©2025 Ohio Music Education Association
Allied Organizations
Ohio String Teachers Association Fall Update 2025
Ohio String Teachers Association Fall Update 2025
David Pope, OSTA President
Welcome to the 2025-2026 school year! If you are like me, you are excited to meet your new students, reconnect with returning students, and make music together. As we start the year, I am hopeful you will add the 2025 OSTA Fall Workshop on Saturday, November 8th to your calendar. The workshop runs from 9:00am to 5:30pm at Upper Arlington High School, and our headline presenter is Dr. Angela Ammerman from the University of Tennessee. She will present on rehearsal strategies, classroom management, and inspiring the next generation of string teachers. We are also honored to have Ann Gilbert, Audrey John Melzer, Jordan Koogler, Tanner Otto, Brian Siekmann, Lauren Spavelko, Stanton’s Sheet Music, and the Bowed String Shop present additional sessions. You can also join us for dinner on Friday, November 7th at Hofbrauhaus Columbus. I also encourage teachers to bring any high school student with them to the workshop who is interested in pursuing a career in music education. The workshop is a great opportunity to introduce them to our wonderful Ohio string community. For additional information and to register, visit the OSTA website.
Dr. Angela Ammerman
I want to congratulate the following orchestras who were selected to perform at the 2026 OMEA Professional Development Conference: Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Youth Orchestra, Dublin Youth String Orchestra, Hilliard Bradley Chamber Orchestra, Miami University Symphony Orchestra, Olentangy High School Chamber Orchestra, The Ohio State University Symphony Orchestra, and the Upper Arlington High School Concert Orchestra. Join me in supporting these directors and students by attending their performances in January 2026.
I also want to encourage you to serve on the OSTA Board of Directors. Our next election cycle opens later this fall, and one of the best ways to support string education in Ohio is getting involved in OSTA. I am hopeful you will consider running for position or encouraging a peer to serve. Please watch the OSTA website and social media for more information.
OSTA members are also encouraged to apply for an OSTA Mini-Grant. These grants, up to $300.00, are available to support projects led by public school or private studio teachers that enrich string education in Ohio. To apply, please visit the OSTA website. The annual application deadlines are March 15th and September 15th.
In closing, I encourage you to contact me if OSTA can do anything to support your work as a string educator. It does not matter if you are a novice teacher, veteran educator, string player, or non-string player who teaches strings. OSTA wants you and your students to succeed.
David Pope serves as a Professor of Music Education at Baldwin Wallace University and the current President of the Ohio String Teachers Association. He has guest conducted numerous all states orchestras and regularly presents string pedagogy clinics at the European String Teachers Congress, the ASTA National Conference, The Midwest Clinic, and numerous regional/state conferences.