2025 MSMTA State Conference

23-25 Oct 2025  |  Fairmont Hot Springs
Registration Deadline:  1 October   |  $15 Late Fee applied after Deadline
FEATURED PRESENTER:  Kevin Chance, MTNA President
ADJUDICATOR:  Stephen Thomas, BYU-Idaho Falls
GALA CONCERT:   
​            Caroline Oltmanns, Piano, Steinway Artist
EXCITING SESSIONS, NETWORKING, AND MORE!
STATE MTNA COMPETITION
​      (Advancing national competition)
Open to:  Voice, Strings, Brass, Piano, Woodwind, Composition, and Chamber Music
Levels: Junior, Senior, Collegiate
MSMTA FALL FESTIVAL    (Non-advancing state competition)
Categories:  Short Program, Solo, Piano Duet     
​Open to:  All instruments and voice
Levels:  Elementary, Junior, Senior
PIANO MASTER CLASSES - ALL LEVELS
PIANOS SPONSORED BY
​STEINWAY GALLERY OF SPOKANE

Registration Open Now

Lodging
Sponsors & Exhibitors
 OPI Credits
Tentative Conference Schedule
Banquet Meal Descriptions

Student events held in conjunction with the 2025 Annual Conference:

MTNA Competitions
MSMTA Fall Festival
Master Classes
Conference Chairs:  Margery Whatley, NCTM

2025 Presenter

Dr. Kevin Chance,  President
​Music Teachers National Association

Picture
Dr. Kevin Chance serves as Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Alabama where he coordinates the Gloria Narramore Moody Piano Area. As soloist and collaborator, Kevin has performed throughout the United States and abroad, and recent orchestral appearances have included Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, Grieg's Piano Concerto, Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and Saint-Saëns’s Le Carnaval des animaux. Performing regularly as a chamber musician, Kevin has been a member of the Semplice Duo with flutist Cristina Ballatori for the past 24 years, and their performances have included world premiers at the National Flute Association Conference as well as recitals in Wisconsin, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, Alabama, and New York as well as Mexico and Europe.
 
Kevin has recently received a number of accolades for his teaching. Most recently, he was named a Leadership Board Faculty Fellow for the University of Alabama College of Arts and Sciences, which recognizes excellence in teaching and research. In 2019, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Steinway and Sons Music Teacher Hall of Fame in New York City and was named 2019 Music Educator of the Year by the Arts Council of Tuscaloosa. Additionally, he was named the 2015 Teacher of the Year by the Alabama Music Teachers Association. Kevin maintains an award-winning studio of college and pre-college students, and his students have garnered awards at the national and international levels. In demand as a clinician and adjudicator, he frequently presents at the MTNA National Conference as well as state and local music teacher organizations throughout the country. In January 2021, Kevin served as the headliner clinician for the University of Georgia Piano Symposium, and each summer, he serves on the faculty of the New Orleans Piano Institute each summer. 
 
Kevin holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Louisiana State University, and Birmingham-Southern College, and his former teachers include Barry Snyder, Constance Knox Carroll, Anne Koscielny, Ann Schein, William DeVan, and Betty Sue Shepherd. Kevin has recently served as President of the American Matthay Association for Piano, and he currently serves as President of MTNA. He also recently joined the roster of Alfred Publishing, and his first three-volume series co-authored with Ingrid Clafield, Rare Recital Treasures, will be released between October 2024 and Fall 2025.
 
​

2025 Adjudicator
​Dr. Stephen Thomas, DMA

Picture
  Dr. Stephen Thomas, pianist, has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, South America, China, Europe, and Japan.  His performances have been broadcast for Chinese television and for radio stations such as WQXR in New York City.  He has recorded and performed with principal players of the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Hall and in concerts throughout the Bay Area.  
 
Dr. Thomas frequently adjudicates piano competitions and presents master classes and lectures throughout the country and internationally.  He served as President of Idaho Music Teachers Association from 2016-18 and at the national committee level for Music Teachers National Association. His students have won many competitions and awards and have been accepted into music festivals such as Aspen, Chautauqua, Brevard, and the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival. His students have also been accepted with scholarships into major music programs such as the Eastman School of Music, Indiana University, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, Rice University, Arizona State University, and the Royal College of Music in London. 
 
He holds degrees in piano performance from Brigham Young University (B.M.), Yale University (M.M.), and the University of Michigan (D.M.A.), having studied with Irene Peery-Fox, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, and Arthur Greene. He has undertaken additional studies with Ann Schein, with Anne Øland at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark, and with the faculty of the Moscow Conservatory.
 
Dr. Thomas is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies and has served as Associate Dean in the College of Performing and Visual Arts at Brigham Young University-Idaho.  Previous to this appointment, he taught for 15 years at California State University, Stanislaus where he also served as Chair of the Department of Music and as Acting Dean of the College of the Arts. 

2025 Recital Artist
Dr. Caroline Oltmanns

Picture
Caroline Oltmanns is a pianist, presenter and pedagogue. 

‘A star in the piano world’ (Donald Hunt, Pianist Magazine), she reveals in her playing a deep connectivity between music and culture. Her impeccable musical phrasing combined with an engaging stage presence have attracted audiences both in the US and abroad.

Caroline Oltmanns has recorded seven solo CDs on the Filia Mundi label. Her newest concept album WIND was recorded in the prestigious Reitstadel in Germany. Event highlights of this concert season include concert appearances in the United States, in Switzerland, and in the UK.
A Professor of Piano at Youngstown State University, Caroline Oltmanns has presented master classes and workshops in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, the UK, South Africa, Canada, and China. She serves as a regular screening member of the Cleveland International Piano Competition, and she recently was appointed to the board of the documentary series Living the Classical Life. 

Caroline Oltmanns received her early pianistic training in her native Germany based on the Walter Gieseking tradition. She is a Fulbright Scholar, an International Steinway Artist, a 2022 Steinway Top Teacher Awardee, and a Steinway Spirio Recording Artist. Her musical mentors were Robert Levin, John Perry, Vitaly Margulis and Malcolm Frager.