“It was classical music made interactive, as the elementary school students from Paterson clapped along to a John Philip Sousa march and cheered when the conductor introduced the musicians who play the French horn,” writes Minjae Park in Wednesday’s (5/27) Record (northern N.J.). For many attending the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s Wednesday morning concert at William Paterson University it “was their first concert…. For a select 40 students … it was also a special chance to perform with the orchestra’s professionals before hundreds of their classmates…. As participants in the Paterson Music Project, the students, who come from the Community Charter School of Paterson and School 1, have been learning how to play the violin, viola or the cello. They meet three times a week after school for two hours, paying fees of up to $10 a week, said Elizabeth Moulthrop, the program director…. The students murmured at the sight of the tuba … and cheered when the French horn players lifted their shiny, elaborate brass coil instruments. ‘We gear these for kids of a certain age,’ said Jeff Grogan, the symphony orchestra’s education and community engagement conductor…. [Cellist] Danielle Wiggins, 9 … gave the orchestra high marks. ‘They knew how to play,’ she said.”
Posted May 29, 2015
