CONCERT CURRICULUM > For Students > For Schools > For Orchestras > For the Community > How it works > Concert > Curriculum > History > Accolades > How to Participate

"An extraordinary year that culminated in an event so spectacular, it brought together families, teachers, and students, and rallied the whole community."

- Thomas Rabone, Principal, Maple Hill Middle School, Castleton, N.Y.

What began as a commission from conductor David Alan Miller to composer Arthur Bloom spawned an unprecedented program, a growing organization, and a history of success in a variety of communities:

The extraordinary performance by students from the Philip Schuyler Elementary School, an inner-city school in Albany, New York, was a dramatic illustration of the power of the program. The program’s components worked like the blades of a propeller, moving the class forwards, and lifting it up and towards the ambitious goal of a professional-level performance with the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Any doubt in anyone’s mind – most importantly, in the students’ own minds – regarding their genuine ability, was put to rest once and for all with their magnificent, final performance in Albany’s historic Palace Theater.

The Concert Curriculum at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, Florida, one of the nation’s premier venues and Florida’s largest stage, featured students from Sandpiper Elementary School performing with the Israel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Philippe Entremont. Audiences that filled the sold-out hall could barely contain their enthusiasm. Susan Tilley, Regional Arts Administrator for the Center, stated “we have never had concerts that integrate children’s and professionals’ talents to this degree, or that engage large audiences of young people in quite this fashion. This is outreach at its very best!”

The program was just as successful in the rural community of Schodack, New York. After a bomb threat emptied the school, students experienced their first rehearsal with the Albany Symphony Orchestra outside, before an audience of cows and buffalo from neighboring farms. With thrilling performances before packed audiences of people, the teacher reporting improvements in classroom behavior and performance, the principal noting increased parental involvement in student learning, and national attention through two documentaries broadcast on National Public Radio, the program ultimately succeeded beyond what any person, cow, or buffalo, could have imagined.