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Reports from the 2009 Annual General Meeting
2009 Student Recognition Award Luncheon Report
NSBA Tech Support Report -
Biographies
President Barbara Stetter instituted a band program in the Glace Bay (NS) schools in 1973. Now there are four concert bands as well as jazz bands and choral and guitar ensembles in Grades 4-12 that have played across Canada and the U.S., including a performance by the H.S. Sr. Band at Carnegie Hall, in her hometown of New York, in 1997.
Still active as an oboist and clinician, Barb received the NSBA Distinguished Band Director’s Award in 2007, and was honoured by the Cape Breton International Drum Festival in 2008 for her contribution to music in Cape Breton. Barb has previously served on the executive boards of the NSMEA, NSBA, and the NS Provincial Honor Band, and is currently president of the NSBA, Secretary of the CBA, and co-ordinator of the annual Cape Breton Regional MusicFest. This year she will also guest conduct the NS Jr. Wind Ensemble.
1st Vice President Meg Ferguson has taught in Nova Scotia for 15 years, so far. She spent 10 years in Lower Sackville teaching at A.J. Smeltzer Junior High and feeder schools and is now found in Cole Harbour at Auburn Drive High School.
She is thrilled to be behind the expansion of the music program there by increasing music offerings to include both vocal and drumline courses as well as band.
Having trained under the baton of Hugh Kennedy at Fredericton High School, Meg moved to Nova Scotia to study percussion & education at Acadia University. Since then, she has been an active member in the Nova Scotia Band Association over the years in a variety of roles. These include as an Executive Member, manager of the Nova Scotia Band Association, editor of 4 publications of the Fanfare Journal, Jazz Pedagogy Session coordinator, Student Recognition Award coordinator, web site manager, Percussion Pedagogy Session coordinator, Sounds of Summer Percussion Camp 2005, etc.
Meg is very please to be returning to the Executive of the Band Association after a 2 year hiatus.
Treasurer Kay Greene is the Music Teacher at West Hants Middle School, in Brooklyn, Hants County, where over 200 students participate in a very active instrumental music program. She recently finished her Masters of Education degree at Acadia University. She conducts the Acadia University New Horizons Band, as well as playing principal oboe in the Acadia Wind Ensemble. Kay occasionally plays oboe or English horn for Chebucto Orchestra and Nova Sinfonia, helps when needed with the local Cadet Brass and Reed band, and is a volunteer organist on Sunday mornings in Cheverie and Centre Burlington, where she lives with her husband Jim.
Lucille Humble is Member at Large, and will continue to assist in the area of email communications. She received her formal education in Alberta, and presently teaches grade 6-9 instrumental music at Sackville Heights Junior High School . Lucille is active as a percussionist, and performs regularly with the Sackville Community band and the Chester Brass.
Jim Forde was born in Vancouver, BC and raised in the Lower Mainland. He began his musical career in the Surrey Schools Concert Band under the direction of Don Murray. In 1964, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and during a 30 year career in the Canadian Forces Band Branch Jim was a tuba player, drum major, public relations officer, instrumental instructor and training officer at the Forces School of Music. Between 1988 and 1993 he was Director of Music and Commanding Officer of the Stadacona Band in Halifax, NS. From 1998 to 2006 Jim acted as Managing Director of the Canadian Band Association’s National Youth Band of Canada. He is a Past-President of both the Canadian and Nova Scotia Band Associations and is currently a member of Scotia Brass, Principal Conductor of the Sackville Community Band and Production Coordinator for The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo. In 2000, Jim was awarded the Nova Scotia Music Educator’s Musica Viva Award, in 2005, a Life Membership in the Nova Scotia Band Association and in 2007, the Canadian Band Association’s National Band Award.
Past-President Dr. Mark Hopkins is an Assistant Professor in the School of Music at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He is responsible for overseeing the Music Education area, teaching conducting, and is Director of Bands at Acadia University. He is founding director and lecturer of the Acadia University Summer Wind Conducting Symposium.