Roberta Kraft, adjunct associate professor of music at Hope College, has been inaugurated as president of the Michigan Music Teachers' Association (MMTA).
Roberta Kraft, adjunct associate professor of music at Hope College, has been inaugurated as president of the Michigan Music Teachers' Association (MMTA).
She assumed office on Tuesday, Oct. 20, during the association's 113th state convention, held at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Sunday-Tuesday, Oct. 18-20. She will serve a two-year term.
The MMTA has approximately 900 members, who are
teachers at colleges and universities or teach in private
studios. The MMTA is one of the largest of the 50 state
organizations affiliated with the Music Teachers National
Association, which has 24,000 members.
Kraft's inauguration marks the second time this
decade that a member of the Hope music faculty has served as
state president. Joan Conway, professor of music, was MMTA
president from 1990 to 1992.
Immediately prior to becoming president, Kraft
served a two-year term as the MMTA's vice president. Her
activity at the state level has also included serving on the
MMTA's 30-member Board of Directors for nine years as chair
of Student Achievement Testing (SAT) Auditions.
Her association with the MMTA began through the
local chapter, Holland Piano Teachers Forum, which was
established in 1969 and of which she was a charter member.
The chapter affiliated with the state organization in 1971-
72, during the first of three terms that she has served the
Holland chapter as president.
Kraft began her involvement with the Student
Achievement Testing program through the local chapter. The
program now tests more than 4,000 preparatory students
throughout the state, stressing not only performances but
also music theory, aural awareness, technique and sight-
reading. She was local chair of SAT testing for five years.
She received the "Teacher of the Year Award" from
the Holland chapter of the MMTA in 1995.
Kraft has taught at Hope since 1975, and maintains
a private studio. She also performs actively with Hope
students and faculty, as well as with her husband, George,
with whom she has given roughly 300 programs.
She has taught public school in the Junction City,
Kan., Holland and Saugatuck-Douglas school systems. She is
a performing member of St. Cecilia Music Society of Grand
Rapids, and a member of the American Guild of Organists and
The National Guild.
She earned her bachelor of music education degree
at Wheaton College and a master of music degree at Indiana
University.
The MMTA was founded in 1885. The association
seeks to promote and encourage the understanding,
appreciation and study of the art of music; to elevate the
economic and artistic standards of teachers of music; and to
promote a closer professional fraternity.