String Keynote: The Power of Possibility featuring Kittel & Co.
Clinic Synopsis:
Teaching is ultimately an imaginative belief in possibilities. Great educators teach the reality of the student in front of them but maintain a vision of who the student can and will become. Creating a clear vision for your students, parents, administration, staff, community, and program writ large is essential to progress and success. Possibility thinking is infectious and can transform your teaching and career.
Bob Phillips
- Biographical Information
Bob Phillips (B. 1953), pedagogue, composer, teacher trainer, and conductor, is renowned as an innovator in string education. A recognized expert in the use of large group pedagogy and alternative styles, he has presented clinics throughout North America, Europe, and Australia. Phillips has authored 25 book series for use in the classroom including Alfred’s revolutionary method, Sound Innovations, and was the Director of Strings for Alfred for many years. With over 200 works published for orchestras and bands, Phillips is an award-winning ASCAP composer. During his 27 years of teaching strings in Saline, Michigan, Bob built a thriving string program and was elected "Teacher of the Year" nine times by national, state, and regional associations. He is a frequent all-state and honor orchestra conductor and serves as resident conductor for the Wintergrass festival in Seattle. He has served as president of the American String Teachers Association and, in 2013, Bob was inducted into the University of Michigan School of Music Hall of Fame.
Jeremy Kittel - Biographical Information
Jeremy Kittel is an American violinist, fiddler, and composer. He received a Grammy nomination for "Best Instrumental Composition” in 2019 alongside prevalent composers such as John Williams and Terence Blanchard. Fluent in multiple musical genres, he composes original music that draws from a wide variety of influences including folk, jazz, celtic, classical, electronic, and more.Jeremy performs with his group Kittel & Co., as a soloist with orchestras, and in collaborative and supporting roles with many of today’s leading artists. In demand as a composer and arranger, he has worked with Abigail Washburn and Bela Fleck, Zedd, Aoife O’Donovan, My Morning Jacket, Shawn Mendes, Theo Katzman, Jars of Clay, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Laura Veirs, Sara Watkins, Renee Fleming, and the Turtle Island Quartet (of which he was a member for five years). He has also recorded and performed with artists such as Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Jon Batiste, Fleet Foxes, and Esperanza Spalding.
Believing passionately that music and the arts are central to the human experience, Kittel enjoys teaching music through workshops and clinics at diverse programs such as Berklee College of Music, Belmont University, The New School, International Music Academy of Pilsen, Zurich University of the Arts, Mark O’Connor Strings Camps, the Swannanoa Gathering, Valley of the Moon Scottish Fiddling School, and the University of Michigan. Kittel has a master’s degree in jazz performance from the Manhattan School of Music and received the 2010 Emerging Artist Award from U of M (his alma mater). He is the recipient of awards including the US National Scottish Fiddle Championship and six Detroit Music Awards, and has contributed to many Grammy-nominated recordings. He was also the first recipient of the Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin.
Kittel & Co - Biographical Information
Led by Grammy-nominated violinist and composer Jeremy Kittel, Kittel & Co. (“Kid-dle and Koh”) inhabits the space between classical and acoustic roots, Celtic and bluegrass aesthetics, and folk and jazz sensibilities. Some of the greatest musicians in the incredible acoustic scene, the members of Kittel & Co. have collaborated with Béla Fleck, Sarah Jarosz, Chris Thile, and Yo-Yo Ma. Together, Jeremy Kittel and mandolin phenom Josh Pinkham, transcendent guitarist Quinn Bachand, bassist Jacob Warren, and hammer-dulcimer wizard Simon Chrisman coalesce into a singular voice that’s thrilled audiences from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival to A Prairie Home Companion. “[Kittel & Co.] takes the string band tradition to marvelously rarefied levels of collective virtuosity…. thrillingly spontaneous” –Times UK.
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