Working with Strings
Dr. Joel Schut
This session is designed to empower non-string players with skills and language to work effectively with strings. We will explore string player preparatory and rehearsal needs, an overview of string specific strokes, strategies for curating stringspecific language, and ideas for building trust when working with string players of all levels.
Whether you are conducting a solo collaborator, a string quartet, or a full pickup orchestra, this session will help gain ideas for communicating and conducting your artistic vision with clarity.
This session will focus on:
- Empowering non-string players to collaborate with string players
- Developing a checklist for hiring a pickup orchestra
- Developing your "bowcabulary" and string specific language
- Tips for collaborating effectively with string players
- Running effective and efficient string rehearsals
- Strategies for building gestural trust with string players
Meet Your Professor
Dr. Joel Schut is Orchestra Director at Grand Valley State University where he teaches courses in conducting, orchestral performance, and music education. He previously served on faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder, the Crane School of Music SUNY-Potsdam, and in the Michigan public schools. He is an active clinician for all-state, regional, and honor orchestras, and a passionate advocate for school music programs throughout the country.
As a conductor, he has appeared with the Crane Symphony Orchestra, GVSU Symphony Orchestra, Michigan State Opera Theatre, Michigan State Symphony Orchestra, the University of Colorado Boulder Symphony, Philharmonia, and Chamber Orchestras. He served as Music Director of the Livingston Symphony Orchestra, founding director of the Detroit Medical Orchestra, conductor of the Denver Young Artists Conservatory Orchestra, and organizer of the Michigan Teachers Orchestra. He has collaborated with a range of professional artists including Andrés Cárdenas and Ralph Votapek and commissioned works for string and full orchestra.
A dedicated string educator, his research and service includes work as a conductor-teacher trainer and advocate for cross-cultural music making. He has presented clinics and workshops on a range of topics and mentored young teachers nationally and internationally. A graduate of the YOA Orchestra of the Americas Global Leaders Program, he has served as a program mentor connecting innovators in youth orchestra education throughout the Americas. Passionate about inspiring the next generation of conductor-teacher training, he has conducted and performed with students in the US, China, Germany, Honduras, Tunisia, Mexico, Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
Schut is past editor for the American String Teacher Journal and his publications have been featured in Teaching Music Through Performance in Orchestra (GIA), Teaching Instrumental Music (Oxford), Southwestern Musician Magazine, and the American String Teacher Journal. He has presented at the Midwest Clinic, American String Teachers Association National Conference, the Modern Conducting Academy, and at state conferences including Texas TMEA, Colorado CMEA, and Michigan MMC. He received his Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University, Masters in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Colorado-Boulder and Bachelors in Violin Performance and Music Education from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance where he was awarded the Albert A. Stanley Medal, the school's highest honor.