KANATA, ON April 2011 – This is Music for Young Children’s 24 year to hold its International Composition Festival.  Approximately 12,000 MYC students took part in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam.  Compositions are judged within their level in seven different regions – Western Canada (BC, AB, SK, MB),Ontario, Eastern Canada (PQ, NS, NB, PEI, NF),United States, South Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Vietnam.  The first place winners of each of these regions then compete internationally.  Fourteen reviewers, including visiting composer Mark Mrozinski spent the week playing each and every piece.

According to Mark, “Let me say first that I was so impressed with the scope of the MYC composition festival. It is hard not to be overwhelmed by the thousands of compositions in the festival. And, this festival is important work. We, as music educators, often have given lip service to the creative elements of our teaching, such as composition. We often see our task as primarily teaching note reading. However, historically, composition and improvisation have been a central part of the study of any instrument. MYC has put creativity and composition back in the central arena of music learning. And thus, composition is not seen by their students as something that some do, but something that’s intrinsic in the music study process, something that we all can and should do. I applaud MYC for restoring this emphasis to music creation.”

Mr. Mrozinski served for 12 years as Coordinator of the HarperMusicAcademy, the community music school associated with WilliamRaineyHarperCollegein Palatine, Illinois.  He has served as both the East Central Division President of Music Teachers National Association and as President of the Illinois State Music Teachers Association.  As Dean of Continuing Education at HarperCollege, Mark Mrozinski maintains a studio in his home, is an active clinician and adjudicator, and has published a collection of elementary piano solos entitled Enchanted Forest.

Special congratulations go out to 2 of my Sunbeam Two students for Honorable Mention for their compositions:

Joshua Brule
Matthew Koch

Congrats guys!!!  You did a great job and we’re really proud of you both!