Spring 2021 News: Group Class Update
Hi Folk School Students,
We’re writing today to let you know about a change in our Folk School offerings. As you know, the Folk School offers workshops, jams, private lessons, and group classes. As we celebrate 20 years of the Folk School this year, we reflect on the changes and evolutions we’ve seen in that time, not the least of which were the changes brought about--and still being brought about in the last year--by Covid-19.
Folk School will be suspending group classes for the foreseeable future. We will still be offering private lessons with our current instructors, as well as our weekly Saturday Session workshops with instructors from around the country, and our Sunday Jams w/ Patt & Possum.
There are a couple of reasons for the change to group classes. We were excited to pivot our in-person classes to Zoom when the pandemic hit and we were the first Folk School to do so. As more and more Folk Schools, organizations, and individual musicians offer lessons, classes and workshops, we have struggled to continue to fully fill our classes. We also have heard from many of our community members that they’d like to see Folk School expand our offerings and reach more communities in the St. Louis area and beyond.
Additionally, KDHX engaged in a significant strategic planning process in 2020 and education was a recurring theme from listeners, students, volunteers, and community members. It’s clear that the educational offerings of KDHX, which include Folk School and our audio/video training for DJs and production volunteers is one of the most important things we do. We have committed to evaluating and expanding those educational offerings over the next three years of the strategic plan and anticipate more group class offerings in the future.
We know this is a big change for those of you who regularly take classes. We are thrilled that our instructors will continue to offer private lessons and we encourage you to take advantage of all that they have to teach. You can see our private lesson offerings and information HERE.
While we will miss our group classes, we’re proud that we are continuing to offer folk music education with our excellent roster of instructors and continuing to build a community around our workshops and jams. Our goal is to further both of those things as we look to future opportunities for Folk School and KDHX.
Feel free to email us at folkschool@kdhx.org with any questions you may have and we’ll look forward to “seeing” you at a Saturday Session or Sunday Jam soon.
-The Folk School Team
