When the 2020 MTNA Conference became the 2020 MTNA Virtual Conference, Yamaha provided three all-new showcases, created especially for helping schools and teachers teachers adapt to new normals of distance learning, working from home, and planning for the future. Creative teaching gurus Lori Frazer and Leila Viss join Shana Kirk for some Clavinova tips in Put Your Clavinova to Work. Shana provides an overview of the benefits of Yamaha's Hybrid instruments in an era of working and going to school from home. Lori Frazer also gives a detailed tour of the MLC-200 lab controller, just for all the universities, conservatories, and music academies, who are using closed facilities to re-invision the future of group teaching. Find all these and more at the Yamaha Music Educator Suite's special MTNA Virtual Conference  resources page. 

Congratulations to our colleagues at Yamaha Entertainment Group, who won four Midsouth Regional Emmy® Awards for the short film “World Without Music” in February 2020.The Tennessee-based record label earned victories in the “Director, Short Form,” “Audio,” “Photographer,” and “Editor/Program” categories. In addition, “World Without Music” received nominations in the “Arts,” “Music Composer/Arranger,” “Lighting,” and “Commercial Campaign” categories in November 2019.“World Without Music” is a visually stunning and emotionally powerful film that highlights the company’s brand promise, “Make Waves.” Yamaha Chief Artist Relations Executive Chris Gero, called the awards "humbling." Yamaha Entertainment Group has won 11 Regional Emmy Awards since 2016.

The DEN Educator's Guide is a great resource to find out what other institutions and educators are doing with the Disklavier for teaching, performing, and creating music.

Our colleagues over at Yamaha Educator Suite have compiled an outstanding list of resources to help teachers everywhere make the transition to online music educaiton as seamless as possible. Check it out at YamahaEducatorSuite.com. 

(from the Yamaha MusicUSA blog)Thanks to longitme DEN enthusiast (DEN-thusiast?) Stella Sick, The Cincinnati Orchestra, and Australian piano roll enthusiast and digital music engineer Peter Phillips, George Gershwin appeared in a posthoumous performance earlier this year. This is no ghost story. Rather, it’s a tale of technology.Gershwin’s piano part had actually been recorded in 1924 on piano rolls for the then-popular Duo-Art reproducing piano. Phillips converted the performance to MIDI data, using a machine he built himself, for other live performance projects way back in 2013.  It sounds relatively simple, but in fact it was extremely challenging and labor-intensive to reproduce Gershwin’s part accurately and to make it possible for the conductor, Louis Langrée, and the orchestra to follow along with it. Check out the full story on the YamahaUSA Blog!