Welcome to The
California Association of Professional Music Teachers

CAPMT has a multitude of offerings for music teachers of all instruments and voice

Dear CAPMT Members,

Welcome to the online home of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT), your MTNA affiliate here in California! This site is your primary resource for important updates on membership, student programs, and other events. Please be sure to renew your membership in both MTNA and CAPMT to stay connected!

We warmly encourage new and returning members to participate in local and state events, and are especially excited to continue expanding our community of educators in orchestral instruments, voice, and composition. Your involvement helps shape the vibrant future of our organization.

I am deeply honored to serve as your CAPMT President for the 2025–2027 term. Thank you for placing your trust in me—I look forward to meeting and working together with many of you in the coming months! A heartfelt thank-you goes to all those serving on the 2025–2027 Executive Board, District Directors, and Event Chairs—your dedication and service make everything we do possible, and I am so grateful for your time and effort.

I would like express my sincerest gratitude to Mitzi Kolar, whose exceptional leadership as CAPMT President from 2023 to 2025 has inspired and uplifted us all. Her mentorship and guidance have strengthened our organization and the community at large, and we are fortunate to have her continued presence on the Board as Immediate Past-President. To all Board Members, District Directors, Event Chairs, and Chapter Presidents concluding their service—thank you for your outstanding contributions and commitment.

Please mark your calendars for our upcoming 2025 State Conference at California State University, Fresno on October 24–25! You can register by clicking the button on the right side of this page. In addition to the Conference, many wonderful events are planned throughout the year at both the state and local levels. Please check this website regularly for updates, and we encourage you to also check your own CAPMT chapter website for details about local events in your area.

Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead with CAPMT!

Warmly,
Michael Krikorian
CAPMT 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.

MTNA Certification Process

The MTNA Professional Certification Program exists to improve the level of professionalism within the field of music teaching. It benefits the members of the profession itself, as well as the public who interacts with the professional. For the music teaching professional, certification provides prestige, recognition and the potential for student recruitment and increased earning power. For the public, certification helps readily identify competent music teachers in their communities.

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2026 CAPMT State Conference

October 10-11, 2026

(Saturday and Sunday)

Pasadena Conservatory of Music

Submit a Proposal!

Registration will open soon!

Dr. Dmitry Rachmanov is Director of Keyboard Studies at California State University, Northridge. A sought-after performer, master class clinician, adjudicator and lecturer, Dr. Rachmanov has served on the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University and has been a guest artist/lecturer at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, Royal Northern College of Music (UK), Shanghai and Beijing Central Conservatories.

Rachmanov has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, London's Barbican and South Bank Centres, at venues across Europe and Asia, and performed as soloist with Ukraine National Symphony, and National Orchestra of Porto, among others. He has recorded for Naxos, Parma, Vista Vera and Cambria labels.

An active member of the American Liszt Society, Dmitry Rachmanov is the president of the society’s Southern California chapter. He was the Artistic Director of the ALS 2016 Festival “Liszt and Russia,” hosted by CSUN. His summer festivals include Piano Sicily and InterHarmony in Italy, Adamant in Vermont. He is a Co-Founder of the OpusOne Festival in Los Angeles.

A proponent of Russian repertoire, Rachmanov gave the US premiere of Boris Pasternak Piano Sonata, broadcast by the NPR, and he is a founding member and President of the Scriabin Society of America. His April 2014 commemorative all-Scriabin program at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall was described as “a ‘poem of ecstasy’ in every sense: giant in conception, quantity, quality, execution, thoughtfulness, and sensitivity” by the New York Concert Review. He is in the process of recording a video anthology of Alexander Scriabin’s piano works.

Dr. Rachmanov is a recipient of numerous awards: “Jerome Richfield Memorial Scholar” and Phi Beta Delta’s Outstanding Faculty Award at CSUN, “Outstanding CAPMT Member State Recognition Award” by California Association of Professional Music Teachers, Art Consultant Award by Shanghai International Cultural Exchange Association, and the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame Award.

https://dmitryrachmanov.com/

Louise Yvonne Dufau Frye, born in Dallas Texas, moved with her family to San Francisco, when her father, Ted Dufau completed his service in the army. Growing up in San Francisco was inspiring and adventurous. Her mother, Margaret, took Louise and her siblings to every kind of cultural event imaginable. Piano recitals, symphonies, operas, ballets, the ice follies, and the circus. Dressing up was always the norm.

Louise first started piano lessons with her father at the age of seven. Formal lessons began at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music at the age of thirteen. Her teachers included Winifred Jones and Sylvia Jenkins, who had been a child prodigy. Following ten years of study at the Conservatory, Louise received an Advanced Piano Certificate. She graduated from California State University, San Francisco, in 1968 and received an Elementary Teaching Credential. Marriage in 1969 brought a move to Southern California in Covina where she began teaching piano.

While her son and daughter were quite young, Louise attended California State University, Fullerton where she obtained her Master of Music in Piano Performance. Her subsequent teachers included Erika Zador, David Berfield, and Charles Asche. Her love of teaching and performing solo recitals has been a lifelong way of life. Louise has also served as an accompanist for both adult and childrens choirs in the churches she has attended. In 1996, she participated in a master class for the International Piano Workshop in Graz, Austria. She also had the good fortune of being able to travel to several European countries to study the lives of a few classical composers with William Wellborn.

A move to San Luis Obispo County came in 1985 and subsequently Louise joined the Central Coat Music Teachers Association, CAPMT & MTNA. She has held various chapter and state leadership positions during those years and is proud to be a member for forty-one years.