About ASTA / History

In February of 1946 at the national meeting of the Music Teachers National Association in Detroit, Michigan, groundwork for the new national string organization was laid. At a session of the violin forum, a representative from the National Guild of Piano Teachers suggested that a group of similar scope should be organized to promote string playing and instruction and volunteered the services of the piano teachers in assisting in the organization of such a group. While those string players present at the forum agreed that some sort of organization was needed in the string field, they were chagrined to think that a string group should need the prodding and guidance of pianists in organizing. As a result, the group authorized the creation of a committee of string teachers which would look into the feasibility of organizing a Violin Teachers Guild.

This committee was charged with initiating correspondence with as many teachers and performers as possible in order to ferret out ideas of the scope of and general program for a proposed national organization and to determine if there were sufficient interest nationally to merit the formation of a string group.

Further informal conversations were held at the Music Educators National Conference national convention in Cleveland, Ohio later that year, leading to an informal meeting after the convention. While workers were busily setting up for the next event to be held in the event space, a group of nineteen people sat in a circle on the ground and expressed concern over the lack of a string organization which could serve both MTNA and MENC in a capacity similar to that of the national band, orchestra, and chorus associations, and also welcome those who were members of neither organization who were committed to the field of string instruction.

A set of eight general objectives for the organization were set forth:

1. Improvement of string pedagogy;
2. To make known the meaning, function, and value of individual and group experience with the music of stringed instruments;
3. Development of professional relationships with other groups;
4. Assistance toward manufacture and repair of stringed instruments;
5. To promote wider performance of chamber music and string orchestra literature;
6. To provide opportunities for children in our schools to hear good string playing;
7. To cooperate with college and university string departments in the development of their teacher-training curricula;
8. To modernize string materials.

After working out a framework for their initial organization and steps to move forward, the group moved to tentatively adopt the name "American String Teachers Association". Finally, each member donated a single dollar to establish an initial operating fund. Thus, with a tentative name and set of objectives and guidelines, nineteen initial members, a nineteen dollar operating fund, and a commitment to spread the news about the new organization to their colleagues, the American String Teachers Association was founded.

More than 75 years later, ASTA has grown to include more than 6,000 active members, and continues in its commitment to serve and lead a community of diverse members in advancing string teaching, performing and scholarship.

Adapted from "A History of the American String Teachers Association: The First Twenty-Five Years" (available below).