Dear ,

We extend to our friends in Nashville our sincere hopes and prayers that the damages sustained from the recent flooding of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center can be quickly and completely repaired, with many generous donors stepping up to the plate to help cover all expenses.

The spring season finds us attending various concluding events of the concert year, knowing that we will soon be planning for the summer and the coming year. Please make sure that your plans include attending our 2011 Conference in Houston. (Please see article following.)

 
This issue of eNews showcases some of the many inspiring initiatives by our members, mainly focusing on symphony programs that reach out and build future audiences through youth education and community outreach.

Volunteer activities are many and varied, with most focusing on helping their orchestras' education departments with hosting educational concerts, organizing competitions, visiting schools, etc.
 
Please feel free to forward this eNews to all the officers and board members of your volunteer group, as well as to any staff people you deem appropriate to share it with. There is also a convenient link for people to sign up to receive their own online mailings directly from us.
 
Wishing you on-going success in 2010,
Marjorie Saulson, AMSOV President

 

ASO musicians travel throughout the Greater Atlanta area, partnering with community groups and schools to perform concerts in small community venues, coach young musicians and provide classical music education for all ages. Concerts for Young People reach 40,000 students per year and include elements of music and integrating arts into the curriculum. ASO Volunteers support these programs through ushering at concerts and raising funds for the Talent Development Program.

 

The ASO KIDS' CLUB make great music more tangible, more interactive, and more delightful for youngsters, adding a real sense of fun to a child's experience and add value to subscriptions. Youngsters receive an official membership card entitling them to super games, special contests, giveaways, discounts on children's CDs and musical toys at the Symphony Store.

 

The Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra is an integral member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra family and a vigorous part of the cultural fabric of its community. For promising young African American and Latino classical music students, the Talent Development Program of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra opens the door to opportunity and achievement at the highest level.

The ASO Internship Program offers an opportunity to gain meaningful experience in the performing arts management and/or arts education field. The program is open to high school juniors/seniors and college students.

 

The Boston Symphony Orchestra hosted its annual Youth and Family Concert week series in March.  Two additional Family Concerts took place this winter, all with youth activities supported by the Boston Symphony Association of Volunteers.  The pre-concert activities included the very popular Instrument Playgound which engages children through exposure to music education and provides a hands-on experience, encouraging further exploration.  During the course of six events, over 3,000 parents and children took part.

 

The Cincinnati Symphony Association continues its involvement with the CSO's education and community outreach programs. CSO volunteers are actively involved in the pre-activities for the Lollipop Children's Concerts, promoting concerts in local churches, as well as the Family Fun Zone which precedes the July 4th Pops concert at Riverbend Music Center. They also participate in preparing teacher packets for use before and after our Young Peoples Concerts and serve on the Education and Multicultural Advisory Committees.  Funds raised by the CSA through Parties of Note and The New Year's Eve Ball go to support the education and community outreach activities of the CSO.

 

The Columbus Symphony has an extensive Youth Orchestras program ranging in age and ability.  These include The Youth Orchestra (most advanced), Cadet Orchestra, Chamber Strings, Junior Strings, and the All-City Youth Orchestra, the latter being a program which makes symphonic music making available to an extremely diverse group of disadvantaged youth.  The Youth Orchestra made a concert tour to China a few years ago.   

 

The Women's Association places an advertisement in its combined spring/fall playbills to help generate funds for them.  While the youth orchestras rely heavily on parent volunteers, Women's Association volunteers plan and manage pre-concert enrichment events--an instrument "petting zoo", music-related crafts, etc.--at its Family Concerts and Popcorn Pops that begin one hour before each performance. The activities are geared to the musical theme of the day. 

 

Each spring Women's Association volunteers implement a Young Musicians Competition that is sponsored by the Columbus Symphony. These volunteers do the nitty-gritty of the days...registering, monitoring warm-up spaces, announcing the performers, welcoming the accompanying audience members, preparing and serving food for the judges and volunteers.

The Red Violin Program was founded in 2008 to provide string instruments to students in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Young Strings Organization through the Innovators of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra League. Children in the Young Strings program are provided with the sponsored instrument and receive lessons and performance opportunities. The Young Strings program of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra assists over 150 minority students from the Dallas area metroplex.
  
Sponsorships are three years and benefits include a listing in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Playbill, a semi-annual report including a biography of the current student as well as a history of the violin, plus a list of former recipients. Sponsors  receive the Young Strings performance calendar, and are encouraged to attend selected concerts and receptions where the instrument is being played. An annual Red Violin Program Sponsor Party is held to recognize the sponsors and their generosity.

 

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has its own Education Department and volunteer group comprised of the parents of the Civic Orchestra members. The Volunteer Council is always available to this department should they need support. 

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra does a Classical Roots concert each season.  This year the Volunteer Council sat on the steering committee of the event and assisted with promotion of the event throughout the community.  The Detroit Symphony Orchestra does a series of community concerts throughout the season and summer.  The Volunteer Council supports these events with greeters, collecting marking information and distributing materials.

 

This education program for 4th graders is sponsored by the Red Oaks Foundation which provides each child with the Dr. Seuss book, Green Eggs and Ham. Symphony and community volunteers go to schools in the days prior to the concert to read Dr. Seuss' book to the children and they follow along in their own book.

