In Sunday’s (10/3) News Journal (Wilmington, Delaware), Edward L. Kenney writes, “Last week, music teacher Katie Martinenza played an ominous-sounding portion of a symphonic movement for her students. The piece was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Scheherazade,’ and the fifth-graders in the classroom at Appoquinimink’s Loss Elementary School in Bear listened intently as they sat cross-legged on the floor. So far, this could have been any music class. But using an interactive whiteboard, Martinenza also threw in history lessons about the composer and geography lessons about his homeland of Russia and the ancient empire of Persia, where his composition is set. … Their trip later this month will take the students—and hundreds like them at other schools—to see a Delaware Symphony Orchestra children’s performance of ‘Scheherazade’ at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington. … Lisa Vaupel, education programs coordinator with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra, said the orchestra asks a music teacher each year to write a lesson plan as part of its Explorer Concert Series for children. ‘Katie’s really taken it to a new level this time, which is really neat,’ she said. ‘We want [children] to have the experience of having their lives enriched through live orchestral music.’ ”
Posted October 5, 2010
