Teacher of the Year – 2007
Hilda Hagins
2007 Teacher of the Year
 During
the 2007 Alabama Music Teachers Association Conference, Hilda Hagins,
received the AMTA Teacher of the Year award. The award is presented
annually to a member who exhibits excellence in teaching,
musicianship and service to AMTA and the community.
Hilda, from Enterprise, AL, has been teaching
for over 35 years. She is a nationally certified piano and organ
teacher and proprietor of her own music studio. She is also a
member of the Alabama Music Educators Association, Music Educators
National Conference, American Guild of Organists, and the National
Guild of Piano Teachers. In addition, she serves as Music Associate
at the First Baptist Church in Enterprise.
In 1994 AMTA District II had been inactive for
several years when Hilda took the task of District II Auditions
chairman. The auditions were held in Enterprise for the first time
and she continued as chairman for ten years. Also in 1994 Hilda
founded the Wiregrass Music Teachers Forum affiliated with AMTA and
Music Teachers National Association. The forum began with four
members and has grown to a membership of twenty-two. With Hilda’s
guidance, the first Sonata/Sonatina Festival was held in 1995 with
fifty-two students registered. The Sonata Festival has been held
each year since, and now has approximately 175 students who
participate. In addition, the forum sponsors a Piano Hymn Festival
each November to give the students an opportunity to prepare and
perform music suitable for offertories and congregational hymn
accompaniments. In May the forum holds an Honors Recital during
which time scholarships for summer piano camps and scholarships to
forum students who are college music majors are presented.
For the fifth anniversary of the Sonata
Festival, Hilda suggested commissioning composer Kevin Olson to
write new work for piano. The result was “Sonatina in Seasons,”
dedicated to the Wiregrass piano students. Mr. Olson attended the
festival as well as the recital at which the work was premiered.
For the tenth anniversary, Mrs. Elizabeth Greenleaf wrote a special
work, “Wiregrass Sonatina,” which was also dedicated to the
students. Like Mr. Olson, she also attended the Festival and
recital.
In addition to teaching piano and organ, Hilda
teaches Elementary Music, grades K-6 at two elementary schools in
Enterprise. She has volunteered at Holly Hill Elementary School
and founded and directed the Holly Hill Echoes, a vocal performance
group made up of thirty-five students in grades four through six.
Hilda enjoys judging and often serves as an
adjudicator for various scholarship, sonata and keyboard festivals.
She judges for the National Guild of Piano Teachers as well as AMTA
District Auditions.
As Organist and Music Associate at First
Baptist Church of Enterprise, she serves as Children’s Choir
Coordinator, overseeing eight choirs from preschool to grade six.
Hilda believes that music is meant to be shared and she feels
blessed to be a part of celebrations in the lives of the church
family as she prepares music for weddings, funerals and other events
marking milestones in the lives of many. Sometimes Hilda must play
“through her tears” to comfort families with the music in their
times of great loss. Hilda feels blessed to be able to share these
events with the church members, friends and students in the
community.
Since the terrible aftermath of the tornado
that struck Enterprise on March 1, 2007, Hilda has seen the
tremendous healing power of music as the young people in high school
have expressed their sorrow, their gratitude and their hope for the
future through their music. The outpouring of love and support has
been tremendous. Many music organizations have reached out to the
choral and band students who have experienced this tragedy.
Hilda states that she is very humbled by this
award. She believes that the most important treasures in life are
faith, family and friends, and that music is one of the threads that
weave these relationships together. “We teachers must carry the
torch and light the way for a new generation of students so that
they can experience the gift of music.” |
