This is my favorite time of year and that includes preparing for the AOSA conference. Spokane, WA, is the site for the conference November 4 – 7, 2010. We’re already ordering lots of books, CDs, etc. and it has been fun checking out the new items.

Many of the new items are children’s books. We’ll have a great display of them there and several titles are featured in the sessions. Marge Troeh will have two sessions (one is a repeat) on Friday and she will share ideas on using picture books in your music classroom. Some of the books she’ll feature are Earthdance, River Song and Fire Race: A Karuk Coyote Tale. 

We’ll also have a good selection of instruments, teaching aids, recordings and music classroom books, including those by Schott – the publisher of the Music for Children books and Orff Schulwerk supplements.

Our talented friend Joanne Hammil will present some choral gems for grades 2-8 and have an evening time for singing rounds and partner songs. Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, a dynamic duo, will lead sessions on songwriting, singing in harmony and storytelling as well as an evening community dance. Master drummer Sowah Mensah will have people drumming, singing and dancing during his daytime sessions and evening drum session.

Those are just a few highlights from what looks like a fantastic conference!

Remember, if you have a special request for an item(s) you’d like to purchase at the AOSA conference, please let us know by Friday, October 22 and we’ll do our best to have it there for you. You’ll save shipping costs and if you bring your Tax Exempt Certificate, you will save tax, too.  To place an order or to request more information, please contact our convention coordinator via e-mail at conventions@westmusic.com or call 800-397-9378 ext. 1306, and speak to Jeanna.

If you want more information about the AOSA conference, you can go to http://www.aosa.org/conference.html.

Our West Music booth number is 313-319 and we’re located next to the Orff Boutique. I hope to see you at AOSA in Spokane!