AVS Local Viola Society Chapters

AVS Chapters are the local, regional groups of active AVS members who meet and sponsor live happenings of interest to all violists in their vicinity. These events range from the educational and artistic to the more social and even zany. When one of these organizations brainstorms a wonderful idea and gets behind it to make it a big success, other Chapters can adapt it to their locale and further the benefit to even more violists. Take a look at the list of chapters to see if there is an AVS Chapter near by for you to join. You can belong to as many Chapters as you wish, but if none seem geographically close enough to you, then (you guessed it), it is time to begin your own. It just takes ten members to get started, and you can be a pioneer in opening up a new section of the country to viola camaraderie.

A word from Ken Martinson, AVS Secretary...

The 50 State-50 Chapter Push

Over the past few years, inspired by the initial vision of our past president Peter Slowik, we have been having several states form local chapters of the American Viola Society.  I remember attending a board meeting while I was at the 1999 International Viola Congress, when the idea of the local chapter was very new, and some very successful chapters were doing some remarkable things, mostly notably the Chicago Viola Society and its sponsoring of the Chicago Viola Competition, and its wide membership base it had created.  I have been also very impressed with the New York Viola Society, and the newsletter and collegial concerts the held.  They also have a very nice website <www.nyvs.org> with an excellent resource on viola recordings.  After moving from upstate New York to Illinois, I eventually became Vice-President of the Chicago Viola Society and Treasurer of the Iowa Viola Society.  I was able to observe from these positions the wonderful service these groups provided to the viola community.

In summer of 2005, I accept a new viola professor position at the University of Florida, and then realized that Florida was the most populous state without a state chapter of the AVS.  After being there one year, I decided it was time to form a Florida Viola Society Chapter.  I was pleasantly surprised at how painless the whole process was.  The biggest obstacle was securing at least 10 people to attend the initial organizational meeting.  I contacted many more than the 10 I needed, and twisted the arms of my own students to come to the meeting and join AVS to ensure I had the 10 needed, we had 16 there, so we met that requirement without a problem.  We have since had about 6 events since our inception.  Our new chapter has been able to raise awareness about the viola at the local level, as well as the American and International Viola Societies, and I expect that more people will become aware of the International Viola Congresses as well too.

This year, we have had successful new chapters join us, including the Tennessee Viola Society (Kathryn Plummer, president), Alabama Viola Society (Dan Sweaney, president), Gulf Coast (Mississippi) Viola Society (Hsaiopei Lee, president), Indiana Viola Society (Philip Tietze, president) and a newly revitalized Great Lakes Viola Society Chapter (former Chicago Viola Society) and the reorganized South Carolina Viola Society (Constance Gee, president).  We are very close to having new chapters join us from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Connecticut, and also have contacts working to form new chapters in Michigan, Georgia, Missouri, Wisconsin, Puerto Rico, Kansas, New Mexico, West Virginia, Nebraska, Hawaii, Alaska and Vermont.

I am looking for contacts to help start chapters in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Nevada, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Guam, Virgin Islands, N. Mariana Islands, and American Somoa.  Please contact me at kamart@ufl.edu if you are from one of these states and you would like to organize a chapter in your state, and I will give you the necessary information you will need to get your state chapter started.

Guidelines on Forming an AVS Local Chapter

To connect to an existing AVS chapter or view contact information, please visit :

AVS Chapter Contact Information

Also check out our sister organizations listed below:

International Viola Society
Canadian Viola Society
Australia and New Zealand Viola Society
Les Amis de l'alto (France)
Nordic Viola Society

New York Viola Society
Philadelphia Viola Society
Chicago Viola Society

Internet viola forums:

www.viola.com
www.violaforum.be

String Associations:

American String Teacher