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The Music Teachers National Association Fellow Program program offers a meaningful method for honoring deserving individuals while supporting the efforts of the MTNA Foundation Fund through a donation to the Foundation Fund in an individual’s name.
Hattiesburg Music Teachers League Members receiving this honor are highlighted below.
2024 Foundation Fellow Theresa Sanchez
Pianist Theresa Sanchez has been a faculty member at Jones College since 1995, where she was the recipient of the 2004 Faculty HEADWAE Award, named the 2007 Humanities Teacher of the Year, and received a Faculty Appreciation award in 2010. She is a past president of the Mississippi Music Teachers Association and the Hattiesburg Music Teachers League, and was formerly on the faculty of William Carey University. She also taught at The University of
Southern Mississippi, the Mississippi Keyboard Camp and the Okanagon Summer School of the Arts in British Columbia. She has been a national finalist in the Music Teachers National Association Collegiate Artist Competition and the International Recording Competition, and served for over 30 years as an official accompanist for MTNA’s Southern Division competitions. Additionally, she has served as Music Coordinator for FestivalSouth in Hattiesburg, since its inception in 2010, and is an avid chamber music performer, solo recitalist, and soloist with orchestra. She holds the DMA, MM and BM degrees in piano performance from The University of Southern Mississippi and Louisiana State University, studying piano with Stanley Waldoff, Daniel Sher, Gellert Modos, and George Imbragulio; additional studies were with Anthony di Bonaventura, Paul Badura-Skoda, Norman Shetler, and Walter Moore.
2019 MTNA Fellow, Janice Mesrobian, received her Bachelor of Arts from UCLA and a Masters of Music in Piano Performance from Wichita State University. She has done additional studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara Music Academy, and the University of Southern Mississippi. Her teachers have included Marilyn Neely, Dr. Robert Steinbauer, and Dr. Lois Leventhal. Mrs. Mesrobian has held accompanying and teaching positions at UCLA, Pasadena City College, William Carey University, and the University of Southern Mississippi. She has presented workshops and recitals for local associations in Gulfport, Ellisville, Meridian, Jackson, and Oxford. She moved to Hattiesburg in 1967 and seeing a need for a professional teachers’ association, she founded the Hattiesburg Music Teachers League (HMTL). She has served on the board as president for several terms and was active in founding the League’s bi-annual Composer Festival, bringing nationally known composers to work with the League’s students. Mrs. Mesrobian also served on the executive committee for the MMTA State Boards as Vice President for pre-college auditions. In 2006, she received the National Piano Technicians Guild Award in Austin, Texas. She has also been an adjudicator in various pre-college competitions in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Mrs. Mesrobian has maintained an active piano studio for fifty-four years. She has had numerous student winners at local and state competitions. She has also had state winners in the MTNA national competitions. In addition, her students have won scholarships to Mississippi music camps, as well as the North Carolina Brevard Music Center.
2008 MTNA Fellow Sharon Lebsack is a retired instructor from the University of Southern Mississippi, where she spent more than 38 years teaching flute, harp and chamber music. She has been active in MTNA and the Mississippi Music Teachers Association, holding many positions, including MMTA president, Southern Division Certification commissioner and currently is the MMTA Competitions chair. Lebsack is past national president of Tau Beta Sigma and was awarded the Outstanding Service to Music Award in 1978. She was also the first woman inducted into national honorary music fraternity Kappa Kappa Psi.
2000 MTNA Fellow, Pat Tuley was one of two to receive the MTNA Fellow honor the first year of the national award's inception. She was an independent music teacher for 36 years until her retirement in 1996 and had numerous student winners in local and state events. After retirement, she remained professionally involved in the Hattiesburg Music Teachers League (HMTL), the Mississippi Music Teachers Association (MMTA), and Music Teachers National Association. She was chair of the MTNA National Certification Commission, and in this position Pat was instrumental in the development of an MTNA professional certification philosophy, teaching standards, a certification portfolio and a procedural plan for the operation of the program. As a member of the MTNA Board of Directors during the 1998–2000 biennium, she served as chair of the ad hoc committee that revised the current MTNA Professional Certification Program. Pat served as president of MTNA's Southern Division, MMTA and HMTL. She held a music degree from Murray State University and was a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM). She is missed by many since her passing in February of 2017.
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