AOSA's "Founders' Spotlight"
Ruth Pollock Hamm
by Mark A. Francis*
During the summer of 1960, the first two volumes of Orff-Schulwerk: Music for Children, (Margaret Murray editions) were purchased as a gift for Ruth Pollock Hamm who immediately became interested in the fascinating use of poetry, words, and sound gestures. Ruth’s exploration of the Schulwerk had begun. Soon after, Hamm had the good fortune of experiencing Doreen Hall’s instruction during the summer of 1961, and Gunild Keetman’s expertise the following summer at the 1962 Schulwerk Teachers’ Course at 
the Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto. In addition to Keetman, the conservatory arranged to have Carl Orff and others from the Orff Institute as headline attractions for the summer course and mid-session conference. Between July 16 and July 24, 1965, Ruth attended the Orff Institute’s first English-speaking Schulwerk training course under the direction of Margaret Murray. Course instructors in addition to Murray included Dr. Hermann Regner, Wilhelm Keller, Barbara Haselbach, Walter Bergmann, and Polyxene Mathéy, from Greece. These many years of training greatly shaped Ruth as a music educator and leader in the Orff Schulwerk movement.
Ruth Hamm was employed as an elementary school music specialist in the Shaker Heights Ohio School District, from September, 1950 until the end of January, 1977, when she retired from public school teaching. Concurrently, Hamm taught Orff Schulwerk in a studio environment at the Cleveland Music School Settlement, from the fall of 1963 to the end of the 1968 school year. During this same time period, Ruth had begun teaching adult Schulwerk courses also. She had also demonstrated her strength as a writer, a skill that would help influence and inform educators to the present day through numerous articles, reviews, and other publications. Hamm later asserted in one of her articles that the participation, excitement, satisfaction, and enjoyment of the children were the most remarkable outcomes of the Schulwerk experience.
In December of 1967, Arnold E. Burkart, newly appointed music education professor at Ball State University, sent a letter to several Midwest educators involved with the Orff Schulwerk movement. His purpose was to invite them to an idea sharing meeting and to also gauge potential interest in organizing a national group dedicated to the Schulwerk approach. Response to the letter demonstrated the vitality and strength of the Orff Schulwerk movement, small as it was at the time. An all-day planning session was arranged for May 11, 1968, at Burkart’s home in Muncie. At the meeting the newly selected steering committee unanimously decided that a professional organization would add strength to the movement, and the Orff-Schulwerk Association (OSA) was officially founded that day. Ruth Pollock Hamm was invited to attend this historic meeting but a Schulwerk workshop she was presenting that same weekend prevented her from attending. Despite this absence, Hamm was elected to the OSA board of directors and eventually assigned to the membership and publicity committees. Ruth continued to serve national AOSA as vice-president and conference chairperson (1970-1972), president (1972-1974), and executive secretary [director] (1974-1980).
Burkart, Arnold E."The American Orff-Schulwerk Association: The First Five Years,"
Supplement No. 2, American Orff-Schulwerk Association, (1973)
Hamm, Ruth Pollock. "The Challenge of the Orff Approach for Elementary Music Education," PMEA News 32, no. 3 (March, 1968).
Hamm, Ruth Pollock. Interview by Cindi Wobig, "Founders Interview with Ruth Pollock Hamm: AOSA National Conference, Rochester, New York," (AOSA, 2000), video 23RH.
Osterby, Patricia. "Orff Schulwerk in North America, 1955-1969" (Ed.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988).
Riley, Martha. "An American Orff Pioneer: Ruth Pollock Hamm," The Orff Echo 35, no. 1 (fall 2002).
*Mark Francis teaches lower school music and choir at the Bush School in
Seattle, Washington. Mark earned his Master of Arts degree with a
concentration in Orff Schulwerk from the University of St. Thomas in St.
Paul, Minnesota and currently serves on the AOSA History Committee.
Read about other Featured Founders:
Our mission is: to demonstrate the value of Orff Schulwerk and promote its widespread use; to support the professional development of our members; and to inspire and advocate for the creative potential of all learners.