This Sunday, May 1st at 7:00pm at St. Andrew’s River Heights United Church, the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Association (MRMTA) will be presenting a concert that they are calling “Serata.” The concert will feature some of the amazing teachers who belong to the MRMTA, with monies from the concert going towards professional developments programs, as well as providing funds to help MRMTA teachers attend future Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ Association conferences.

This Sunday’s concert is especially anticipated, because this is the first time this fundraising concert has been held since 2019, pre-pandemic.

Started in 2016 the “Serata” concert was originally created to help provide funds for the MRMTA to host the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers’ conference which was held here in Manitoba in 2019. As Tiffany Wilson is the organizer of the “Serata” concert states, “In 2016 we were understanding that we were going to have quite a bit more money in order to run the conference… we also decided we would like to have a vocal competition and that falls on the host Province to pay for.” The idea for professional development for teachers came after the National conference was over.

The performing teachers are very excited to be back on stage performing now that lock-down restrictions have eased up. The concert will consist of a wide variety of instruments; piano, flute, viola, clarinet, and voice will be heard.

Outside of the performances, there will also be presentations of scholarships to students who have won awards. Silent auction will be up for bidding, all in the hopes of supporting members of the MRMTA.

Professional development of MRMTA members is crucial for the development of music education here in the Province. It is very much a pay-it-forward situation. The more resources and pedagogical ideas that teachers learn and apply in their music lessons, the better the end result is for their students.

The concert this Sunday at 7:00pm at St. Andrew’s River Heights United Church is going to be a real celebration of music education here in the Province, and is sure to feature stellar performances by all performing teachers of the Manitoba Registered Music Teachers’ Association.