CARNEGIE HALL’S WEILL MUSIC INSTITUTE BRINGS TOGETHER THOUSANDS OF
NEW YORK CITY STUDENTS AND TEACHERS FOR INTERACTIVE CONCERTS WITH
ORCHESTRA OF ST. LUKE’S AND CONDUCTOR ROSSEN MILANOV, MAY 19–21
Link Up Program Reaches Nearly 300,000 Students With 70 Partner Orchestras Worldwide
 Link Up, Carnegie Hall’s music education program for grades 3–5 celebrates its 30th year with dozens of energetic and interactive children’s concerts across the United States and abroad this spring, including six performances in New York City over three days, May 19–21, in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. The program and concerts are presented by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute.
During the 2014–2015 season, approximately 14,000 New York City students and teachers participate in The Orchestra Moves, which explores musical movement through a range of orchestral repertoire, including Mozart’s Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, and “Toreador” from Bizet’s Carmen. The culminating concerts feature engaging interactive performances from special guests together with Orchestra of St. Luke’s, conducted by Rossen Milanov, and hosted by composer Thomas Cabaniss. Complete with dancers, percussionists, and stimulating multimedia displays, students participate in a concert experience that lets them discover ways in which the orchestra moves. In addition to these May performances in New York City, with the addition of 14 new partner orchestras this year, Link Up curriculum and program materials are now being shared for free with more than 70 orchestras across the country from Alaska to Florida, as well as in Canada, Spain, and Japan, serving approximately 300,000 students and teachers around the world. With materials created by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, Link Up pairs orchestras with students at schools in their local communities to explore orchestral repertoire and fundamental musical skills, including creative work and composition, through a hands-on music curriculum. The highly participatory music curriculum is composed of three distinctive, year-long program guides: The Orchestra Moves (exploring movement within music), The Orchestra Sings (exploring melody), and The Orchestra Rocks (exploring rhythm). These materials are designed for use in classrooms throughout the school year, helping students prepare to take part in a culminating concert by their local orchestra at which they sing, play the recorder, or play the violin with the orchestra from their seats. “We are thrilled to take Link Up, our long-running music education program originally created for third through fifth graders throughout New York City, and provide it free-of-charge to partners around the world in ways that they can adapt for use in their own communities,” said Sarah Johnson, Director of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. “Through this hands-on program that encourages creative participation, we hope to build a broad community dedicated to bringing great music to young people.” “It is wonderful to have a ready-made curriculum that teaches the students basic music concepts along with recorder technique,” said Carolyn Vokoun, a music teacher from the Cathedral Basilica School in St. Louis, Missouri. “The kids really look forward to the program, and they are learning valuable skills that can be transferred to other instruments as they grow older.” For a full list of National Link Up partners during the 2014–2015 season, please click here. About Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute Program Information THOMAS CABANISS “Come to Play” Major support for Link Up has been provided by the Siegel Family Endowment with additional funding from The Ambrose Monell Foundation and The Barker Welfare Foundation. Link Up in New York City schools is made possible, in part, by an endowment gift from The Irene Diamond Fund. The Weill Music Institute’s programs are made available to a nationwide audience by an endowment grant from the Citi Foundation. Image at top of release by Jennifer Taylor |
