Ramona Holmes

Estonia's uplifting song festivals have been a research passion of mine for thirty years. My father's family emigrated from Estonia to Oregon when he was born. My mother was the child of Scandinavian immigrants. I grew up in Salem and later became part of an Estonian community when I moved to Seattle, Washington. I did my first field work in Estonia (at that time under Soviet control) in 1978 for graduate research regarding the traditional Estonian folk songs called "regilaul". Since that time, I have been part of over thirty Estonian song festivals in the United States, Canada and Estonia as singer, dancer, violinist and choral director.

During my doctoral work at University of Washington, I presented papers regarding Estonian music, music education and aural instruction. My dissertation explores the techniques of aural instruction in a case of Swedish fiddle teaching. I taught for 20 years in K-12 schools as a general music and string teacher while researching ways that global music can be used in K-12 string programs.

I am Professor Emerita in Ethnomusicology and Music Education at Seattle Pacific University where I have taught for 25 years. I am currently on the Fulbright Specialist Roster for the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning.