As President of the Woodbridge Music Club, I am providing this summary of the primary events our club sponsored during the 2024-2025 season.
2024 Events:
On September 14: Twelve students from the teaching studios June Shuffett, Jane Cole, and Faith Zuniga (three of our wonderful Woodbridge Music Club teachers) presented an impressive student piano recital for the annual Arts Alive Festival in Manassas, Virginia. This annual event held at the Hylton Center for the Performing Arts. Our students gave wonderful performances and the appreciative large audience applauded enthusiastically. (We participate in this popular Arts Alive Festival each year.)
September 21: The Woodbridge Music club sponsored a combined piano and cello concert, featuring two internationally acclaimed artists in solo and ensemble performances: cellist Amit Peled and pianist Daniel del Pino.
September 23: A combined piano concert and master class was presented by Daniel del Pino at Colgan High School, which is Prince William County’s specialty school for the arts and music. This was a Woodbridge Music Club sponsored event.
October 20: Piano students from the studios of June Shuffett, Jane Cole, and Faith Zuniga performed at a Woodbridge Music Club sponsored student recital. Approximately fifty students participated.
November 9: Our annual Student Duet and Solo Recital took place. Approximately fifty students participated. Piano ensembles are encouraged at this recital, but solo performances are also permitted.
December 14: Our club enjoyed our annual Christmas party and potluck dinner, which—as usual—was at the home of Paul and Elaine Brady. We had a great dinner and lots of fun, as always. All present enjoyed the food, the conversations, the comradery, and the performances by club members.
2025 Events:
February 15: Piano students from the studios of Woodbridge Music Club piano teachers June Shuffett, Soo Cho, Jane Cole, Joy Robb, and Rudene Jones performed at a Woodbridge Music Club sponsored student recital. Approximately one hundred students participated. At our larger student
recitals, because we normally have approximately one hundred or more students participating, we divide the student participants into three separate forty-five-minute recitals, with approximately one-third of the student participants in each.
On February 22, a large number of students from the studios of Woodbridge Music Club teachers participated in the annual VFMC’s District II Junior Music Festival, which takes place in Manassas, Virginia each year.
March 1: Our club’s annual Kiki Thomaidis Piano Competition took place. This competition is funded by an endowment from the late Kiki Thomaidis, a former Woodbridge Music Club teacher, and continues to be generously supported by Tiki’s daughter, Irene Roberts. There are four division and a total of twelve prize winners.
March 1: After a break for lunch, the twelve winners of our Kiki Thomaidis Competition performed their winning pieces at our annual “Kiki Thomaidis Winners’ Recital.”
May 5: My wife, June Shuffett and I hosted our club’s annual Senior Scholarship Competition in our home. All three participants impressed the judges and won prizes.
May 10: The Woodbridge Music Club’s annual combined recital, comprised of our three Senior Scholarship Competition winners, our Gold Cup recipients, and a large number of students from the studios of our teachers took place. There were well over a hundred student participants for this event.
May 24: A professional concert featuring fabulous virtuoso cellist and Woodbridge Virginia native Romain-Olivier Gray and his talented string quartet presented works by Paul Hindemith, Johann Sebastian Bach, and the world premiere of my “Reflections on the Serenity Prayer for String Quartet and Narrator.” I was most gratified when the latter piece received a standing ovation from a large appreciative audience.
June 19 (future event): Our club’s members will gather for luncheon at Famous Dave’s Bar-B-Que in Woodbridge, Virginia.
I will conclude by mentioning that our club meets monthly on Zoom. We started holding our monthly Zoom meetings during COVID, and they became quite popular. We have therefore continued to hold these on the third Thursday of each month. These meetings provide an informal, relaxed, and convenient way to conduct and discuss the business of our club and to catch up with our members.
Submitted by Dr. Robert Vernon Shuffett
President, Woodbridge Music Club
robertvshuffett@aol.com