The Orchestra Rocks with Nearly 3,500 Students in Link Up Program
HAGERSTOWN, Md. – April 30, 2018 – - Imagine playing with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra while you’re still in grade school. That’s exactly what nearly 3,500 third- through fifth-grade students from 39 Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia schools will do in four interactive performances of The Orchestra Rocks, part of the symphony’s annual Link Up program, presented in partnership with Carnegie Hall.
The Link Up performances will take place Wednesday, May 2, and Thursday, May 3, with concerts at 9:30 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. each day at the historic Maryland Theatre in Hagerstown.
The goal of the Link Up program is to teach students to read music and play their first instrument, the recorder, while providing opportunities for them to interact with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra. Teachers began implementing the program in their classrooms last fall. The curriculum, which explores creative work in composition and critical listening in addition to reading music, can be customized to fit classrooms’ specific needs. Beginning with the quarter note, The Orchestra Rocks breaks down rhythm into its basic elements and analyzes how these can be arranged, repeated, and combined to create patterns and enduring themes in music.
The students’ hard work will culminate in a concert, where the students will bring their recorders and newfound knowledge to perform live, en masse, with the Maryland Symphony Orchestra.
The Orchestra Rocks concert selections include excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Verdi’s Anvil Chorus, selections from Bernstein’s West Side Story, and specially composed Link Up pieces “Come to Play,” and “A Simply Melody.” Maryland Symphony Orchestra Music Director and Conductor, Elizabeth Schulze, will conduct the concert.
For more than a decade, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerts have been, and continue to be sponsored locally by Citi in Hagerstown. The 2017-18 MSO season is supported by an operating grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive.
ABOUT MARYLAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Founded in 1982, Maryland Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 36th season as the area’s premier professional orchestra. Under the musical direction of Maestra Elizabeth Schulze, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra is dedicated to providing musical performances that educate and entertain, while enhancing the cultural environment of Western Maryland and the surrounding region. Learn more: www.marylandsymphony.org
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