“The Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra and Williamsburg-James City County Schools have partnered to promote March’s ‘Music In Our Schools Month’ by addressing social and emotional health through music education,” writes Molly Feser in Tuesday’s (3/16) Williamsburg Yorktown Daily (VA). “For years, the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra (WSO) has partnered with WJCC public schools for their ‘Peter and the Wolf’ program, during which music students rehearse and perform concerts with professional musicians. But when the COVID-19 pandemic paused the program, J.B. Crowley, marketing and community outreach manager for the orchestra, … ‘knew that we needed to do something within the school system,’ Crowley said.… Along with Carolyn Keurajian, WSO’s executive director, and John Rasky, coordinator for fine arts in WJCC Schools, Crowley created a project … to connect music education with the social and emotional health of local students…. WSO has since produced more than 20 fun and educational videos…. WSO was also asked to provide a series of videos for WJCC band and orchestra teachers [and] has … conducted more than 65 [free, hourlong] online instrumental coaching sessions through Zoom…. ‘We also have over 60 instruments in a storage unit where we can loan them out to kids,’ … Keurajian said.”
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