I am very pleased to announce that the Gulf Coast Music Association (GCMA) has approved my membership application as a piano teacher! The GCMA is an organization of private music teachers in the Clear Lake / Bay Area that offers performance opportunities to students and is a member of the Texas and National Federations of Music Clubs. You may have heard of the Gold Cup Festival that is very popular among private piano students and teachers. In fact, my own private piano teacher, Mary Ann Colonna, with whom I studied for nearly 12 years right across the street from NASA, was a member of GCMA. As a child and teenager, I enjoyed going to the Gold Cup, Sonatina and Romantic Festivals and taking the music theory tests. Through these festivals I felt that I was a part of the larger community of piano students that loved their art enough to practice regularly and go to these weekend events, even when there may not have been any classmates at school who identified with this interest. Since meeting several current GCMA members who share my passion for music education and piano music, I feel sure that the sense of community that GCMA fosters will be just as motivating to me as a teacher as it was when I was a student!