A mentoring project
conceived by internationally renowned European practitioners of Orff-Schulwerk. We wish to ensure that Orff-Schulwerk pedagogy remains vibrant, deep, multifaceted and current.
These veteran teachers are committed to the sharing of their knowledge, skills and experience with younger, promising educators working in this field. They wish to guide and challenge this next generation of the Orff-Schulwerk community; to validate and help expand the knowledge they already have; to hone their capacities and support them as they grow their practice.
Mentors from the left: Christa Coogan, Soili Perkiö, Elisa Seppänen
Christa Coogan has 30 years of experience teaching dance and
creating dance/music performances in schools, refugee shelters and theaters
throughout Germany. For more than 25 years she has been teaching at the Orff
Institute and has been a member of the San Francisco International Orff
course team since 2003. Christa offers seminars and workshops internationally
as a movement and dance specialist in Orff-Schulwerk. Until her
retirement in September 2023, she was a lecturer in Elemental Music Education
at the University of Music and Theater in Munich. BFA degree/Dance, The Juilliard School, NYC; MA/Dance
Studies University of Salzburg.
Soili Perkiö (Master of Music) studied music education at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Orff Institut in Salzburg. She specializes in music and movement, folk music, and early childhood music education. Since 1995, Soili has been a lecturer at the Sibelius Academy, and after her retirement, she continues to teach part-time. She has taught at educational conferences across all continents and has created TV and radio programmes for children, as well composed music for dance, theatre and songs for children. Soili has authored over 70 music books and audio materials for general music education.
Elisa Seppänen is a music educator, trainer and mentor. She graduated with master's degrees in music pedagogy and educational sciences, most recently with a degree in Changing Education (MA) from the University of Helsinki (2022). She specialises in early childhood music education and creative music education approaches, including Orff pedagogy. She is a music education lecturer at the Sibelius Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. In addition, she designs and implements training courses for teachers nationally and internationally. Her passion lies in interculturality and interdisciplinary approaches in music education.
Collaboration across generations
We envision that this mentoring programme will establish cross-generational and international interaction. It will create a space where expert educators and younger teachers can work together modeling classes, discussing strategies, challenging assumptions, stimulating and inspiring each other and gaining clarity. It will offer possibilities:
to encourage innovation and creativity,
to develop leadership skills for inevitable ongoing changes in educational practice and specifically in our own community and to reflect on learning and leadership approaches,
to work beyond professional and organizational boundaries in order to develop a more encompassing understanding and to apprehend the "bigger picture".
"Collaboration across generations is an expression of hope. For the senior participants, who mentor and work with their younger...colleagues, it provides continuity, a new embodiment of their knowledge. It also stimulates them to reach for transformative ideas with the help of energetic and questioning young colleagues. For younger partners, the advantages of intergenerational collaboration include a guided entry into the complex worlds of human achievement and the opportunity to closely observe an experienced thinker, indeed to witness that person's mode of thought...as well, they have the opportunity to appropriate what they have witnessed and been taught."
Vera John-Steiner: Creative Collaboration (2000). Oxford Univ. Press, p. 151