Letter from the President

By Dale Dean, December 2011

We are approaching the halfway mark of AMSF's performing and events season, and it has already been a busy one. According to our schedule, since the AMSF Annual Party last September until now there have been eight recitals, seven community outreach events and one special event. I hope you were able to participate in at least some of them, whether as performers or audience.

It was good to see that a full complement of players participated in Matt Harre's master class for beginning and intermediate students last November 6. Thanks to the performers as well as to Matt. Those of us in the audience benefitted from the instruction and were impressed by how each player produced a better sound after Matt's advice. I'm sure we all picked up tips to apply to our own practicing and performance. The class was a reminder that AMSF exists to serve our membership of amateur adult musicians over the full spectrum of training and experience.

We have made a change to try to increase the likelihood that all AMSF instrumentalists--piano, string, wind, percussion, vocalists--will be able to find ensembles to play in or accompanists. We are now providing names of those members interested in ensemble playing and/or accompanying to the Salon Recital Coordinator, who runs the recital series primarily devoted to ensemble playing. We also plan to list the names in a special section of the new AMSF Membership Directory. We hope these measures will help instrumentalists find one another more easily.

I am happy to report, at last count before going to press, that AMSF currently has 122 members, of which 14 are new, since "renewal season" began last August 1. We note some members have not yet renewed, and we encourage you to do so. We do not want to lose you and have you miss out in participating in AMSF recitals and special events.

On behalf of the AMSF Board, we wish you happy holidays and a new year filled with happiness, including with music.