Music for All (MFA) has recently announced exciting news and major changes.
President and CEO since 1984, Scott McCormick announced his resignation on Aug. 20, 2010, and posted the following message to his Facebook page the next day: “… it is with guarded feelings that I share with you effective yesterday, I have resigned my position as Pres. & CEO, and board member, of Music for All effective immediately. For those of you who know me well, this has been very far from an easy decision. I wish the organization, that I built, along with a very capable and talented group of associates through the years, all the best. And to all of you who have made me who I am today, I say thank you and look forward to our paths crossing very soon. I wish the young people and teachers who I have had the honor and privilege to serve over the years, the very best and hope you will stay in touch.”
McCormick would not comment on the reasons for his resignation but said regarding his future: “I absolutely want to stay in the music industry and would love to stay in music education, and I’m just investigating my options right now.” Eric L. Martin, who has worked with MFA for the last 14 years as chief operating officer and associate executive director, has been named the new president and CEO. Martin says he is fully dedicated to MFA’s mission: “to create, provide and expand positively life-changing experiences through music for all.”
“We will truly focus on the biggest goal for this organization: that Music for All will be more than an organization, it will be an institution,” Martin says. “People will come and go, including me, but the mission itself must survive, and it must grow and thrive regardless of the leadership.”
MFA also announced that its annual Summer Symposium, a summer camp for instrumental music students and teachers, will relocate to Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., after being at Illinois State University since 1992. This move brings the symposium closer to MFA’s headquarters in Indianapolis; MFA had moved from Chicago in 2003.
And great news for all bands competing in MFA’s Bands of America (BOA) Grand Nationals. Starting with the 2010 champion for the 2012 parade, the Grand Nationals winner will receive an automatic invitation to march in the Tournament of Roses Parade.
“We will get one of the top bands in the U.S. in our parade without doing much other than being there to give them the invitation,” says Richard Jackson, president-elect of the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade. “This is the first time we’ve done anything like this on a national scale.”
BOA/MFA and the Tournament of Roses have previously worked together to bring the BOA Honor Band to the parade. This partnership also helps the Tournament of Roses with its new initiative to incorporate bands that do more than just march in traditional parade formats.
“We’re asking our bands to be more entertaining while still staying traditional,” Jackson says. “We have the concept of a moving box, but the band itself can countermarch and do other things as long as their overall box is moving down the parade route. We think the bands of today can rise to the challenge of creating state-of-the-art 20th century entertainment.”
