The Ohio State University has been selected by the American String Teachers Association as the winner of the 2015 ASTA Institutional Leadership Award. 2015 marks the first year for this award, which ASTA designed to recognize institutions that offer high quality specialized instruction in string education. The School of Music's program was selected from a group of highly competitive nominees. In addition to being a current institutional member of ASTA, requirements for the award included having an active ASTA student chapter; the presence of K-12 teacher education and studio pedagogy classes taught by string specialists; demonstrated outreach to the community; the impact in education, on the community and through performance of recent graduates of the program; and string-related research published by faculty.

On behalf of the School, Robert Gillespie, area head of music education and noted string pedagogue, accepted the award on March 21 at the ASTA Conference held in Salt Lake City.