We have thousands of human-written stories, discussions, interviews and reviews from today through the past 20+ years. Find them here:
Joint ASTA and SAA Conference Begins Wednesday in San Francisco
String teachers from all over the Americas are gathering this week in San Francisco for a conference of two of the profession's largest associations: the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and the Suzuki Association of the Americas (SAA), which together are presenting their second co-located national conference.
Teachers at the 2024 ASTA/SAA Conference.
I will be there as well, writing for Violinist.com about the event and various workshops and performances, and representing Los Angeles teachers as President of the LA Section of CalASTA. Please say hello if you see me!
Thousands of educators, exhibitors, performers, and supporters will be participating in the event, which takes place Wednesday through Saturday (Feb. 25-28) at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square in San Francisco, Calif. The conference will also include an exhibit hall with nearly 100 exhibitors.
The conference, sponsored by D'Addario, will officially begin Thursday morning with a keynote lecture by Alex Laing, President and Artistic Director of Gateways Music Festival.
At the heart of the conference are the dozens of workshops and lectures by the hour on topics including teaching pedagogy, working students of various ages and stages, expanding the repertoire and curriculum, classroom management and psychology, wellness, alternate music styles, keeping school programs thriving, master classes, and much more. It will be hard to choose which to attend!
This year's master classes feature teachers from all over the country. Pre-collegiate master classes will be taught by by violinist Melissa White of the Harlem Quartet; violist Jordan Bak of the Takács Quartet; cellist Andrea Yun of the Detroit Opera; double bassist Renata Soares Cáceres of Illinois Wesleyan University. Collegiate master classes will be taught by violinist Amy Beth Horman of the San Francisco Conservatory, violist Jen Arnold of the Orkest Phion & Gateways Music Festival, cellist Patrice Jackson of the Berklee College of Music & Gateways Music Festival, and double bassist Patrician Weitzel of Penn State University. There will also be a chamber music master class by Annie Fullard of the Cavani String Quartet and an eclectic styles master class by David "Doc" Wallace of the Berklee College of Music.
Happening at the same time is ASTA's National Orchestra Festival, which will feature 35 high school, middle school and youth orchestras from across the U.S., with performances and clinics and culminating Saturday in an awards ceremony.
Want to go to this conference? It's not too late to register, if you are member of either SAA or ASTA. Find registration information here on the ASTA website and here on the SAA website.
You might also like:
- Stories from Past and Present ASTA & SAA Conferences
- ASTA 2023 - Inclusion and the Story of Violinist Adrian Anantawan
- Music Education: Unlocking the Strengths of Neurodivergent Learners
- Violin Practice and Your Brain, with Rebecca Roesler ASTA 2023
* * *
Enjoying Violinist.com? Click here to sign up for our free, bi-weekly email newsletter. And if you've already signed up, please invite your friends! Thank you.
Replies
You must be registered and logged in to submit a comment.
