In collaboration with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI), the MSO will be revamping its annual Citi Youth Concerts this year with curriculum and programming materials from the WMI which are provided free of charge to Partner Orchestras.  Link Up pairs orchestras across the country with schools in their local communities, inviting them to learn about orchestral repertoire through a year-long, hands-on music curriculum.  Teachers guide students in exploring music through a composer’s lens, with students participating in active music making in the classroom, performing repertoire on recorders, violins, cellos, voice, or body percussion and taking part in creative work such as composing their own pieces inspired by the orchestral music they have studied.   

In the year-long program, students will have the opportunity to learn what makes the orchestra sing. They do this through exploring what melody is and all the elements that make a melody great.   

The finale of the year-long classroom program is a live performance by the MSO.  Like Citi Youth Concerts of the past, this performance often serves as students’ first concert experience.  The power of Link Up is that it provides them with the opportunity to play along with the orchestra.  The students become members of the orchestra, and are able to show off all that they have learned throughout the school year.  The concert itself is full of many surprises, and is sure to be an event that the students won’t soon forget. 

Fourth graders from throughout Washington and Frederick Counties in Maryland and Franklin County in Pennsylvania will participate in the concerts on May 8 & 9.  These concerts are not open to the public. 

This year marks the 28^th anniversary of Citi’s sponsorship of the Youth Concerts, which has given over 80,000 students an introduction to symphonic music through a live concert experience. 

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive. The MSAC is also a partner in the Maryland Symphony Orchestra’s Citi Youth Concerts.   

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is the area’s premier professional orchestra, dedicated to providing musical performances that educate and entertain, while enhancing the cultural environment of Western Maryland and the surrounding region.   

The Weill Music Institute creates broad-reaching music education and community programs that play a central role in Carnegie Hall’s commitment to making great music accessible to as wide an audience as possible.  Woven into the fabric of the Carnegie Hall concert season, these programs occur at Carnegie Hall as well as in schools and throughout the neighborhoods, providing musical opportunities for everyone, from preschoolers to adults, new listeners to emerging professionals.  With access to the world’s greatest artists and latest technologies, the Weill Music Institute is uniquely positioned to inspire the next generation of music lovers, to nurture tomorrow’s musical talent, and to shape the evolution of musical learning itself.  The Weill Music Institute’s school and community programs annually serve over 200,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals, and adults in New York metropolitan area and across the US, with more than an additional 100,000 people taking advantage of WMI’s online music education resources.   

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is one of 40 organizations from across the United States chosen for the Link Up program.  Attached is a list of 2012-2013 participants. 

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2012-2013 Link Up Participants

Acadiana Symphony Orchestra (LA)

Albany Symphony Orchestra (NY)

Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra (AR)

Austin Symphony (TX)

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (NY)

Carnegie Hall – Lewisburg, West Virginia (WV)

East Texas Symphony Orchestra (TX)

Eugene Symphony (OR)

The Florida Orchestra (FL)

Fort Wayne Philharmonic (IN)

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (TX)

Gulf Coast Symphony (MS)

Hartford Symphony Orchestra (CT)

Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra (FL)

Kansas City Symphony (MO)

Kenai Peninsula Orchestra (AK)

Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (ON, Canada)

Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LA)

Meridian Symphony Orchestra (MS)

Mississippi Arts Commission (MS)

Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MS)

Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra (FL)

Omaha Symphony (NE)

Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra (RI)

Rockford Symphony Orchestra (IL)

Seattle Symphony (WA)

South Carolina Philharmonic (SC)

Snohomish County Music Project (WA)

South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra (AR)

Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra (SC)

Spokane Symphony (WA)

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (MO)

Symphony Orchestra Augusta (GA)

Tupelo Symphony Orchestra (MS)

The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra (MS)

VITA – Vocal and Instrumental Teaching Artists Academy (CA)

West Michigan Symphony (MI)

For the past 15 years, Jonnes has served as Executive Director of the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra.  During his tenure at the SSO he increased concert attendance, developed special concert programs and led corporate sponsorship to historic highs.  He also oversaw semi-staged productions of The Magic Flute and Aida, simulcast on WGBY and WGBH throughout New England, and the development of a Lunchtime Concert Series which drew audiences in excess of 1,000 per concert. 

