GMTA's Golden Members
GMTA has a number of members who have reached an important milestone in their lives. These very special persons have been members of GMTA and MTNA for 50 years and are our "golden" members. Please join us in recognizing these very deserving individuals.
If you believe that you are a 50-year member but your name is not listed below, please contact GMTA's Executive Director, Donna Trivette, so that we can correct this oversight: 770-237-8258 or email at donnatrivette@bellsouth.net.
Our 50-year members include the following:
Daisy Luckey Aukerman
Beverly Bradley
Aurelia Campbell
Jackie Foster Conley
Ann Jones
Despy Karlas
George Lucktenberg
Jeannine Morrison
Daisy Luckey Aukerman
Daisy Luckey Aukerman grew up in Harlem, Georgia and began piano study at the age of eight years old. She gained recognition in her early years by winning many local and state honors under the instruction of Mrs. Jule Hatcher. She was the recipient of three scholarships and chose to study at LaGrange College with Rosa Muller of the Leipzig Conservatory. Organ study was with Katherine Cline, a student of Virgil Fox.
At LaGrange College, she was named College Superlative and was elected President of the student body. After graduation, she began her teaching career at Druid Hills School in DeKalb County and also served as accompanist for The Atlanta Boys Choir at their debut in New York's Town Hall. Until recently, she served as organist for 34 years at Atlanta's historic First Methodist Church on Peachtree.
She maintains membership in GMTA, MTNA, Atlanta Music Club, Pro-Mozart Society, American Guild of Organists, Steinway Society, Mu Phi Epsilon and National Guild of Piano Teachers. In 2004, she received the Wall of Outstanding Alumni Award in a ceremony at LaGrange College.
Beverly Bradley
A native Atlantan, Beverly Bradley has been teaching flute and piano for 51 years. She began piano lessons with Aida DeBray at age five. Later at age 14, she started flute studies with Charles Bradley, whom she later married at age 26 in 1950. A few days after her graduation from Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, she began teaching piano and her first flute student arrived just a few days later. She was a part-time instructor at Georgia State University in the mid 1960's. Today, she teaches in Sandy Springs and has many instruments in her home studio: Allen organ, Steinway grand piano, and two Wurlitzer pianos.
Beverly Bradley frequently attends the MTNA National conferences and has met many composers at these events: Alfred Reed; William Gillock; Lynn Freeman Olson; Jane and James Bastien; and Maurice Hinson, to name a few. Some of these composers have written pieces specifically for her. William Gillock wrote a piano solo for her in 1977, Viennese Rondo, and Alfred Reed wrote a flute solo for her in 1970. As a member of the Atlanta Music Teachers Association, she has rarely missed a meeting since she first became a member in 1957.
Beverly Bradley has played principal flute with the Band of Atlanta, Atlanta Community Orchestra, Emory Wind Ensemble, and the Lovett Wind Ensemble. Her husband, Charles, directed the latter two groups. In addition to membership in MTNA, Beverly also maintains a membership in Sigma Alpha Iota, Atlanta Federation of Musicians, National Flute Association, Atlanta Flute Club, Georgia Music Educators Association, and the Atlanta Music Club. When she's not attending music conferences or teaching, Beverly enjoys traveling, bike riding, and swimming.
Aurelia Campbell, NCTM
Aurelia Campbell first joined GMTA/MTNA as a collegiate member while a student at the University of Georgia and has been an active member of GMTA/MTNA since 1956. She has served GMTA in the offices of Secretary, Vice-President-Auditions, President-elect, and President, and more recently as a member of the Finance-Advisory Committee (charter member.) She is a member of the Northeast Georgia MTA and has served her local association in many capacities including President and currently serves as Certification Chairman. Aurelia Campbell is a nationally certified teacher, being the first teacher in the state to receive national certification.
Aurelia Campbell served as MTNA Southern Division Junior Performance Competition Coordinator and assisted the MTNA President (Dr. R. Wayne Gibson, 2001-03) with structuring the successful "Music for Everyone" program. In 2004, she was named a MTNA Foundation Fellow.
Aurelia Campbell holds the bachelor's degree in piano performance from UGA with graduate studies in piano pedagogy. A native of Hartwell, GA, she has been an independent music teacher (piano) there for fifty-one years and is currently teaching thirty students. She was a student at UGA when GMTA was established in 1954 and was a student of Despy Karlas who was one of the first members and who later served as GMTA President.
She remembers Michael McDowell (GMTA's first President) coming to UGA and meeting with Despy and other UGA Music Department faculty members to make various plans concerning GMTA. I have known each of the GMTA Presidents. I date back to the very beginning of GMTA!!
Jackie Foster Conley, NCTM
Jackie Foster Conley began teaching piano in Savannah in 1952 and continued to teach when she moved to Columbus in 1968. She has taught pupils as young as three years old, specifically her daughter, whose earliest memories of piano lessons are rolling around under the piano bench while mom screams "Come on, Carolyn. Is this note a D or a B?" Her eldest student was an eighty-eight year old former Army nurse, who loved hymns in A-flat. Now she has only three adult students who play for their own "amazement." She has also taught beginning organ and has been a church organist for forty years.
