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.