CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2008 HALL OF FAME RECIPIENTS
ELVA JEAN BOLIN and SUSAN DAY
Presentation of Hall of Fame Awards at CMEA, January 2008
Susan Day, recipient, Andrea Meyers, President of Colorado ASTA, and Elva Jean Bolin, recipient
SUSAN
DAY
| SMHD Publications was established in 1994 for the purpose of providing quality string orchestra literature for young musicians. Colorado composer and teacher, Susan Day, wanted her orchestra students to have something different to play. Her compositions are designed to appeal to and stimulate the imagination of the students as well as their audience. | ||
| "Susan Day's original music for the middle school or junior high orchestra sudent is equally challenging and attainable for all sections of the orchestra. Susan Day is a superb orchestral writer of full sounding, beautiful melodies and harmonies which inspire students to want more! Her music is a popular addition to any concert occasion." -JoAnn Wolter, Orchestra Director, Castle Rock Middle School, Colorado | ||
| Susan Day earned music degrees from Ithaca College and Columbia University. She was Colorado ASTA Teacher of the Year 2000 and winner of the 1997 National ASTA Composition Contest. Her compositions have been performed by youth orchestras at MENC and CMEA national and state conventions, music camps, youth symphony concerts, district festivals and state contests. She was the winner of the 2006 Texas Orchestra Directors Association (TODA) Composition Contest for her piece "Tango d'Amour" | ||
ELVA JEAN BOLIN with Andrea Meyers (left) 
MRS. ELVA JEAN BOLIN
Music Teacher
Elva Bolin was born in Denver, Colorado. She has two brothers, Ray and Bernie. She attended Denver Public Schools and in 1971 graduated from Denver South High School seventeenth in a class of 722 students.
She attended the University of Denver on a full-tuition Honor’s Program academic scholarship. After graduating from the University of Denver with her Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1975, she began teaching music in the Denver Public Schools. In 1984, 1985, 1994, 1996 and 1997 she conducted the DPS Citywide Elementary Orchestra. She taught in DPS until 1998.
Elva served on the Design Advisory Committee for the new Harrington building, helping design the vocal music room and instrumental music room. In 1998 she was interviewed by Aimee Spohr for Channel 4’s Eye on Colorado program that featured the Colorado Youth Instrument Program which donated instruments for her students. That same year she was interviewed by Marc Shulgold for an article about instrumental music in public schools that appeared in the Rocky Mountain News Sunday Spotlight. She has been listed in Who’s Who in American Education since 1989.
Elva has taught music in Aurora Public Schools since 1998. She has mentored a number of music education students and beginning teachers. She serves on the APS Arts Curriculum Committee and the Aurora Cultural Arts Action Team (CAAT).
At the beginning of her third year at Jamaica Elementary School, the movie Music of the Heart came out. Principal, Harry Chan, saw an interview about the movie on a morning talk show. Soon they applied for and received a $10,000 grant from Texaco and the Jamaica Violin Program began.
In 2001, Elva received the Everyday Hero Award from Channel 7 and Toyota. One of her co-workers nominated her for doing the violin program. As a result of this award, Berger Funds gave Jamaica School twelve violins. Several individuals donated violins as well..
Elva started playing violin in the fifth grade. She was a member of the Denver Public Schools Citywide Orchestra from sixth to twelfth grade and a member of the Colorado All-State High School Orchestra from tenth to twelfth grade. In high school she started to give private lessons on the violin using the Suzuki Violin Method. Troy, one of her first students, started when he was four years old. He went on to the Curtis Institute of Music, the National Repertory Orchestra and is currently the Professor of Violin at Kobe University in Japan.
In fifth grade, Elva had the opportunity to learn Spanish. In both DPS and APS, she has had more and more Spanish-speaking students. She is able to teach fluently in Spanish, conference with Spanish-speaking parents and translate parent flyers into Spanish.
Elva is married to a wonderful man whom she met in college in piano class. They are both are members of Aurora First Presbyterian Church which is near her school. They participate actively in the choir there and are involved in the music ministry at Canterbury.
Her hobbies are quilting, counted cross stitch and needlepoint. She enjoys designing original patterns for these crafts. Her Purple Mountain Majesties quilt, based on the words to “America the Beautiful”, has been shown at the Aurora History Museum. This year she is donating a quilt “Colorado Rocky Mountains” to the CASTA basket for the ASTA National Conference.