In Saturday’s (7/27) South Coast Today (New Bedford, Mass.), Natalie Sherman writes, “School districts working to overhaul lessons to meet new national standards will have an unlikely partner this fall: the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra, which has developed nationally recognized programs that expose students to core concepts through music. The SchoolsMusic! program … is designed to match the Common Core curriculum, which Massachusetts adopted in 2010 and is planning to roll out fully this year across the state.” The year-long program “scraps traditional in-school concerts for lessons that explore concepts through music, art, and math…. For example, third-graders will listen for symmetry in a Vivaldi piece or in the work of M.C. Escher, then act as ‘agents,’ detecting symmetry in their school environment to show they understand the idea. ‘We’re not interested that much in … what I call the traditional drive-by school concert,’ NBSO Music Director and Conductor David MacKenzie said. In all, the NBSO will visit about 30 schools this year, from Falmouth to Rhode Island. NBSO Education Director Terry Wolkowicz spoke about the program in June at the League of American Orchestras National Conference, where she appeared on a panel with representatives from the Los Angeles and Dallas symphonies.”
Posted July 30, 2013
