By Kayla Garner, Staff Reporter
The Texas Music Educators Association Conference is being held in San Antonio from Thursday, Feb. 13 to Friday, Feb. 15. This conference is the largest of its kind in the nation, with a projected 30,000 attendees, and is for music educators, college music majors, as well as, high school musicians that were selected to play in an all-state ensemble.
Specific convention hours, as well as performance and exhibit schedules are available online, at www.tmea.org/conventions/2020.
Bill Harden, assistant professor of music and director of bands at Hardin-Simmons University, explained what the conference entails. “[The TMEA Conference is] an opportunity for music educators to learn new ideas and practical methods to do their job at a higher level,” Harden said.
At the conference, clinics are taught by music educators from public schools, universities and professional ensembles who have been successful in their field. “There are also opportunities to hear outstanding public school, university and even professional ensembles who are invited to perform concerts for the conference,” Harden said.
Several music vendors will also be there, selling music, music-education related materials, instruments and other music-related items/media.
Harden deeply appreciates this conference, considering it to been extremely useful to him as a music educator. “I love getting to visit with fellow music educators and ask questions about how they address specific issues that I might be trying to address myself. It is a great place to meet the great music teachers in the state and make connections,” Harden said.
Harden highly encourages college music majors to attend the conference. “The [TMEA] is divided into [divisions of] band, choir, orchestra and college. The college division sets up its own set of clinics geared toward college students to help them with their future career, especially [with] things like interview skills [and] expectations of their first year,” Harden said.
Attendance at the conference does require a few fees, payable online at registration at www.tmea.org/conventions/2020/convention-registration. While anyone can attend the conference, TMEA members are offered a cheaper attendance fee based on their type of membership.
For college students who are members of the TMEA, the TMEA’s membership fee of $25 covers the cost of the convention fee. However, for college students who are not members, the TMEA Convention fee is $80 per day or $130 for multiple days. More information about conference attendance costs can be found on the registration site provided above.