In Wednesday’s Miami Herald, Patricia Mazzei reports on a January 26 “Meet the Orchestra” concert by The Cleveland Orchestra at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School, part of the orchestra’s annual three-week residency at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. “The orchestra has several community outreach initiatives involving schools—including hosting concerts for families and teaching younger kids the basics of music, like rhythm and pitch—but a full concert in school was a special treat for students and musicians alike. ‘This is much more personal, much more intimate,’ said Joela Jones, the orchestra’s principal keyboardist and a native Miamian. …’I never cared for American football,’ the orchestra’s music director, Franz Welser-Möst, a native of Austria, said in an interview. ‘But when I went to a game and someone explained it to me, it got interesting.’ His grand lesson for the high schoolers: Music tells complex stories about history, humankind and even politics.” Mazzei quotes several students, and notes that the concert “ended with a standing ovation—and Welser-Möst receiving an orange Hiahleah-Miami Lakes T-shirt. ‘It was friggin’ awesome,’ 11th-grader Edwin M. Castro said. ‘They were amazing. My whole body was shaking.’ ”
Posted January 27, 2010
