ASTA MD/DC Chapter

Education for Happiness, a Survey of the Practice Process with Gabe Bolkosky
2021-12-19 19:00 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Virtual Event
Free for ASTA Members, $15 for Non-Members. Register HERE. Pay/Donate Here
Via Zoom – Link will be shared with registered participants on the day of the event.
Education For Happiness is a think tank dedicated to making learning smoother for the 99% by pioneering new ways of empowering musicians to delight in their own practice. At the core of the philosophy is Gabe’s Practice Wheel, a diagram for smooth approaches to practice and learning in general. The organization is pioneering new ways of empowering musicians to delight in their own practice through daily guided practice courses, PhoenixPhest Chamber music immersives, and live chamber music workshops for all ages and levels.
This session is for teachers of all instruments in a classroom and/or studio setting, and parents of student musicians who are interested helping their children be more productive in practice. In this ninety minute workshop, participants will:

Learn Gabe’s multi-layered approach to the process for creating a musical performance
Identify basic priorities within that process,
Be guided through how to intentionally apply the Practice Wheel with intention

Gabe Bolkosky, Violinist, is the owner and founder of Education For Happiness, an education think tank dedicated to making learning smoother for the 99%.
Gabe has released seven CDs that show his breadth as a musician. His debut solo album, This and That, features classical and jazz music. Other albums include The Shape of Klez to Come with the klezmer group Into the Freylakh; The Orchestra Is Here to Play, a live recording teaming the Gemini children’s-music group with a full orchestra; The Oblivion Project Live, showcasing the music of Astor Piazzolla; Non Sequitur, contemporary and experimental music, including one of his own compositions; Home from Work, an eclectic mix of jazz, folk and blues in collaboration with San Slomovits, and as sideman on John Lindberg’s recording Two by Five. His most recent CD is Bonne Nuit, which includes the Debussy Sonata and other small works for violin and piano with Michele Cooker, and can be found here.
Gabe currently collaborates with two main ensembles, The Bayberry String Quartet and The Oblivion Project. He was a guest artist at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor teaching violin and chamber music for six years. He has worked with all ages of young musicians in most of the 50 states and parts of Asia. He maintains a private violin studio with his wife, Steffani Kitayama.

Shifting Our Focus
2021-09-19 19:00 - 21:00
SHIFTING OUR FOCUS
From Well-DOing to Well-BEing as Classical Musicians
Sunday, September 19th at 7:00pm, via Zoom
Free for Members and College Students
$10 for Non-Members

This 75-minute coaching workshop will not be a lecture, or a teaching, nor the giving of advice. A life coach knows that people have their own best answers when given space and time to listen to their own voice. Musicians know that a room full of educators has the potential to create a powerful, collective shift of learning.
Materials: Something to write on, to write with, a quiet location without distractions, and a willingness to consider sharing your thoughts.
Results: will take away new ideas, a sense of being in community with others, and a clearer understanding of ways they might like to make changes in their own lives and in their teaching. What is it, that’s in you – that I can hold the space for – that could empower you to live the way you want to live?

REGISTER HERE
Violinist Eva Cappelletti Chao’s orchestral career has included performances at the most prestigious concert halls throughout the U.S., Europe, Central and South America and the Middle East. When not stopped by a world-wide pandemic, Eva performs regularly with the Baltimore Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra and leads many of the freelance ensembles in the Washington, DC area. Ms. Cappelletti Chao has a thriving private life coaching practice specifically for classical musicians, theMusicofYou.com, which is particularly gratifying during these unprecedented times of change for the performing arts.

Beginner String Technique Made Easy
2021-09-06 19:00 - 21:00 | Virtual Event
Beginner String Technique Made Easy
Do you spend every Fall ever-so-slowly setting up your students to play properly?
Need a step-by-step method that works quickly, consistently and successfully?
Do you worry as your students wait in boredom as you correct and then ……… the bell rings?
There is a better and easier way! Join us for this VIRTUAL and hands-on session!
A VIRTUAL hands-on workshop for teachers of beginning string instruments!
Presenter: Grace Law
Monday September 6th, 7:00pm
Free for Members! $10 for Non-Members
Register HERE
Participants will learn to:
• Teach the bow hold and left hand positioning faster
• Achieve more correct left and right hand positioning results
• Waste less time and fix less incorrect posture
• Establish bowing technique with effective bow hold exercises

Grace Law’s passion is training string teachers for success. Grace’s unique approach offers simple, quick and effective strategies for teaching beginning technique. Teachers can find her blog and learn more about teacher-training courses and workshops at SmartStringsteacher.com. Through Grace’s training, teachers discover how much they can accomplish with students, and can’t wait to get back to the classroom and put easy, new, and effective strategies to work. Grace has a music and a teaching degree from the University of Toronto, 30 years of private and classroom teaching experience and currently teaches high school string orchestra.
