JAVS Fall 2008

A T T HE G RASSROOTS T HE 50 S TATE -50 C HAPTER P USH

Local Viola Societies Alabama Viola Society Daniel Sweaney, president dsweaney@music.ua.edu Arizona Viola Society Jaquelyn Schwandt, president Jacquelyn.Schwandt@nau.edu

by Ken Martinson

V OLUME 24 NUMBER 2 73 I am looking for contacts to help start chapters in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Nevada, Recently, we have had successful new chapters join us, including the Tennessee Viola Society (Kathryn Plummer, president), Alabama Viola Society (Dan Sweaney, president), Gulf Coast (Mississippi) Viola Society (Hsaiopei Lee, president), Indiana Viola Society (Philip Tietze, presi dent), Louisiana Viola Society (Matt Daline, president), and a newly revi talized Great Lakes Viola Society Chapter (formerly Chicago Viola Society) and the reorganized South Carolina Viola Society (Constance Gee, president). We are very close to having new chapters join us from Arkansas and Connecticut, and also have contacts working to form new chapters in Michigan, Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico, Kansas, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Hawaii, Alaska, and Vermont. contacted many more than the ten I needed and twisted the arms of my own students to come to the meeting and join AVS to ensure I had the number needed. We had sixteen there, so we met that requirement without a problem! We have had about six events since our inception. Our new chapter has been able to raise aware ness about the viola at the local level, as well as awareness of the American and International Viola Societies, and I expect that more people will become aware of the International Viola Congresses as well.

Over the past few years, inspired by the initial vision of our past president Peter Slowik, we have had several states form local chapters of the American Viola Society. I remember attending a board meeting at the 1999 International Viola Congress when the idea of the local chapter was very new. Some very successful chapters were doing remarkable things, notably the Chicago Viola Society with its wide membership base and its sponsoring of the Chicago Viola Competition. I have also been very impressed with the New York Viola Society and the newsletter and collegial concerts they hold. They also have a very nice web site at www.nyvs.org with an excellent resource on viola recordings. After moving from upstate New York to Illinois, I eventually became Vice President of the Chicago Viola Society and Treasurer of the Iowa Viola Society. I was able to observe from these positions the wonderful service these groups provided to the viola community. University of Florida, and then real ized that Florida was the most popu lous state without a state chapter of the AVS. After being there one year, I decided it was time to form a Florida Viola Society Chapter. I was pleasant ly surprised at how painless the whole process was. The biggest obstacle was securing at least ten people to attend the initial organizational meeting. I In summer of 2005, I accepted a new viola professor position at the

Central Texas Viola Society (includes Austin, San Antonio, San Marcos, Waco)

Martha Carapetyan, president marthacara@grandecom.net

Florida Viola Society Ken Martinson kamart@ufl.edu

Great Lakes Viola Society Sarah Montzka, interim coordinator sarahmontzka@mac.com Gulf Coast (Mississippi) Viola Society Hsaiopei Lee, president lee.hsiaopei@gmail.com

Idaho Viola Society Linda Kline Lamar lkline@boisestate.edu Indiana Viola Society Philip Tietze, president patietze@bsu.edu

Iowa Viola Society Christine Rutledge, president christine@christinerutledge.com Louisiana Viola Society Matthew Daline mdaline@hotmail.com Minnesota Viola Society J. David Arnott, president violaman@aol.com North Carolina Viola Society Sheila Browne brownes@ncarts.edu Northern California Viola Society Ethan Filner ethan@cypressquartet.com