Upcoming Events
OMTA Annual State Conference
Location: Welches, Oregon
Registration and other details available at: OMTA State Conference - OMTA - Oregon Music Teachers Association (oregonmta.org)
District Meeting and Program
Contact Cherise da Cunha for the Zoom Link
10:30-11:00 - Brief Business Meeting
11:00-12:30 - Presentation by Joseph Hoffman
The Well-Rounded Musician
Do you teach your students to transpose? Do you ever read lead sheets? What about
improvising and harmonic analysis? Even beginners can tackle these often-overlooked but
highly useful skills if taught in the right way, opening doors to creativity and deep music theory
comprehension to last a lifetime!
About the Presenter
Joseph Hoffman, founder of Hoffman Academy and creator of the Hoffman Method for
Piano, began playing piano when he was 6 years old. A YouTube personality, Kodaly-certified
music educator, and former faculty member at BYU’s School of Music, Mr. Hoffman has
dedicated his professional life to developing an innovative new piano method along with a host
of online tools, games, and resources for students and teachers that make learning piano fun.
His online piano lessons have reached over 200,000 students across 115 countries,
transforming the way piano education is accessed worldwide.
Joseph Hoffman is also active as a composer and conductor, and his original works have
been heard in many performance halls. From 2011-2013, Mr. Hoffman served as orchestra
conductor of the Portland Ensign Choir and Orchestra. Mr. Hoffman regularly serves as an
adjudicator of piano festivals and events and provides training to piano teachers on the Hoffman
Method. He has created a collection of popular song arrangements for beginning through late
elementary piano students, “Mr. Hoffman’s Popular Hits for Piano,” published by Hal Leonard,
and a vocal pedagogy book in collaboration with Betty Jeanne Chipman, “Singing with Mind,
Body, and Soul,” published by Wheatmark Press. https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/
District Meeting and Program
10:30am - Short Business Meeting
10:45am - Program - Discussion - Teaching Syllabus Technique
District Meeting and Program
Contact Cherise da Cunha for the Zoom Link
10:30-11:00 - Brief Business Meeting
11:00-12:30 - Presentation by Dr. Lark Powers, NCTM
Revisiting Roots: Reviving Folk Songs
Folk songs have much to offer the developing student: accessible and pleasing melodies,
limited harmony, balanced phrases, and great variety in character, as well offering an
opportunity to connect with past generations and to explore a student’s cultural background.
However, a common lament is that many children no longer know many folk songs. This
presentation will explore strategies in which teachers can bring folk songs into their student’s
lives, including ideas to use them as a vehicle to develop music theory, harmonization ability,
singing and playing, and other musicianship skills. In addition, resources will be shared for
finding folk songs which show multicultural awareness and which can be chosen to support the
cultural identity of one’s students. Discussion will be included about equity of representation and
avoiding a lack of contextualization, as well as more information about evaluating the historical
context of problematic folk songs.
About the Presenter
In demand as a solo and collaborative artist as well as an adjudicator and presenter,
Dr. Lark Powers has performed across the U.S., and in Europe, Canada, and Latin America. In
addition to collaborations with ensembles, including the Tacoma Symphony, Olympia Symphony
Orchestra, Fort Collins Symphony, the Washington-Idaho Symphony, the Tacoma Opera, and
the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado, she appears in two-piano concerts as part of the
duo she forms with pianist Ricardo de la Torre, including a performance as soloists with the
Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music and a Washington
state Visiting Artist, she is a frequent presenter on topics including managing performance
anxiety, the creativity inherent in the Baroque repertoire, the pedagogy of keyboard harmony,
and more. Regularly presenting at national and state conferences, she is also part of OMTA's
Nellie Tholen Grant Presenter Program, speaking to districts across Oregon, and has presented
at the Western Early Keyboard Association Conference in 2025, the Society for American
Music's National Conference in 2025, the NCKP 2023 Piano Conference, and performed at
MTNA's Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum in 2022 and multiple times for the Encuentro
Pianistas Costa Rica festival, as well as presenting regularly at WSMTA state conferences.
She is Associate Professor at Pacific Lutheran University where she teaches applied
lessons, collaborative piano, and coordinates the group keyboard program. A proponent of new
music, she specializes in the music of Latin American composers, with frequent commissions
and premiers, including works by Migel del Aguila and Moises Bertran. She can be heard on
recordings with the Pan Pacific Ensemble on Albany records, and her piano duo's first
recording, featuring the music for two pianists of Migel del Aguila, will be released this year. Dr.
Powers received degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder, the Peabody Institute, the
University of the Pacific, and the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris.
Coffee Meet Up (Hillsboro)
Virtual District - Come spend time with your Hillsboro District colleagues, you’ll be glad you did!
District Meeting and Planning Session
10:30am - Short Business Meeting
10:45am - Planning for 2027-2028
Coffee Meet Up
Come spend time with your Hillsboro OMTA colleagues, you’ll be glad you did!
District Meeting and Program
Presenter: Dr. Lark Powers, NCTM - Practice Smarter, Not Longer
This presentation will delve into fascinating research on how the brain learns and how this relates to music and practicing…