$1,000 grant available to NCTMs.(Association News)(Nationally Certified Teachers of Music)

The Piano Technician's Guild will award two scholarship's worth $750 each to MTNA Nationally Certified Teachers of Music (NCTMs) who agree to use it the funds to further their teaching skills, uses and recommends a Registered Piano Technician member of the Piano Technicians Guild and is willing to write a short follow-up report to the PTG Board about how the scholarship was used to advance their career and/or business. One of the two scholarships is to be used by a certified piano teacher to attend classes specific to Recreational Music Making as presented by MTNA. These scholarshps are similar to the grant that was given by the Piano Teachnicians Guild Foundation for more than 20 years. These new scholarships will be awarded at the 2008 MTNA National Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Here's what some past recipients have to say about the award:

Janice Mesrobian

Janice Mesrobian has operated an independent piano studio in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for more than 30 years.

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"I could not have anticipated what a special journey I would embark upon when I received the news that I was the named the 2006 recipient of the PTGF grant. My study proposal was built around attending the 2006 MTNA Conference in Austin, Texas. The last Convention I attended was in 1994 and now by 2006 I was a considerably more experienced teacher. I believed that attending a national conference would bring fresh perspectives and insights into repertoire and teaching skills and perhaps validate my work.

"I had always thought of Conferences in terms of the sessions one could attend. And while I did attend many excellent sessions, I realized that I came away with a much greater sense of being a part of a national organization and the value of networking. Meeting and talking with so many new people, from the teacher I met on the Shuttle bus, meeting the MTNA Staff at the registration, making new friends at Pedagogy Saturday, attending the Southern Division Meeting, talking with composers in the Exhibit Hall, making new friends at the PTG booth--many people who definitely colored my life in ways I shall never forget."