Here at NS Design, we are really pleased to welcome Theresa Jenkins-Russ as a pioneer in our NS Design Artist/Educator program.    Theresa is a string and orchestra teacher in the Spartanburg, SC School District, Artistic Director of the Carolina Cool Jazz Orchestra, and President-Elect of the South Carolina Chapter of the American String Teachers Association.  Theresa is a fixture on the national string education scene, presenting sessions at numerous national conferences and is known for her work in the “Alternative Styles” world of string ed and for her work in promoting minority composers and musicians. At the recent ASTA national conference in Santa Clara, she presented a session on programming multicultural orchestral literature and conducted the alt styles new music reading session.  Her group, The Carolina Cool Jazz Orchestra, is a professional performing group in Spartanburg that brings together musicians of a variety of ages and experience levels to perform primarily great jazz literature.  They frequently feature guest soloists and are committed to promoting string instruments as an integral component of the jazz scene.  Recent soloists have included Matt Turner, Martin Norgaard, Joe Dread, and me.

Theresa is now performing on the NS Design Wav violin and absolutely loves it.  We had the pleasure of spending a good deal of time with her at the NS Design Booth at ASTA and look forward to a long and productive relationship.  Congratulations, Theresa, on all of your good work!!

Blaise Kielar, of the Electric Violin Shop, sends us this report from the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) conference:

The winner of the NS Design – Electric Violin Shop Giveaway of an NS Design WAV violin is CiCi Lau of Shreveport, Louisiana. The drawing was held March 21 at the EVS exhibit at the American String Teachers Association annual Conference in Atlanta, and was open only to conference attendees. The glossy black WAV was autographed by Ned Steinberger, the designer of the innovative NS Design electric violin, viola, cello and upright bass.

It is a striking coincidence that the two other WAV violins sold to young players at ASTA Atlanta were also from Shreveport! Considering there were over 700 Giveaway entries, ranging from Alaska to New Hampshire, Kenya to Germany, there must be some electric violin magic happening, or about to happen, in Shreveport!

CiCi is a high school student who has studied violin with Elaine Webb since 4th grade. After receiving the WAV violin, she said, “Thanks again for the wonderful violin. I will continue to enjoy it and amaze my friends.”

On March 18-22, The American String Teachers Association (ASTA) held their annual National Conference in Atlanta.  I was pleased to attend the conference and present several educational sessions to both teachers and students that were involved with the conference and the National Orchestra Festival.  I am happy to report that NS Design had a strong presence at the event and folks from all over the country are now aware of the Wav Violin and the buzz around the product is very strong!

First, The Electric Violin Shop (www.electricviolinshop.com) had a booth that was prominently positioned right at the entrance to the exhibit hall for the conference.  Every attendee had to walk right by their booth to enter the exhibits.  They had the Wav, in all three colors, displayed front and center and everyone from students to teachers could try the instruments on fantastic amps and with cool effects processing.  Additionally, all that checked out the instrument in the booth could register for a raffle at the end of the show where one person would receive a free wav.  I know that generated a great deal of interest as well.

One of my sessions was entitled “Effective Effects.”  In this session, I really give a mini science lesson and discuss exactly what various common effects do and how the parameters work.  I broke down the function of EQ, reverb, time based effects (chorus, flanger, and delay), filter effects (phase shifting, wah wah), distortion, and pitch shifters.  The session was really well attended and I received super-positive feedback from many that attended.  Throughout the session, I demonstrated all of the effects with my Wav violin.  The instrument sounded fantastic and many remarked about it afterwards.  Folks were amazed at the fantastic look as well as the economical price.  All feedback was extremely positive. You can see more information on the effects processing seminar at www.electricstringed.com.

All in all, it was a fantastic conference and the Wav received some fantastic publicity.  The instrument certainly speaks for itself.  I couldn’t be happier with the results and the response from the conference.

Peace,

Scott