another Heller wedding! Shannon (Heller) Custard married Matt in a beautiful ceremony in Indianapolis, Indiana August 20, 2005. While there we enjoyed the chance to meet April and husband T.J. Cook who live and work in Richmond, Kentucky and visit with Jennifer, husband Tim Procita and her two children: Ezekiel and Jasmine who now reside in Hedgesville, WV. |
November 19-20, 2005 was a weekend mountaintop experience for Creative Motion and for Susan McGuire, Jeff Pettit and CMA President Mary Hannah Klontz as they made a presentation about Creative Motion for Iowa Music Educators.
Read more about this event... |
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Do you have some news to share?
A recent honor?
Or perhaps a special event on the horizon?
Click the link below to let us know so we can help everyone stay connected. CMA Social Page Update |
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