By James Harding and Julia Chanin, Playnotes Editors
Orff Levels-Training Courses are the official path to mastery for Orff Schulwerk teachers in the United States, the best foundation in the scope and sequence of elemental music and movement study. While day-long workshops delight and inspire us, Levels Courses provide structure and reveal the pedagogical principles behind the magic, empowering us to design our own materials, lessons and curricula based in the Orff approach. If you love Orff workshops and haven’t taken a Levels Course yet, you are in for a wonderful treat that will change the way you teach!
While many AOSA Levels Courses across the country didn’t run this summer because of low numbers, or ran into CoVid challenges and cancellations, the Bay Area was fortunate to successfully produce not one but THREE exciting Levels Courses. Read about the experience of participants in each in the blog posts below AND SIGN YOURSELF UP FOR A LEVELS COURSE FOR NEXT SUMMER!
The San Francisco International Orff Course Levels I, II, & III
Music teachers from over 15 countries at the San Francisco International Orff Course
Level I Instructors
Andrea Donahoe and Sofia Lopez-Ibor (Basic)
Christa Coogan (Movement)
Michael Chandler (Recorder)
Level II Instructors
Paul Cribari and James Harding (Basic)
Estevao Marques (Movement)
Eloi Fuguet (Recorder)
Level III Instructors
Doug Goodkin (Basic)
Christa Coogan and Estevao Marques (Movement)
Eloi Fuguet and Doug Goodkin (Recorder)
For more information about the San Francisco International Orff Course, go to /https://sforff.org/
Student Reflections…
Kate Offer
Level III – San Francisco International Orff Course
This year’s Level III class had the distinction of consisting entirely of people who, thanks to the complications of COVID, had taken at least four years to complete their Orff levels. While this might seem like an interesting but otherwise meaningless coincidence, the practical impact was that the people who showed up for Level III in 2022 were relieved as much as they were delighted to find themselves at Hidden Valley finishing their levels this summer, and a sense of gratitude was pervasive during our two weeks together.
We had a lot for which to be grateful. Certainly, one highlight was Practicum Day when we had the enormous pleasure of watching our fellow teachers at work. The breadth and depth of their creativity, musicianship, care, energy, and out-of-the-box thinking was only matched by the enthusiasm their classmates put into serving as their students. Every session was met with cheers. The twelfth session was as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as the first. It was an extraordinary showing on all sides, and I felt honored to be in the room.
And, of course, we were thankful for our teachers at all levels. When you finish your Practicum Day, the entirety of the camp teaching staff shows up to celebrate with you, and, as much as they might just have come for the free cake and champagne, I think it is probably because they recognize that when they hug you in congratulations, you are hugging them back with gratitude. We simply wouldn’t have arrived at that moment without each and every one of them.
If I have any advice for future Level IIIs, it is this: bring your gratitude to camp with you, it will infinitely enrich your learning.
Oh, and also, you sit on the floor a lot in Level III, so maybe bring a pillow.
Kate Offer
Kate Offer is the Music & Movement Specialist for the Pacific Primary School, a preschool in San Francisco. She also runs Songs from the Sandbox, a YouTube channel of sing-along songs for children and families. Check it out at http://www.YouTube.com/songsfromthesandbox.
Gabriela Martinez del Campo
Level II – San Francisco International Orff Course
Many years had passed since I attended Level I of the International Orff Course in San Francisco, so I was a bit anxious to rejoin in Level II, but the experience removed my fears and fulfilled my expectations. Looking back on this summer, my participation in Level II of the SFIOC gave me a profound experience of growth as a musician as well as a teacher. I am so thankful for the organization of the course, precise in its goals and yet, at the same time, adapting to the needs of our specific group. All the activities were exciting, interesting and useful, as they progressively contributed to my understanding of the Orff approach. Three highlights:
The collective creation in Estevao Marques’s movement class of a dynamic choreography in which we integrated novel forms of corporal expression, put into practice diverse strategies of teamwork and reflected on the pedagogy to carry them out with our students.
Next, the opportunity for each participant to teach a song to the group in five minutes, bringing a variety of traditional songs and games in our diverse native languages, broadening our cultural horizons and teaching strategies.
Finally, the adaptation and interpretation of several pieces from the Orff Volumes, in small chamber groups, which allowed us to incorporate our own arrangement ideas and personal skills on a variety of instruments.
In short, this course is an experiential guide in which we learn by doing in an environment similar to the one we will find in our classrooms. Level II leaves me with the task of incorporating countless Orff strategies and materials to my daily practice!
Gabriela Martinez del Campo
Gabriela Martinez del Campo currently teaches Spanish as a second language in several schools in Northern California and gives workshops to teachers in Mexico, related to her publications on the integration of the arts.
Lucy Morris
Level I – San Francisco International Orff Course
“I want to spend more quality time with kids, either with music or movement… or both.”
This is what I said to two friends who are music teachers. They both immediately said I should take an Orff course. One of them had just received an email that there was one more spot left in the Level I course at Hidden Valley in Carmel – a 2 ½ hour drive away. I had known of Orff but never considered it for myself until that moment. I signed up the next day for the two week immersive course to stay in a shared room with unknown roommates and an unknown curriculum (definitely outside my comfort zone!)
I expected the course to be interesting and useful, but I wasn’t prepared for how broad and layered it was at integrating movement, music and play. I also wasn’t prepared to come away with such a feeling of how the Orff work builds community and how, as an adult, I wantmore community and play in my life!
At the opening gathering I saw many people gleefully reuniting – former Orff course attendees returning after the Covid dry spell. There were introductions and singing and then meeting my new roommates, two young women from Thailand also in the Level I course. After the initial awkwardness of adjusting to a shared space, we became fast friends and supporters, practicing recorder on our beds. (What?! ME? Recorder?!?!…and I think I’m enjoying this!)
