EDUCATION AND PUBLIC SERVICE PROGRAMS
Musical Connections: The School Partnership Program and Live In Concert!
The Little Orchestra Society has provided music education programming and public service to New Yorkers from more than 25 years. This program, formerly known as Chance for Children, has provided several hundred thousand students, teachers, family members and caregivers with live concert experiences. Established in 1979 by Music Director and Conductor Dino Anagnost, these programs have grown and changed to meet the educational needs of the New York City community. Musical Connections: the School Partnership Program and Live in Concert! are being offered beginning with the 60th Anniversary Season this year.
ABOUT OUR PROGRAMS
FOR CHILDREN
In a city that is so rich in cultural offerings it is hard to believe that many of our school children do not have access to a well-rounded arts education. Music education is often the first of the performing arts disciplines to be removed from New York City’s public schools.
Recognizing this tremendous need, The Little Orchestra Society is committed to keeping arts education, audience development and public service at the heart of its mission. The Orchestra firmly believes that arts education provides not only valuable knowledge and social capital, but it also impacts how students learn and serves an important function in our school by integrating subjects across the curriculum. All programs are designed to support the New York State Learning Standards and the New York City Blueprint for Learning in the Arts.
Musical Connections: The School Partnership Program provides long-term school-based residencies supported by professional development for teachers, performances, and family events for all first and second grade classes at two public elementary schools in Queens. During the 2007-08 school year, the program will serve a total of 1,000 students, 36 teachers and some 300 family members. Over the next two years, these numbers will grow as we add new grade levels in these schools and build partnerships with additional schools.
The overall goals of Musical Connections are:
- To provide students with the opportunity to learn the elements of music and apply them as composers, performers, and active listeners;
- To provide teachers with skills and strategies to guide their students in transferring the artist's processes learned to other areas of the curriculum, such as science, language arts and math;
- To engage families in music activities with their children so that they value and support their school in including the arts as an essential part of the curriculum; and
- To enhance the practice of teaching artists by providing them with new skills and strategies acquired by working in partnership with experienced classroom teachers.
Live in Concert!
Expanding on the community outreach and audience development initiatives started in 1979, The Little Orchestra Society offers Live in Concert! as an additional public service to New Yorkers. This program will provide children from public schools and community organizations throughout the New York area with opportunities to learn about and experience live music over the course of each season’s concert series. Working with social service agencies, community centers, day care centers, preschools, and public schools, Live in Concert! makes more than 10,000 free tickets and pre-concert learning materials available to the Peabody Award-winning Happy Concerts for Young People for Young People and Lolli-Pops™ concerts each season.
Learning in the arts is of huge benefit to all members of school and other communities. To learn more about how the arts support learning, please visit the National Arts Education Partnership website at www.aep-arts.org.
FOR ADULTS
Project 65Plus
Project 65Plus brings live performances of concert music and pre-concert programs to New York’s senior citizens by offering free admission to appropriate Little Orchestra Society concerts. Many New Yorkers grew up participating in a wide variety of cultural options. The Little Orchestra Society remains committed to making those experiences possible for New York’s senior citizens living on fixed income. More than 20 civic agencies, senior residences, senior centers and religious and community groups participate in this program each year.
If you would like to help The Little Orchestra Society further its mission to provide live music for all New Yorkers, please contact Julie Seymour, Director of Development at 212.971.9500, ext. 101 or jseymour@littleorchestra.org.
For more information about how you, your school or family can participate in these programs, please call the Director of Education, Rosina Cannizzaro at 212.971.9500 ext. 122, or rcannizzaro@littleorchestra.org.
