Kindergarten Teachers Get Their First Violin Lesson

Xia GuoHua gives Glacier Valley kindergarten teachers their first violin lesson

In my last posting, I detailed our first violin donation by recent Juneau Douglas High School graduate, Kyle Kahklen, who was inspired by the work of El Sistema after watching the documentary. His donation of a full-size violin was put to use the next day when JAMM's violin instructor, Xia GuoHua, gave a 1-hour violin lesson to Glacier Valley Elementary School's four kindergarten teachers: Carly Hickmann, Kaye Peters, JoAnn Steininger and Tia Vreeland.

After sharing his approach and goals for the kindergarten violin classes, Xia taught the basics to our teachers including violin, bow hold, open strings and bowings. Our teachers were just as excited as the kids to be learning how to play the violin. By the end of the lesson, they were playing a beautiful open string duet with Xia. Check it out!

JAMM would like to offer adult violin lessons to kindergarten parents, but are in need of full-size violins. Any violins out there collecting dust? If so, please let us know. Contact Lorrie Heagy at heagyl@jsd.k12.ak.us or 907-780-1405.