Greetings fellow collegiate educators of Alabama! This is my first contribution to Ala Breve and the AMEA website as President of the Higher Education Division of AMEA. I am in my fifth year as the clarinet professor at Troy University. In addition to clarinet, I also teach music history, class woodwinds, clarinet choir, and I organize the annual Troy University Clarinet Day on our campus. I’m originally from Missouri and I obtained my BME from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After that, I completed masters and doctoral degrees in clarinet performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I look forward to serving as President of the Higher Ed Division of AMEA.      

 I am very grateful to be joined on the Higher Ed committee by Vice President, Dr. Gary Packwood, Associate Professor and Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Montevallo; Research Chair, Dr. Carl Hancock, Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa; and Secretary/Treasurer, Dr. Lori Ardovino, Professor of Clarinet and Saxophone, music history and chamber music at the University of Montevallo. Each of these individuals brings a wealth of knowledge to the table and they allow the Higher Ed Division to function smoothly. I am deeply grateful for their work and their support.

Of course, as I write this journal entry, I am in the midst of my summer break. This summer, I have had the opportunity to teach a little less, to focus on my own creative activities more, and to relax a bit. It has been a refreshing time for me and I hope your summer has been equally renewing.

We are very much looking forward to the AMEA Conference in January of 2011. This will be held at the Renaissance Hotel at the Convention Center in Montgomery. This event will feature performances by numerous university faculty members from throughout the state, research presentations from many of our colleagues, and of course performances from many university ensembles… and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our conference will also have numerous other music education presentations and performances not directly associated with the Higher Ed Division that will be of great interest. Also, we are very pleased to support the creation of the Alabama Intercollegiate Band that will rehearse and perform at the AMEA Conference.

It is my hope that many of our talented Alabama university professors will attend the conference and find a way to be involved in this fantastic organization. As university professors, we can certainly bring our own unique perspectives to these events; and I also think that we benefit greatly from interacting with our colleagues from throughout the state, whether they are elementary, secondary, or collegiate teachers.

I look forward to the coming years as President of the Higher Ed Division of AMEA. If I can be of any assistance to you at all, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best wishes for a great start to your academic year!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Ala Breve is seeking submissions of research articles for the Summer 2011 “Special Research” Edition to be published during the summer, 2011. Submissions may consist of quantitative, qualitative, descriptive, historical, philosophical, or any other kind of accepted research conducted by university faculty and/or active practitioners. The deadline for the submission is November 1, 2010.

Submission Guidelines (adapted from the Submission Guidelines of Update: Applications of Research in Music Education)

1. Manuscripts must be research-based. 2. Manuscripts may present a single research study or a review of the literature. 3. Articles should be unique and not published elsewhere. In accordance with the Code of Ethics, submitting a manuscript indicates that it has not been published previously and is not currently submitted for publication elsewhere, either in its entirety or in part. 4. Authors should comply with APA ethical standards (www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html) and institutional and federal regulations in the treatment of human subjects. 5. Quantitative manuscripts must conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed., 2001). Nonquantitative and historical studies may conform to APA style or to The Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed., 2003). Authors may not mix styles within a manuscript. 8. Authors should submit four copies of typed, double-spaced manuscripts, which normally should not exceed 20 pages, along with an abstract of approximately 150 words. Authors should also submit 4 to 6 keywords relating to their article's content. Type size should be no smaller than 12 points (double-spacing should include 28 points total for a line of text and the following line). Figures and drawings should be camera-ready. 9. To preserve the author's anonymity in the review process, the manuscript should not reserve the author’s identity or institutional affiliation. The author's name, address (including e-mail, if available), and institutional affiliation should appear only on a separate cover sheet. Manuscripts not conforming to this stipulation will be returned. 10. Manuscripts should be addressed to: Dr. Diane Orlofsky John M. Long School of Music Troy University Troy, AL 36082.