Atlanta Strings Conservatory with Distinguished Faculty Brings Music to Inner City Youth: Launches a European Styled Institution Dedicated to the Teaching of Violin, Viola, Cello and Contrabass

Atlanta Strings Conservatory, a nonprofit institution dedicated to the education and promotion of string music, announced today the launch of European styled classes for the teaching of the violin, viola, cello and contrabass as well as piano.

“We are launching a brand new program focused on providing the same quality education of European conservatories that develops students with exceptional talents as well as beginners,” said Atlanta Strings Conservatory Founder and Chief Executive Officer Betul Soykan. “While we are accepting students at every level, we are also striving to provide scholarships: this provides an opportunity for selected young people with proven musical talents, but may be from economically underprivileged backgrounds, to master an instrument at the highest performance level with professional individual lessons.”

Atlanta Strings Conservatory has a dedicated recital hall located in its own building in downtown Atlanta close to Turner Field/Grant Park. It offers lessons of string instruments (Violin, Viola, Cello and Contrabass) and performances, at the highest level, tied to local community needs. Its goal is to allow incredibly talented and underprivileged youth to fully develop their talent; learn appreciation for string instruments and build a solid foundation for their future. Ms. Soykan is proud of her location. “You have to be in the inner city, you can’t teach the kids from the suburbs.”

Atlanta Strings Conservatory has initiated a campaign called “Pay to Play for Life” in which donations are linked directly to student scholarships. This way, the sponsor funds go straight to a student sponsorship for lessons. Soykan and her partners have dedicated their life’s work to complete the conservatory. Their mission has already found great support on the local community. In fact, Robert Beavers, a master restorer recently donated a fully restored vintage 1928 piano to the conservatory. Additionally, this past Saturday, ASC supported musically, with full string ensemble, the YES YOU CAN Foundation and Wren’s Nest to help raise funds to Benefit Music and Writing programs for our youth.

“After 20 years of teaching – five locally in Atlanta – we found a tremendous gap,” Soykan said. “There are incredibly talented kids that have no chance of advancement due to the lack of private teaching. We seek to provide those kids with that opportunity to master an instrument while simultaneously developing their character and personality. We want them to use their musical gifts to progress in their art but at the same time develop amazing skills including hand-eye coordination, critical thinking and logical synthesis. These skills are all absolutely transferable to their broader education and life. We chose an urban setting, because that’s where the most talented kids with the highest needs are.”

The high quality Atlanta Strings Conservatory faculty is made up of experienced artist and pedagogues with Master and Doctorate in Music Performance degrees. These artists are acclaimed musicians with top honors and achievements, both nationally and internationally. All the instructors have performance degrees, an absolute essential element in order, and are not only qualified to have the virtuoso skills to play these instruments (usually a music education degree does not provide these skills) but also possess the talent to be able to teach. With this knowledge, they can offer those deep technical elements which will assist students to achieve their musical goals.

The goal of the organization is to help young artists develop their talents and become the nation’s leading performers in fine classical and popular musical venues. It also seeks to create the next generation of fine pedagogues who will pass on their talent in turn to educate the next generation. In parallel to musicality, the Atlanta Strings Conservatory strives to build their character; develop amazing problem solving skills and overall give them a sanctuary of musical teaching. The principle belief of the organization is that the only way to teach students high skills and techniques of these incredibly virtuous-challenging instruments can only be through highly qualified artists, who are current performers and well trained pedagogues.

For more information about the Atlanta Strings Conservatory, please call 404-403-9559, email atlantastringsconservatory@gmail.com or check out their website at www.atlantastrings.org.