“Music worked a little transformative magic Tuesday morning at the Fox Theater,” writes Jim Allen in Tuesday’s (5/1) Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA). “For one enchanting hour, the Spokane Symphony morphed into a swing band, complete with singers, dancers and jazz ensemble. In the audience were almost 900 elementary school students, who … sang, played recorders and learned a few dance moves…. Conductor Jorge Luis Uzcategui led the seventh edition of Link Up, an annual collaboration between the symphony and local schools…. It was the ultimate audience-participation exercise—for lungs, legs and learning…. Said Janet Napoles, education manager for the Spokane Symphony, ‘Research shows that music lights up more areas of the brain than anything else that you can teach.’ … Using teaching materials provided by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, the students practiced for months ahead of the big day…. It was also riotous fun, thanks to [emcee Dave] Weatherred and duet singers Kelsey and Marissa Weddle. They introduced the musicians, reviewed a few concepts—and raised the roof…. Everyone was on their feet for the final number, Louis Armstrong’s ‘When the Saints Go Marching In.’… [Fourth-grader Paige] Davis will be back. ‘This is so cool,’ she said.”
Posted May 3, 2018
Pictured: The Spokane Symphony’s “Orchestra Swings” Link Up program, May 1, 2018 in Spokane, Washington. Photo by Jesse Tinsley / Spokesman-Review
