Orff Schulwerk Association Ukraine
founded – February, 2018
Orff Schulverk The Association Ukraine, the official NGO of Ukraine, was created by initiative, focused educators-enthusiasts who focused on personal and general changes in the field of musical education in Ukraine. Since 2010, the history of the Ukrainian Orff Association began when the first teachers, Svetlana Fir, Katerina Zavalko, Tetyana Chernous, started practicing at the Orff Institute in Zalzburg. Realizing the effectiveness of the Orff-approach, having visited several times the Orff Institute and other orff workshops in different countries, pioneering teachers began practicing and later shared their own experiences with colleagues. And soon the other teachers went to the Karl Orff Institute: Oksana Veres, Natalia Mironova and Krestina Shestak. Each of them had their own practice and saw the effectiveness of the Orff-approach in working with children and adults.
From 2015, Svetlana Fir, who lives in Chernihiv, begins educational projects in Kyiv to familiarize as many people as possible with the Orff-Schulverk ideas, share their personal experiences and find like-minded people. The road was not easy. People were not ready to change their thinking, people were not ready to self-development, they were not ready to the results achieved over the years, they were not ready to retraining, which also takes a lot of time and effort. Marina Lositskaya, teacher and owner of Montessori kindergarten in Kiev, the first organizer of orff seminars, provided important support and assistance to Svetlana.
In parallel with Svetlana Fir, Tatiana Chernous conducts her own practice and workshops. It happened that Tatiana began working with children with special needs and was one of the first in Ukraine to practice the orff approach in inclusiveness, and eventually and conduct educational seminars not only in her hometown Rivne, but also in other cities of Ukraine. So gradually group of teachers was united, ready to learn and practice orff-approach in their work. These were, first and foremost, music teachers from private studios, music schools, psychologists, and later teachers of kindergartens and therapists. Most of them became the first members of the Ukrainian Orff Association, which was established in 2018. Svetlana Fir, Tetyana Chernous and Natalia Mironova became its founders and board members.
An official statement about the creation of the Orff Association of Ukraine took place at the First International Conference “Orff Pedagogy: Modern Dimensions of Implementation”. The conference was the first professional event of the Association and an example of fruitful cooperation with the State Pedagogical University named after Mikhail Drahomanov. This event was made possible thanks to the support of Professor, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences Katerina Zavalko, a progressive scientist and pedagogue-innovator. The conference showed the high interest of Ukrainian music teachers in orff pedagogy, as well as their readiness to develop in this direction. Particularly valuable is the presence of not only teachers of preschool and school education, but also graduate students and teachers with a degree.
The active work of Ukrainian teachers was noticed and highly appreciated by the Orff Institute. Our delegation was invited to the Orff-Forum and the Assembly, where it was officially proclaimed that the Ukrainian Orff Association became part of the Orff-Schulverk-international community. (photo from orff forum). So we became part of a large family, which now has 52 countries. Since then we have the official name: Orff Schulverk Association of Ukraine. And this is not only a fact of international recognition, but above all a real opportunity for high-quality professional training and support from Western European orff pedagogy specialists.
Right now, educational projects are being developed and implemented in order to systematically, thoroughly and effectively educate Ukrainian teachers in Ukraine and abroad. It is important to emphasize that this is actively promoted by the Orff Institute and the Carl Orff Foundation, from which we received a scholarship to Tetiana Chernous. In 2018, she successfully passed the selection and became the first Ukrainian student special course at the Orff Institute. In the same year, Natalia Mironova became a student of the Level-course, conducted by the Russian Pedagogical Society of Carl Orff in Novosibirsk. This is a big step for Ukraine in the professional musical education of the future.
In Ukraine, there is also extensive work on the qualification of music teachers. President Orff Schulverk of the Ukrainian Association of Svetlana Fir and Professor Katerina Zavalko create educational programs with orff pedagogues and conduct educational seminars, lectures that take place not only in Kiev but also in the regions: Kharkiv, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytsky.
In the Association’s plans – holding conferences, creating orff-clubs in different cities of Ukraine, organizing international projects.In 2018 two seminars were held with the participation of well-known Polish teachers Joanna Tomkovska and Monika Kionka and two module seminars Irina Shestopalova – President of the Russian Orff Association.
We believe – this is just the beginning of a great interesting way!