New Jersey Educator Honored With Mensa Foundation Distinguished Teacher Award

ARLINGTON, Texas - EntSun -- Marcia Blackstone Maull, a music teacher and performer and the Chair of the Theory Program for the Music Educators Association of New Jersey, is the 2019 winner of the Mensa Foundation's Distinguished Teacher Award.

Nominated by Mensa member Ingrid Bianca Byerly, Ms. Maull has taught students who became luminary musicians and educational influencers in Africa, Europe, Asia, and America. Ms. Byerly first encountered Ms. Maull as a 15-year-old at the Music, Art and Ballet School in South Africa. "She championed unique assets and tended individual challenges," Ms. Byerly said. "What stayed with me most, however, was not just the detail of small phrases or large works. It was what she shared about the art of mastery, the discipline and focus that results in the euphoria of realizing one's aptitudes."

More on EntSun News

• Phoenix 5/7 Emerges as a Genre-Fluid Artist Collective
• Massage Revolution Expands to Santa Monica With New Wilshire Boulevard Location
• "Warrior Defined" Event Brings Men Together in Charlotte, With Calls for Events Across the U.S
• Dion Abadi Publishes Free Collector Tips Hub for Art and Jewelry Buyers
• 1017 Brick Squad Records Announces The Signing Of Uneekint And Gepetto Jackson

Before making her home in New Jersey, Ms. Maull worked in New York City, where she was a vocal accompanist and rehearsal pianist for the Opera Orchestra of New York, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and the New York Choral Society. She accompanied for conductors Eugene Ormandy, Robert Shaw and others, as well as opera singers Leontyne Price, Montserrat Caballe, and Marilyn Horne.

In South Africa, besides teaching, Ms. Maull recorded as soloist and chamber music artist for the South African Broadcasting Corporation and served as keyboardist for the National Symphony Orchestra.

Given annually, the Mensa Foundation's Distinguished Teacher Award recognizes a teacher, professor or instructor at any educational level who has had an especially positive influence on the education or life of a Mensan. In Ms. Byerly's nominating essay, she referenced how Ms. Maull's "ancestry of influence" is still connecting lives.

More on EntSun News

• Harvest Moon Meets Saturn Over Asheville Tonight. KayeDinero Plans to Film the Blue Ridge
• ​the Bad Society Model Music Leak Was Just The Beginning:
• World-Renowned Body Language Expert Mark Bowden Headlines INSPIRE Northwest 2026 in Wenatchee, WA
• Creators' Rights Movement National Spokesperson Akustix Earns Two Award Nominations
• Universality Is A Result. Specificity Is The Work

"My 15th birthday may be a distant memory," Ms. Byerly wrote, "but between 15 and 60 lie 45 years of inspiration that have affected my every day and every student that I teach now, too."

# # #

For more than 40 years, the Mensa Education and Research Foundation has advocated for intelligence by providing scholarships, promoting research, championing gifted youth, and empowering educators. Governed by a volunteer Board of Trustees, the Mensa Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization funded by American Mensa, Mensa members, and other charitable donations. To learn more about the Foundation, visit mensafoundation.org.