Before moving to Springfield, he served as Executive Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in Jackson, TN.  Previously, he was Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Chamber Orchestra in Washington, Operations/Education Manager of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra, associate development director at the Acting Company in New York, executive director of the American Dance Guild in New York, and business manager of the Corning Summer Theater.

He earned a BA in Theatre from Syracuse University and an MFA in Arts Administration from Brooklyn College.

I am thrilled to be joining the MSO family in mid-May and look forward to an exciting future with this superb orchestra,” states Jonnes.  “My wife Barbara and I are also looking forward to settling in Hagerstown and getting to know the community this summer.” 

 The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is the area’s premier professional orchestra, dedicated to providing musical performances that educate and entertain, while enhancing the cultural environment of Western Maryland and the surrounding region. 

The Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, which Leonard Bernstein extracted from the musical, are not played in the order of the original show.  Comprising nine segments and played without pause, the suite was first performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1961. 

West Side Story was Leonard Bernstein’s attempt to demonstrate that it was possible to write a Broadway musical with the characteristics of high art.  He succeeded beyond all expectations.  The show opened on Broadway in September of 1957 and ran for over 1,000 performances.  The movie was just as spectacular a success, as was the recording. West Side Story fans will recognize the Prologue, which portrays the rising violence between the two gangs); Somewhere, Tony and Maria’s idyllic dream sequence; Scherzo, the dream continues as the gangs leave the city for the countryside; Mambo, where the rival gangs compete at the school dance;  Cha-Cha, when Tony and Maria meet for the first time; Meeting Scene, when the lovers exchange their first words;  the Cool Fuque, where the hostility builds; the Rumble, when the violence results in the final tragedy; and, the Finale, where Tony dies in Maria’s arms. 

American pianist and much sought-after composer Gabriela Lena Frank, 40, composed Three Latin American Dances in 2004 for the Utah Symphony.   A graduate of Rice University in Houston and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, she has traveled extensively in South America, drawing on its folk culture as inspiration for her compositions.  Much of her music is rooted, so to speak, in her own family roots.  Her mother is of mixed Peruvian descent and Frank has incorporated that country’s folk music into her own works.  “Dances” is a work replete with traditional rhythms and harmonies of specific regions in South America.  She credits Leonard Bernstein, Mexican composer Alberto Ginastera and Bela Bartok, Hungarian pianist and composer, as having provided inspiration for these pieces.  Their influence will be evident in “Dances.” 

 In 1911 Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Maurice Ravel to set to music a ballet based on a simple love story of a goatherd and shepherdess, Daphnis et Chloё.  The music from that ballet, widely regarded as some of Ravel’s best work, is passionate with extraordinary lush harmonies typical of the impressionist movement in music.  Commentators of his time described this ballet as his masterpiece for orchestra.  Audiences today are most familiar with the two suites (to be performed by the MSO) that Ravel extracted from the ballet. 

 All ticket holders are welcome to attend “Prelude” which takes place one hour before each concert.  Music Director Elizabeth Schulze and the guest artists share information on featured composers and their works that will enhance concert-goers enjoyment and appreciation of the concert.  Program notes and audio clips of the musical selections being performed are available at www.marylandsymphony.org by clicking on “Listen to Program Notes” on the performance page. 

 Tickets, ranging from $15 to $49, may be purchased ONLINE at www.marylandsymphony.org; in person at 30 W. Washington Street, Hagerstown (Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.); or by calling 301-797-4000 during business hours.  Students in grades 1 through 12 are admitted free to all Masterworks Concerts. Student Rush Tickets are available for higher education students (no reservations accepted) at the Maryland Theatre Box Office before each performance for $5.00.  Seat selection will be at the discretion of the box office personnel.  The Maryland Theatre Box Office opens 90 minutes prior to MSO concerts.

 The Presenting Sponsor for “Orchestral Dances” is the Maryland Symphony Orchestra Guild.  Additional sponsorship is being provided by Mercedes-Benz of Hagerstown.  Student tickets for Masterworks Series performances are generously underwritten by contributions from Susquehanna Bank and Music Director Elizabeth Schulze.

The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.  The Maryland Symphony Orchestra is the area’s premier professional orchestra, dedicated to providing musical performances that educate and entertain, while enhancing the cultural environment of Western Maryland and the surrounding region. 

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