I recently returned home from the AMICA Convention in Portland
and was greeted by Nathan Bello's beautiful tribute in the MMD.

Nathan is being modest.  In my opinion, Nathan Bello was one of
the highlights, no, _the_ highlight of the Portland Convention.
He composed the "Rose City Rag" an original composition which all
registrants received in the form of an 88-note roll.  Nathan also
performed "Rose City Rag" as part of his solo piano concert for the
opening night of the convention.  The concert included music from
rags to big band, and also classical music.  After the concert, he
graciously signed piano rolls, CD's and sheet music for the long
line of people waiting to say hello and thank him for his fine work.

Did I mention that Nathan is only 17 years old?  He is not only
very talented beyond his years, he is an exemplary young man whom we
are all fortunate to have with us.  We wish him all the best in his
collegiate and music careers.

I also enjoyed chatting with many other people at the AMICA Convention,
both familiar faces and new ones.  I started a list in order to thank
or acknowledge each one individually through MMD.  The list grew
quickly and I soon had over 40 names with still more to go!  While
I enjoyed meeting or re-meeting everyone and chatting with them,
in order to make Robbie's job easier, I will mention only a few.

Thanks goes to Al Menashe for meeting me at the airport and also for
helping Dave Saul and myself to solve the problem of how to ship large
boxes of items for the mart to Portland by allowing us to send him our
things.  That was a tremendous help to us.

Credit is also due to the planning committee members for the convention,
especially Carl and Halie Dodrill.  They all did a wonderful job and
made this convention special.

Last but certainly not least I want to thank someone who was not
there physically, but attended in spirit -- Dean Randall.  Dean was
instrumental in bringing the AMICA convention to his part of the world.
I had decided to attend the Portland convention several years ago and
very much looked forward to seeing Dean again.  Alas, it was not to be.
But he will always be a part of this meeting because Nathan Bello
dedicated his "Rose City Rag" piano roll to Dean.  For those of you who
do not yet have a copy of the roll, it reads, "Dedicated to the memory
of Dean Randall who conceived and initiated this roll."

Thank you all.

Joyce Brite
Player Piano and Mechanical Music Exchange
http://mmd.foxtail.com/Exchange/