History of B.R.A.T.S

B.R.A.T.S was founded in 1999 by Helen Callus while she served as assistant professor of viola at the University of Washington in Seattle. Part of her contract included donating time in service to the community and in outreach. While visiting some local high schools to offer to help and give clinics, she met disengaged and disheartened viola students. These students were not able to participate in the class room because many of them did not have private teachers. The class room teacher had too many obligations to take care of and frequently general technique solutions were offered to solve issues that really needed viola specific techniques. Students often didn’t relate to the solutions being offered and were therefore lost in the midst of an orchestral class where they were struggling to keep up. Many times they would be playing very simple lines in music that didn’t keep their interest.

From this experience she began to understand the challenges faced byteachers in the classroom and decided to create an event just for viola students to inspire and encourage them by bringing the focus directly to them. One good way to do this was to bring them together with other more experienced viola students and to teachers. After she put together the B.R.A.T.S team (which was basically her own studio and some colleagues) they decided that the best way to reach the most students was to bring them together in a day long festival at the UW. Helen formed the Seattle Chapter of the AVS at the same time and events were coordinated for the most attendance and diversity possible.

They designed their own T shirts, totes, baseball caps and pencils as keepsakes for the special day and to help raise income for weekly school visits which Helen’s student team continued to do in between each Viola Day. She also applied for funding from the university and this enabled her to provide scholarship to college students to support their visits. It also went towards the cost of producing a folder of useful information for the classroom teacher for their viola students in the classroom as a gift when the team had finished their clinic. The folder had lists of resources, teachers, tips on practicing, and many other useful tools. These visits also sustained recruitment at day festivals and chapter events. It wasn’t long before they had a waiting list of schools wanting the B.R.A.T.S team to visit.

STRAD article about first BRATS day event