Jackie Conley earned her BFA degree in music from the University of Georgia, studying piano and organ with Lucille Kimble, who helped organize GMTA. She received her MM degree in Music Education at Columbus State University, studying piano with Joyce Schwob, organ with Ron Rice, and piano pedagogy with John O'Brien. Jackie served two terms as president of the Columbus Music Teachers Association.
Jackie Conley's first piano teacher was Vivian Smith who persuaded Jackie's two sisters, her mother, and Jackie to participate in a National Federation of Music Clubs family music project involving playing piano duets, trios, and quartets. Jackie credits this experience with teaching her to count and to sight-read. Playing keyboard in her youngest son's family band concert last fall was perhaps the latest highpoint in her long career.
Ann Jones
The goal of Ann Jones has always been to instill a love of good music in her students. She began her college studies in music education, and her most gratifying teaching experiences have come as a result of having studied piano pedagogy at Columbus College which is now Columbus State University. She has been a member of Georgia Music Teachers Association since October of 1959 and resides in Columbus.
Despy Karlas
The youngest of four daughters of first-generation Greek immigrants, Despy Karlas began studying piano at the age of eight. Spunky, talented and determined, she continued her studies under artist teachers Muriel Kerr, Ernest Hutcheson, Webster Aitken, and Soulima Stravinsky. She earned a diploma in piano performance at The Juilliard School, degrees at Douglas College (NJ) and the University of Illinois, and a Juilliard fellowship for advanced study at the Juilliard Graduate School.
After completing her studies, Despy joined Russian pianist Sergei Barsukoff in forming a duo-piano team based in Miami. The team of Karlas and Barsukoff soared both on the concert stage and in the air. Barsukoff was an aviation instructor, and under his tutelage, Despy learned to fly an amphibious, pontoon-equipped Luscomb aircraft.
Arriving in Athens in 1946, she began her career at the University of Georgia--a career that spanned over four decades. Despy frequently performed the great two-piano and four-hand repertoire with Hugh Hodgson, "Mr. Hugh," founder of the UGA Music Department. She was a brilliant pianist who was never afraid to tackle any of the contemporary composers. Many of the teachers active in GMTA today were students of Despy Karlas and can attribute their love of teaching to her tutelage.
Despite her demanding teaching schedule and her guest performances worldwide, Despy provided leadership in the Georgia Music Teachers Association and served as both vice president and president of the organization.
George Lucktenberg
Dr. George Lucktenberg has been a member of MTNA for 50 years. His career in MTNA began when he returned from Vienna following a year on a Fulbright scholarship and began teaching at the University of Chattanooga. There he joined Tennessee Music Teachers Association. Upon taking a professorship at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, he inquired about a state affiliate and was told there was not one in South Carolina. After three weeks of traveling and speaking with leading music teachers and university department heads, he felt that he had enough support to hold an organizing convention. At that meeting the new Constitution and Bylaws that he wrote were approved and he was voted in as the first President of South Carolina Music Teachers Association. He held that office until 1963, putting through its policies and functions and helping it grow from an initial 40 members to well over 100. During the period 1964-72, he held two Vice Presidencies and ultimately the Presidency of the Southern Division of MTNA.
Since moving to Georgia in 1990, Dr. Lucktenberg has held teaching positions at Clayton State College and University, and currently teaches at Reinhardt College and Georgia State University. His local MTNA affiliation is with Cherokee Music Teachers Association.
Dr.Lucktenberg attended Oberlin Conservatory, Ohio State University, and the University of Illinois, and he received a doctorate in performance from Florida State University. He taught at Interlochen Arts Camp for over 50 summers. He was also the founding president of the Southern Historical Keyboard Society. Along with Edward Kottick, he is the author of Early Keyboard Instruments in European Museums, published by Indiana University Press.
Jeannine Morrison, NCTM
A founding member of the South Metro Atlanta MTA, Jeannine Morrison is a current member of the Decatur MTA. She is Professor Emeritus of Music at Clayton State University, where she began teaching in 1972 and a Past President of the Atlanta Music Club. In 2003, she received the GMTA Teacher of the Year Award. Jeannine holds MTNA Master Certification and has assisted numerous other teachers in their preparations for certification.
Jeannine Morrison received degrees from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, and Columbia University in New York, and the Licentiate Diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in London. She continued with additional study under Dr. Edwin Hughes of New York.
Jeannine was the first Georgia pianist to be named to the Baldwin Piano Company Artist's roster. She has given debut recitals in New York's Town Hall and the National Gallery of Arts in Washington, D. C. She is well known for her collaborative endeavors with duo-piano partner Joanne Rogers.
Jeannine remains active in recital work, performing mainly with her son, Alan Morrison, Concert Organist and Head of the Organ Department at The Curtis Institute of Music. Jeannine and Alan performed at The National Convention of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) in Chicago in July 2006. Next Sept. 2008, they will perform at Ursinus College, in Augusta, Georgia and in Spivey Hall in Atlanta.