Sitka Strings was started in 2017 by local violin artist Debby LeVeck.
This group has grown to include beginning violin lessons for students aged 5 to adult, and opportunities to perform in various venues such as the annual Fiddle Grind, the Pioneer Home for the residents, with the Sitka Community Orchestra, and the local Contra dance band “Fishing for Cats”.
We are beyond grateful, Shtooghaa xaditee, to be under the umbrella of the Greater Sitka Arts Council, to assist with our violin loaner program. Our goal is to offer violins to students so parents do not have to pay for new instruments each year as their student grows.
We are super excited to be implementing our new Tlingit language learning program under the tutelage of Koolyeik Roby Littlefield. Tlingit violin classes learn to sing songs in English, Tlingit and in American Sign Language, focusing on pronounciation, comprehension, melody and rhythm. These melodies are learned on the violin. Our approach is to learn to play music through rote learning, learning to read western music notation, and learning to create our own music and sounds on the instruments using improvisation exercises.