Hello CAPMT Members,

Welcome to the online home for CAPMT (California Association of Professional Music Teachers), the MTNA affiliate in California. You will find important information about membership and student programs on this website. Please remember to renew your membership in MTNA & CAPMT. The CAPMT board encourages new members to engage in local and state events. We also seek to grow the membership of those specializing in orchestral instruments, voice, and composition.

Thank you for electing me to be the CAPMT President for the 2023-2025 term. I am humbled and gratified by your support, and I hope to meet many of you during the next two years. Thank you to the 2023-2025 Executive Board, District Directors, and Event Chairs, who are volunteering time and energy for a successful CAPMT organization. I look forward to working with this exceptional team.

Mona Wu DeCesare has been an outstanding CAPMT president and mentor during her 2021- 2023 term! She is an inspirational leader who has guided each member of the board as well as event chairs. We are grateful that Mona continues to serve as the Immediate Past President. Thank you to all board members, district directors, event chairs, and chapter presidents stepping down from service. The current CAPMT board is grateful for your leadership and devotion.

Besides an exciting 2023 Conference at Santa Clara University on October 27 and 28, many state and local events are available in the coming year. This website is updated throughout the year to keep you informed, but you may also visit your local CAPMT branch website for additional information.

Have a joyful, active year in CAPMT! Mitzi Kolar, President

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MTNA State Affiliate of the Year Award

CAPMT is proud to be a co-recipient of the the 2020 MTNA State Affiliate of the Year Award, with North Carolina.

Nate May,

Commissioned Composer

CAPMT 2023 Conference

Nate May (b. 1987) is a versatile American composer, keyboardist, and educator whose music has been heard across four continents: in jazz clubs and DIY spaces, on national television, in museums and modern dance venues, and on mainstage classical events at New York’s Sheen Center and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. His chamber, choral, and orchestral music, characterized by textural intricacy, rhythmic drive, and repurposed sounds, has been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Wild UP, the Yale Philharmonia, Patchwork Duo, and Quartetto Indaco. Raised in Huntington, West Virginia, much of his work stems from a “fascination, love, and respect for the people” of Appalachia (Soapbox), including his oratorio State, the result of interviews he conducted with Appalachian migrants on a fellowship from the Berea Sound Archives, and “Licorice Parikrama,” a networked performance featuring West Virginians affected by the 2014 Elk River chemical spill.

Also an award-winning educator, he has served as a teaching artist with the American Composers Orchestra and taught courses at Yale University, Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, Montclair State University, the Walden School, and the Thurnauer school. In 2021 he founded Synthase, a school that nurtures musical creativity for young people through online lessons, classes, and interactive technology.

He holds a doctorate in composition from Yale, supported in part by a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also earned degrees from Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (M.M., Composition) and the University of Michigan (B.F.A., Jazz and Contemplative Studies). His teachers have included Aaron Jay Kernis, David Lang, Christopher Theofanidis, Geri Allen, Stephen Rush, and Michael Fiday.