There were moments of feeling like the new kid at school – vulnerable, managing self-doubt. Who do I sit next to? Where do I fit in? And then, the guidance, the lessons for the day, being offered a pathway in. Just follow this simple step…in a circle, turn, listen to the rhythm… I learn to let the group collective bring me back when I lose the step or the pattern. Now add this melody, these words. Now let’s try it in a round, now call and response, now you lead, now you follow. Suddenly I’m fully engaged, moving as part of a larger whole, being surprised at the new layers, joining in laughter at our mistakes and near collisions, and then a sense of accomplishment and camaraderie through our shared experience.
Each class (the morning tutti sessions, the dance, the basic Orff work, the recorder) all built on the previous days’ elemental principles, and each revealed simple concepts with endless room for variation. Our instructors made clear that what we’re being given is a foundation for creating lessons that meet the needs and requirements of the moment.
The course is over now, but our group is keeping in touch; sharing memories and planning time to go over our copious notes. All of the instructors shared a treasure trove of lessons, songs, videos, essays and resources that will take time to unpack and apply. I’m feeling challenged, encouraged, connected, grateful, and looking forward to delving in deep with Orff principles wherever music, movement, community, play and connection are needed!
Lucy Morris
Lucy Morris currently works as the office manager on the K-5 side of a K-8 school in Berkeley, CA. She has a year of study at Berklee School of Music in voice and guitar and a B.A. in English with a Dance Minor from the University of New Hampshire.
Completing my Orff Level I at San José State this past summer was a sensational experience. As someone new to Orff-Schulwerk, it was an absolute privilege to dive into the intricacies of this approach with such a welcoming community. Our course participants came from across the country — as close as the South Bay Area and as far as San Antonio and Boston — providing us with a wealth of different backgrounds, experiences, and stories to share in our communal learning setting. The friendships that I developed over our short time together have had a profound impact on my growth as an educator and will hopefully endure for years to come.
Pedagogically, the skillfully-sequenced recorder lessons of Natasha Thurmon truly stood out to me. I was astounded by her ability to take a relatively simple melody or text and create near-endless layers of expressive opportunities for students, culminating in an engaging and multi-faceted performance for students and audience members alike. My personal favorite was her arrangement of Elton John’s Crocodile Rock; thanks to her, the song was stuck in my head for the rest of July! I have already begun to incorporate her strategies into my own instruction with students, and I’m quite excited by their responses as well as the potential for increasingly creative projects later in the year.
Course Director Tiffany Barry and her team have done an exceptional job fostering a mindful and inclusive community of diverse educators and lifelong learners. I eagerly await the opportunity to pursue Level II in San José next summer.
René Canto-Adams
René Canto-Adams has been working as a freelance musician and music educator in the San Francisco Bay Area since 2013. He currently teaches general music, choir, and band in Burlingame School District. As a woodwind doubler, he also maintains an active performance career, freelancing with a variety of jazz, latin, and rock bands.
Oakland Unified School District Level I
This is an Orff Level I training taking place within the Oakland Unified School district, under the supervision of Phil Rydeen, director of Visual and Performing Arts, with support of Sarah Willner, music teacher on special assignment and Visual and Performing Arts support. The teachers attended an intensive, four day opening prep-week in August, led by Orff teacher educator Dr. Kimberly Collins. Then, throughout the year, in zoom sessions and live in-service workshops, the teachers continue the Level I training, culminating in another intensive session next August.
Oakland Unified School District Performing Arts teachers with Dr. Kimberly Collins
Level I Instructors
Dr. Kimberly Collins (Basic and Movement)
Sofía López-Ibor and James Harding (Recorder)
Antwan Davis, Sarah Willner and others (special topics)
I am a dance teacher with almost forty years of teaching experience. Most of my teaching has been in higher education as well as private K-12 grade schools. For the last six years I have been a dance teacher in Oakland Unified School District. This year we have four dance teachers and twenty plus elementary music teachers.
This first week of our Orff level 1 training met every day. In person and Zoom meetings with Dr. Kimberly Collins and other Orff teachers will follow throughout the year. For me this first week was crucial to the structure of a year long Orff training because we were able to nurture a classroom culture that felt safe and at the same time encouraged creative risk-taking. As a dance teacher I enjoyed dancing with the music teachers as well as stumbling through the instrumental and vocal work with my dance colleagues. Kimberly supported us by introducing exploratory activities that combined music, movement, and poetry. She supported both emerging educators as well as challenging seasoned ones with her thoughtful scaffolding. My favorite activity was creating a small group rhythmic movement poem. Kimberly presented all of the components we would need in this activity through various imitation and experimentation lessons. She communicated and instructed with very little talking so I always felt like an active participant and fully engaged. I came away after this first week, feeling inspired, supported and enthusiastic. The Orff values, firmly placed in child development, allowed this group of educators to play, dance and make music together before starting the new year in our own classrooms.
Carol Kueffer (and Gaudi)
Carol Kueffer has an MFA in Dance from New York University and is a founding member of the New York based Modern Dance Company, David Dorfman Dance. Her company Carol Kueffer Dance has performed throughout New York, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and at the National Dance Festival of Brazil in Bahia. Carol has taught dance at Sonoma State University, UC Santa Cruz and she is currently at Highland Community School and Shawl Anderson Dance Center.
James Harding and Julia Chanin are the co-editors of the Playnotes Blog. James teaches students PS-8th grade at the San Francisco School and Julia teaches Kindergarten through High School students in Marin and Sonoma.
NCAOSA PlayNotes 