PNW Fiddle Teachers Association
Pacific Northwest
Fiddle Teachers Summit
Sisters, Oregon
August 1-5
Priority Registration Deadline May 15
The Topics
Teaching Skills
Best practices on starting new students. Increasing student motivation. Critical skills for well-rounded fiddlers. Leading jams. Steps for growing a supportive community.
Fiddling Skills
We'll expand your toolkit with the 'must-have' skills that strong fiddlers across genres share. We'll have 2 deep-dive sessions that focus on Scottish fiddling styles.
Teacher Connections
Teaching is SO much easier (and fun!) when you have others to turn to for questions. Get to know teachers who are within driving distance for you.
Location
We'll be in beautiful Sisters, Oregon. The summit will be on the property of co-organizer, Melissa Stolasz.
Accomodation
Attendees have a choice of camping on site, sleeping in the main house in a shared room, or getting accommodations on your own in Sisters.
Cost
The cost will be $350, including meals and on-site accommodations.
Dates
We'll gather at 5pm on Friday, August 1 and finish Monday, at noon, August 5.
The Logistics
The Organizers
Melissa Stolasz
Science teacher turned fiddle instructor, Melissa runs Outlaw Strings in the Sisters public school system.
Duane Whitcomb
Founder of Creekside Strings in Ashland, OR a fiddle program involving 6 teachers and over 120 students.
Founder of FiddleQuest music curriculum.
A Letter From The Organizers
Dear Interested Fiddler,
This summit started with a conversation about fun collaborations we -- Duane and Melissa -- could do together that our students would enjoy.
The ideas started coming fast and furious. And they all involved connecting and collaborating on shared projects -- weekend camps, workshops, festival meet-ups. And we thought that if we got more teachers from our PNW region connected, it would be even more fun and there would be even more cool opportunities.
And we considered the wonderful possibility there might even be some people out there that are not yet teaching, but have a real interest in teaching kids (and adults!) and might want to grow a fiddle program in their PNW community.
So, with those aspirations in mind, we announce our first ever Pacific Northwest Fiddle Teachers Summit.
It includes sessions on teaching, learning new tunes and skills, time for playing music together, some outdoor fun and time for relaxing.
We hope you will join us.
Warmly,
Duane Whitcomb
Melissa Stolasz
Our Summit Site
In an effort to make our first gathering easy and affordable, we'll base ourselves on Melissa's property. Here are some pictures to give an idea of what to expect.
Pacific Northwest
Fiddle Teachers Association
About this group
The FTA facilitates conversations, collaborations and resource sharing between fiddle teachers that helps us all to build stronger education programs and supportive communities for our students.
Ideas we value
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Strong communities are critical for learning and playing music.
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Strong social and emotional health of students should be the result of our work.
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All styles of music on the violin are welcome here.
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Having fun when learning and sharing music beats perfection every time.
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Fiddlers of all abilities and playing proficiencies are valued at the same high level.
What we want to do
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Connect fiddle teachers to enable professional support.
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Bring students across our region together – physically, not virtually.
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Create activities that all FTA teachers and students can participate in.