Eclectic Strings Festival

BRAND NEW!

Eclectic Strings Festival Brochure

March 17 – 19, 2011
Kansas City, Missouri 

Thanks to
Yamaha Corporation 

and
Alfred Music Publishing
 
for sponsoring the 2011 Eclectic Strings Festival

The Eclectic Strings Festival will be held March 17-19, 2011 in Kansas City, Missouri. Students in the eighth through twelfth grades during the 2010-2011 school year, as well as registered participants of the National ASTA Conference, may apply to participate in this event.

What is the Eclectic Strings Festival?

The Eclectic Strings Festival (ESF) is a three-day event that provides participants with the opportunity to work with nationally-recognized clinicians in their specialty areas:  Andy Carlson (fiddle), Christian Howes (rock), Martin Norgaard (jazz), and Randy Sabien (jazz).  The event will culminate in a featured performance at the ASTA National Conference. 

The ESF gives both students and teachers the opportunity to explore a wide range of musical styles on their string instruments, including fiddle, rock, and jazz.  Student and teachers alike will learn tunes from all three featured genres of music, assemble arrangements of them, and perform a full concert of them.  This is a great way for teachers to learn how to incorporate these styles of music into their orchestra and private lesson curriculums; they will “learn by doing” and then be able to take that knowledge back to their students.  For students, they will be able to learn these styles of music and meet fellow string players from across the country, as well as attend the Exhibit Hall and the Mark Wood Saturday Evening Performance of the ASTA National Conference.

What are the eligibility requirements for student participants?

Student participants of the ESF must be at least twelve years old or in the eighth grade to participate.  Students should be as proficient as Suzuki Book 4 (or its equivalent), and their reading level should be at a school orchestra Grade 3.5 (or its equivalent).  Students must either be a member of ASTA or have an ASTA sponsor, and they must either come as part of a school group with a chaperone or as an individual with their parents. 

Pre-established alt-styles groups may come to participate as an ensemble in ESF as well.  Soloists and featured pre-established groups will be chosen from the registered ESF participants.  Those interested in performing a solo, or having their group play a piece on the ESF Concert, should come prepared to play for the clinicians.  The selection must be one tune or connected set of tunes and be under five minutes in length.

When was the ESF established?

The 2011 National ASTA Conference in Kansas City is the inaugural Eclectic Strings Festival.  The ESF will be a part of the annual National ASTA Conferences and will take the place of the previous bi-annual Alt-Styles Awards Competition.

Who are the clinicians for the ESF?

Internationally-recognized clinicians in a variety of musical styles will work with the ESF participants.  At the 2011 ESF in Kansas City, those clinicians will be Andy Carlson (fiddle), Christian Howes (rock), Randy Sabien (jazz), and Martin Norgaard (jazz).

For more specific information please contact the National Office at Libby@astaweb.com or 703-279-2113 x 20

Important Note  _{(Effective starting with ESF 2011)}

Students who have been invited and who have accepted to be part of the Eclectic Strings Festival may not also be a participant in a National Orchestra Festival group, National High School Honors Orchestra, or the finals of the National Solo Competition in the same national conference year. This participation restriction is due to overlapping event schedules which will cause disruption to the overall experience for all participants of each program. Students may apply for more than one event, but must accept only one if offered multiple event opportunities within the same conference year.