On August 10, Education Through Music-Los Angeles’ (ETM-LA) dedicated teachers and local educators joined together for an Instrumental Educators Workshop, in partnership with the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Los Angeles. With ASTA Los Angeles’ grant, ETM-LA supported music educators preparing for in-school instruction, particularly for instrumental-based ensembles and orchestras in elementary and middle schools across Greater Los Angeles.
The workshop, led by Dr. David Pope (Chair, Professional Studies Department & Associate Professor of Music Education – Baldwin Wallace University; Distinguished Music Educator Award of the Yale Symposium for Music in Schools; Education clinician for Alfred Music and American String Teachers Association’s national conference chair), explored skills and strategies for building a robust strings and band program. Topics included: Beginning & Intermediate Strings & Band Techniques, Building Musicality in Your Beginner Groups, and Creating Successful, Engaging, and Fun Beginning Strings & Band Ensembles. Strings & Band ensemble students also participated in order to create an in-action “learning lab” environment.
ETM-LA expanded quality training for strings education in the Greater Los Angeles Area by opening up the workshop to the public, broadening our reach to more strings and instrumental educators. The participant pool included individuals from a variety of backgrounds including: strings teachers, band teachers, and instrumental educators from ETM-LA’s partner schools and other districts across Los Angeles County, conservatory programs, community-based ensembles, after-school organizations, private instruction, and other settings.
Feedback from participants included: “Dr. Pope provided a fresh but familiar approach to ensemble teaching that seems truly student and experience-based and performance-based”; “Dr. Pope gave great strategies to keep students engaged”; and “We all need refreshers to stay current and utilize new techniques. Always great to see the latest from interesting professionals in our field.”
Through ASTA Los Angeles’ generous support, together we are ensuring top-notch strings and instrumental instruction for students across low-income area communities.
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Education Through Music-Los Angeles is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to provide and promote music in under-resourced schools as part of the core curriculum for every child in order to enhance students’ academic achievement, creativity, and overall development.
For more information: www.etmla.org