In March 2024, during the 52nd International ESTA Conference in Porto, a new working group was created: ESTA Folk. A group of music teachers from ESTA Spain and ESTA Slovenia have been working during the last two years to make the folk music education visible in ESTA activities and conferences. The purpose is connecting people through this music and to build an educational structure in folk music heritage of individual regions.
Creating the working group under the most representative organisation of European string teachers (ESTA) was one of objectives of an Erasmus+ project European Fiddle Gate. The project connected European influent folk violin educators at two one-week conferences (2022 and 2023) at Bahnhof Leisnig in Germany. The discussion was about connecting traditional music within the established classical and jazz curriculum.
A web database www.fiddle-gateway.eu is a tool for a better orientation within a large amount of violin tunes. ESTA Folk will coordinate folk activities within ESTA International. It is a bridge between traditional music and established classical and jazz education.
Main goals:
-Defining a musical curriculum for cross-over folk violin.
-Defining ‘classic’ repertoire in cross-over folk music that can be used also in
classical education.
-Promotion of regular meetings of influencers for exchanging materials and
experiences.
-Development of a better connection between different approaches in violin
education.
This is just the beginning of a series of joint projects. We are looking for more people from ESTA branches interested in joining and collaborating with us. You can access the previous projects in the following links or check the database at: www.fiddle-gateway.eu .
2 Erasmus+ conferences organised by Bahnhof Leisnig (GER) & Društvo za ENO
glasbo / Society for ONE music (SLO):
2023 ESTA international conference in Cardiff presentation (full video is here )
2024 ESTA International Conference in Porto Barja Drnovšek, Violin and Bojan Cvetrežnik, Violin and Viola
2024 ESTA International Conference in Porto Alfonso Franco, Rosa Pampillo and Susana Blanco
Debate about folk education at Fiddlers on the Move 2024, Ghent, Belgium
ESTA Folk in Spanish newspaper La voz de Galicia
If you are interested, you can write to:
Bojan Cvetrežnik, ESTA Slovenia, pedagogical leader
Rosa Pampillo, ESTA Spain, executive leader