Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers' Association

Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers' Association

Saskatchewan Registered Music Teachers' Association (SRMTA). The Regina Music Teachers' Association, formed in 1925, became the Saskatchewan Provincial Music Teachers' Association in 1930. The provincial association, in turn, affiliated with the CFMTA in 1935 and obtained a provincial charter under its present name in 1938, becoming the first in Canada to do so. Among the founders were Lyell Gustin, Edith Mash, George C. Palmer, and Henry J. Record. In 1990 membership stood at 300, with branches in The Battlefords, Lloydminster, Moose Jaw, Outlook and District, Prince Albert, Regina, Saskatoon, Swift Current, the West Central district, and Yorkton. The SRMTA Newsletter began in 1954 and in 1990 was published four times annually. The SRMTA archives are held at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. The organization has co-operated with other RMTAs in support of the CFMTA Young Artist Series, originated by Lyell Gustin in 1942, through which outstanding students, selected at public auditions, have been sent on tours of the western provinces.

The SRMTA offers the Florence Bowes Memorial Scholarships in piano performance, piano pedagogy and composition, the Dorothy Bee Memorial Scholarship for teachers and the Lyell Gustin Memorial Scholarship for high school students.

SRMTA presidents have been Alma W. Ward 1930, Marion B. Kinne 1931, Henry J. Record 1933, 1935-6, George C. Palmer 1934-5, Helen Davies Sherry 1936-7, Grace E. Knowlden 1937-8, Lyell Gustin 1938-40, Maude McGuire 1940-2, Dan A. Cameron 1942-4, Lucille Murphy 1944-5, Mrs A.B. McKenzie 1945-7, Robert Pounder 1947-9, Marjorie Wilson 1949-51, Gordon Hancock 1951-3, Gertrude Greaves 1953-5, Dorothy Bee 1955-7, Mrs L.E. Collard 1957-9, Jean McCulloch 1959-61, Betty Godley 1961-3, May Woodley Benson 1963-5, Joyce Johnson 1965-7, Walter Thiessen 1967-9, Ethel Weare 1969-71, Louise McPherson 1971-3, Margaret Muirhead 1973-5, Margaret Kippen 1975-7, Joan Faron 1977-9, Shirley Flaten 1979-81, Edith Scott 1981-2, Marjorie Temple 1982-5, Kathleen Bender 1985-7, Sheila Shinkewski 1987-9, succeeded by Rita Kennedy 1989-91.

The SRMTA is a member of the CMEA.