Symphony volunteers greet approximately 1,500 children who are bused to the 35 minute program.  The concert begins with an overview of the instrumental sections.  Each section of the orchestra wears a different colored shirt to help identify what instruments go together.  They play snippets of music related to different emotions. Green Eggs and Ham was performed by 2 singers/actors accompanied by the orchestra.

Volunteers assist with office mailings and data entry assistance in addition to helping with our Education Concerts including: Lollipops Concerts, Family Concerts, 3rd and 5th Grade Concerts as well as our Access to Music Concerts. All of our Youth Symphony and Symphony Chorus members are volunteer musicians.

 

The Women's Committee of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is the presenting sponsor for the curriculum-based Young People's Discovery Concerts, bringing the gift of music to more than 21,000 Indiana children who hear the music performed in our concert hall.

The Women's Committee also sponsors the Maurer Young Musicians Contest for serious musicians and a Side-by-Side Concert in which young artists play side-by-side with their ISO counterparts. The nationally recognized, juried Symphony in Color, provides an opportunity for school children to listen to classical music and interpret it in their own artwork.

Kansas City Symphony 

The Healing of Music was created and implemented eleven years ago by the Symphony Women's Association, the oldest auxiliary of the Kansas City Symphony. Through the use of classical music, played live by upbeat Kansas City Symphony musicians, we strive to lift young and mature patients' moods and ease pain, anxiety and tension.

The program brings docents and Kansas City Symphony musicians to area hospitals and care centers, sharing the healing power of music with children and adults coping with serious illness as well as to the many people who care for them. Because of its uniqueness, the Healing of Music was recognized at a meeting of the League of American Orchestras, receiving the certificate of excellence. 

 

Education has always been one of the primary concerns of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra League.  We are always trying to cultivate the "Next Generation Audience". The Young Artist Audition program, started forty-two years ago by early League President Audrey Baird, is one example.

 

Music students from high schools throughout Wisconsin apply and participate in the competition.  Members from the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra are judges and critique the performances.  This year 59 applicants participated with three finalists being selected to perform their complete composition in a full, free Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert.

Four scholarships of $1000 and two of $250 are awarded to the Finalists to be used to further their musical studies. The Honorable Mention students are invited to perform side-by-side with members of the orchestra for several selections.

 

This activity is one of the League's largest educational undertakings and individuals volunteer year after year for the opportunity to meet and hear these extremely talented young people.  Other education projects include youth concert Docents, youth concert Ushers, ACE Programs, Orchestral Workshops, and pre-concert Kinderkonzert activities.

 Youth Concert Educational Materials 

 

 

Music learning enriches lives - everyone's life, at any age.  That well-founded belief is what guides Music Education City. The Nashville Symphony's groundbreaking education initiative promises fun and interactive learning opportunities for the newcomer as well as the advanced listener. Offered throughout the year, our programs benefit schools and student academic performance even as they bring families and communities together.  
 
Programs for students include Curb Open Dress Rehearsals, Regions Classroom Classics, Young People's Concerts, the Curb Concerto Competition, Is it a Fiddle of Violin?, Pied Piper Children's Concerts, Ensembles in the Schools, the Curb Youth Symphony, Let's Go to the Symphony! video, opportunities to request speakers, and music instruction.  Programs for college students and adults include SoundCheck, OnStage at the Schermerhorn, Classical Conversations, Speakers Bureau, and Professional Development courses.  

 
Volunteers help with education programs in a variety of capacities.  For concert programs, they greet guests, provide directions, monitor traffic and parking for large groups in buses, offer tours of the building, and engage visitors in pre/post-concert activities offered.  For competitions which require auditions, they help check in guests, direct students to practice rooms, monitor progress, and escort attendees throughout the building.  In preparation for these events, volunteers also assist with mailings, poster distribution, putting together favors, and other marketing and administrative work.

 

Youth Concerts were held March 18 and 19, 2010. Friends of the Oregon Symphony filled 40 volunteer positions over the two days, providing excellent ushering services to the thousands of students who attended.  

 

 

 

 

Established in 1998 by members of the Saint Louis Symphony Volunteer Association to inspire creativity through music, Express the Music is open to all middle and high school-age students in public, parochial, private, special education, and home school systems within 100 miles St. Louis.

Express the Music is about creativity, not analysis of the music.  Neither teachers nor students need prior knowledge of classical music.  Teachers simply play a selection of music recorded by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, which this year is the Prelude to Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger.  The Express the Music CD instructs students in how listen to the music and write essays, short stories, or poems about the feelings, images, and ideas the music inspires in them.

 

Seattle Symphony's commitment to music and education since its inception in 1903 continues through the programs offered in Soundbridge, Seattle Symphony Music Discovery Center. Participants listen, think and link Soundbridge experiences with performance, practice, informal and formal music education, as well as humanities and science curriculum.

Volunteers assist children attending Soundbridge programs that provide interactive experiences with instruments, musical storytelling, songwriting workshops and learning about the science of sound. 

 
Family concerts include Tiny Tots for ages 0 - 5, Discover Music for ages 6 - 11 and Beyond the Score for ages 12 and up. Concerts that support Washington Arts in Education include free concerts for 5th graders, My Symphony for ages 6-12 and Open Rehearsals for Secondary Schools.  Volunteers greet parents, teachers and children when they arrive and assist ushers direct them to their seats.