American String Teachers Association Incorporated

Member Services - The Association provides professional development, career building & support, and a community of peers for all teachers of stringed instruments. ASTA communicates its message through various methods including social media and printed and electronic pamphlets and brochures intended to further the goals of increasing school programs, improving university programs, and enhancing string performance throughout the country.

Publications - ASTA publishes two peer-reviewed journals -the American String Teacher Journal, published quarterly and the String Research Journal. The American String Teacher Journal is written for all members and features articles related to string teacher and performance, with an emphasis on educational approaches for string instruments. The String Research Journal (SRJ) represents the research community of ASTA. Its purpose is to encourage and improve scholarship and research within the string education profession and to disseminate the results of this work to the string and larger music teaching communities. It is produced annually. ASTA also partners with Alfred publishing to distribute books created in past years, including the recently updated ASTA String Curriculum, the only curriculum guide focused on string teaching.

Foundation - ASTA welcomes donors to support ASTA's programs. ASTA partners with the Foundation for the Advancement of String Education to fund scholarships for new teachers to attend the in-person ASTA conference. This year, those dollars allowed 1 educator to participate in the national conference, and helped subsidize an additional FASE Diversity Fellows to participate in the conference offerings.

New Canon Project - This year, ASTA partnered with Rising Tide Music Press, Hal Leonard Publications, and the American Choral Directors Association to premiere 7 new works of string music by Black and Latinx composers in the first decade of their composing careers. Premiered at the National Conference, these pieces are now available through SheetMusic.com and SheetMusicPlus.com for purchase and use by string educators around the world. Funded in part by the Sphinx Venture Fund this project fulfills ASTA's strategic plan directive to support new works by composers from historically excluded communities.

All other projects - Journals and State Chapters