UTSA String Project celebrates 20 years of music education for children

String Project director Majah Acton ’17 (left) and music education professor Kristen Pellegrino hold the award for the 2023 Most Outstanding NSPC String Project of the Year at the National ASTA Conference.

APRIL 4, 2023 — For the past 20 years, the UTSA String Project has been introducing young children to the world of music while preparing future music educators for the classroom.

Founded in 2002 as a member of The National String Project Consortium (NSPC), which was created in 1998 by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), the UTSA String Project set out to help alleviate the string teacher shortage and to promote string education in public schools.

“Most string projects are taking the place of what’s not happening in public schools,” said Tracy Cowden, the Roland K. Blumberg Endowed Professor at UTSA and special assistant to the dean for Community Engagement and the Arts. “Most schools here do not introduce instrumental instruction until 6th grade. We offer instruction to students in third through eighth grade at affordable costs.”

At the project’s peak, it served over 130 community children and had 17 music majors teaching on UTSA’s Main and Downtown Campuses. The project continues to offer beginning through advanced-level instruction to community students on orchestral stringed instruments and classical guitar—a popular offering. UTSA was the first institution to offer guitar as part of its String Project.

“Undergrad and grad students in the School of Music teach the classes under the supervision of master teachers who are a combination of faculty, public school teachers and sometimes grad students who have already taught in public schools,” Cowden said. “When our music education students graduate, they leave with a ton of teaching experience and get really good placements teaching in schools.”

“When our music education students graduate, they leave with a ton of teaching experience and get really good placements teaching in schools.”

The UTSA String Project aims to help alleviate the string teacher shortage and to promote string education in public schools.

Recently, the UTSA String Project was named Most Outstanding NSPC String Project of the Year for 2023 during the National ASTA Conference in Florida. The annual award is given to a String Project that exemplifies the mission of the NSPC and influences new generations of highly qualified music educators while offering culturally diverse string instrument education opportunities for its students.

The UTSA String Project is led by Majah Acton ’17, String Project director, and Kristen Pellegrino, professor of music education and the project’s pedagogical advisor.

"Twenty years ago, I was an undergraduate student at UTSA during the String Project's first year,” Acton said. “To witness and experience the growth now as the director of the String Project is both gratifying and inspiring."

"We are eager to create additional opportunities to engage San Antonio’s emerging young musicians and will continue to incorporate culturally relevant composers into our curriculum,” Acton said.

UTSA graduate student Eduardo Lopez joined the String Project in 2022 and is working toward his goal of earning his doctorate of musical arts (DMA) in guitar performance. He is dedicating his life to teaching guitar. 

Lopez, who works as advisor and lead guitar teacher for the project, helps student guitar teachers develop lesson plans, demonstrates effective teaching methods and provides them with feedback.

“One of the reasons why I came here was because UTSA offers classical guitar and not many projects do,” Lopez said. “It’s a pretty unique and wonderful opportunity for me to experience being an advisor as well as teaching students in a variety of age ranges with varying experience levels.”

Looking toward the future, Cowden said they would like to see the project began to develop partnerships again with local schools who can see the String Project as a benefit for their students.  

“The String Project fits the mission of the university so well,” she said. “This is pure outreach and setting students up for lifelong learning in the arts. The idea is to show students that the arts are for everybody and we’re trying to make it accessible to everybody by providing them this low-cost entry point to music education.”

— Michelle Gaitan and Rolando Ramon