Master Classes

Currently the Master Coaching Sessions are suspended due to lack of participation.

The Master Coaching Sessions were started to provide music enhancement to the upper level classes of the Salem-Keizer School District. For many years the Youth Concerts filled the needs of elementary level students. In addition, the OSAS had engaged the Oregon Symphony for a Middle-High School Youth Concert. However, it was found that the block system of moving students from class to class each day made it nearly impossible to pull students and teachers out of their school day to travel to our Middle-High School Youth Concerts. Thus the Master Coaching Sessions were born.

The Master Coaching Sessions provided each of the six Salem-Keizer high schools with a musician from the Oregon Symphony who is an expert on a requested instrument. The high school submitted a request that listed which instrument (piccolo, clarinet, oboe, violin, etc.), and which month, day and time would be best for instruction. An Oregon Symphony musician was then matched with the school’s needs and put in touch with the high school instructor so that the coaching session would be implemented successfully (i.e. one-on-one instruction with a student, class instruction or work on a particular piece of repertoire). This provided high school students with intimate coaching on a particular instrument when local resources for private instruction were often lacking.

We hope one day that the Master Coaching Sessions will be reborn by high school instructors who are able to implement them.