Weill Music Institute "Link Up" Program

Next month, I will load 10 school buses with 2nd and 3rd grade students from Chets Creek Elementary and take them downtown to the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts where they will experience a "live" orchestral concert by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

In preparation for this field study, the Weill Music Institute (Carnegie Hall, New York City) sent us educational outreach materials for our students, free of charge.  These booklets provided musical scores to read, an orchestral instrument review activity and several songs for us to learn prior to the concert on May 16th.  An audience sing-along will include "Simple Gifts" by Aaron Copland, "Ode to Joy" by Ludwig van Beethoven, "Going Home" (a spiritual based on the largo movement of Dvorak's "New World Symphony" and "I Bought Me Cat" by Aaron Copeland.

I have been working diligently with my students to prepare them for this concert experience.  For most of them, this will be their first symphonic concert and I want it to be something they will always remember.

Thank you to Paula Thornton, Tony Kamnikar and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra for coordinating this event for our elementary students each year and to Duval County Public Schools for providing bus transporation for our students at no cost to us.  Many thanks to the folks at Carnegie Hall for providing us with educational materials through their "Link Up" series.  We have thoroughly enjoyed them!!

Until next time...

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra's "Young People's Concerts"

Each year, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra hosts its "Young People's Concerts" for elementary-age students in Duval County Public Schools. The concert is free and the district pays for transportation. This concert series is a gift from the Orchestra to your children.

On October 30th, Chets Creek Elementary will fill ten school buses and head downtown to the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts. Every fourth and fifth grade student will get to experience a "live" performance by our very own symphony orchestra. Our second and third graders will make this same trip in the Spring.

This Fall's program is entitled, "Music of the World" and it is designed to engage students in active listening as they solve "The Case of the Stolen Tuba." We will visit Austria (Mozart's birthplace), Italy (Rossini's birthplace), New York City (Gershwin's birthplace), Hungary (Brahms' birthplace) and Ukraine (Tchaikovsky's birthplace.)

Educational materials were sent to us at no charge to prepare the students for the program. The materials are arranged in a "Mission Impossible" format with musical examples from each composer presenting various clues to solve the mystery. In Mozart's "Overture to the Marriage of Figaro," the students listen for a tuba in the performance, however, the tuba had not yet been invented. As we move on to the country of Italy, we hear the overture to "The Barber of Seville," listening also for a tuba in the orchestra. (No tuba yet!!) The next piece we hear is "An American in Paris" by George Gershwin. Students are instructed to listen for the jazzy elements in the piece. They discover that there is a tuba scored for this piece, however, the JSO can't play it without their missing tuba. Then, it's off to Hungary where we tune into "Hungarian Dance No. 6" by Johannes Brahms. Lots of brass instruments are used in this dance piece, but the tuba in our orchestra is still missing. Finally, our program concludes with the fourth movement of "Symphony No. 2" by Tchaikovsky. Students hear all of the instrument families in this piece which is "grand, bold and majestic." And...there could very well be evidence of a tuba in this performance!

Miss Lambros has been leading our "Super Sleuths" around the world trying to locate the perpetrator of this crime. Our students are greatly enjoying this integrated study of Music, History and Geography. Mrs. Tamburrino will be chaperoning this field study and will do a follow-up lesson upon our return.

Until next time...