“During a visit to an elementary school last year, Discovery Orchestra Artistic Director George Marriner Maull started and ended his lesson by playing five minutes of Handel’s ‘Music for the Royal Fireworks,’ ” writes Natalie Pompilio in Thursday’s (4/27) Star-Ledger (N.J.). “The Discovery Orchestra’s mission: Helping people notice. Poised to celebrate its 30th anniversary this month, Maull says the orchestra has helped millions of people make the move from hearing to listening thanks to its four PBS productions, YouTube videos and live performances…. The orchestra will celebrate its anniversary April 30 with a performance … ‘Are You Hungary? Discover Brahms!’ … In the orchestra’s earliest days, when it was still called the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, its only aim was to make beautiful music. The education element was a small part of what the orchestra did…. In 2006, the Warren-based orchestra’s board decided to focus solely on education, Maull said, ‘realizing that the most important thing we could be doing was helping people listen in a more complete way.’ ” For the Discovery Orchestra’s next 30 years, Maull said, “We hope to help people find the incredible pleasure of listening to classical music.”
Posted April 28, 2017
