MAY 2012
THE HARRISBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S PUBLICATION FOR MUSIC EDUCATORS AND SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS
Musical Chairs What is Musical Chairs? You remember the game where people walk around a chair circle while music plays. The music stops and everyone dashes to fit into one of the chairs in the circle. The HSO now has another take on Musical Chairs and it’s a lot more welcoming than the game of missing seats. The HSO now offers families with school age children a marvelous opportunity to experience the Masterworks series of concerts at an extremely reduced rate. Musical Chairs offers a $35.00 season subscription to all seven of the HSO’s Masterworks concerts for students and their parents or guardians. Download an application for the Musical Chairs program at www.HarrisburgSymphony.org. You’ll find it under the Education tab. Or call Alice Anne Schwab at the HSO office, 717-612-4965 for more information.
Announcing the 2012/13 Season of Young Person’s Concerts with the HSO The Harrisburg Symphony is happy to announce that the Fall YPC for older elementary age students will take place Friday, November 9, 2012 at 10:00 am and 11:30 am. The two identical performances will offer Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme, featuring, Rising Stars Concerto Competition winner, 16 year old cellist Julia Rosenbaum as soloist with the HSO. The HSO will also perform movements from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6. The Spring YPC, designed for middle school age students, will celebrate Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, known as the Pastoral Symphony. Performances are scheduled for Friday, May 17, 2013 at 10:00 am and 11:30 am. The Young Person’s Concerts take place through the generosity of the Hathaway Family Foundation. All concerts are free to registered school and home school groups. Prior registration is mandatory. Seats are offered on a first come, first served basis. All YPC concert performances take place at the Forum, 5th and Walnut Streets, in downtown Harrisburg. Register now for the Fall and Spring 2012/13 Young Person’s Concerts (YPCs) at www.HarrisburgSymphony.org under the Education tab.
Over the past two years, the HSO has worked to develop a complementary program for the Musical Chairs subscribers and, for all young people attending Masterworks concerts. Welcome to the Concert takes place in the Lobby of the Forum outside section 208 before every Masterworks concert. Recent Welcome to the Concert programs have featured visits from guest artists, composers, and student performers. Young people have made their own instruments, made the presentation bouquet for a soloist, composed their own music and created a mural for a child in the hospital. Welcome to the Concert helps make the concert experience more accessible for young concert-goers. We hope to see you at our pre-concert programs: 7:15 pm Saturdays and 2:15 pm Sundays, prior to every Masterworks concert.
Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestras kicks off the 2012/13 season with Auditions for both the Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestra (grades 9 – 12 – all orchestral instruments) and the Junior Youth String Orchestra (grades 6 – 9, string instruments only). Auditions will take place on August 28, 29, and 30th at Central Dauphin East High School, 626 Rutherford Road, Harrisburg, 17109. You may download the audition form from the HSO website starting July 1, 2012. Audition guidelines for both ensembles are available now on the HSYO website, www.HSYO.org. The HSO welcomes its new Assistant Conductor and Music Director of the Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestras, Gregory Woodbridge. Woodbridge is well known in Central Pennsylvania music circles. Since the fall of 2000 he has been the Director of Orchestras at Hershey High School, where he has built one of the most dynamic music programs at the high school level in the Midstate. He is also Conductor of the York Youth Symphony, the Central Pennsylvania Youth Orchestra in State College, and the Pennsylvania Regional Ballet. He also leads the York Symphony in their annual children’s concerts. In the past he has held conducting positions at the Central Pennsylvania Symphony and the Wednesday Club Youth Orchestra. He also has served as Cover Conductor for Stuart Malina at the Harrisburg Symphony. Mr. Woodbridge is a graduate of Penn State, where he earned two Bachelor Degrees - one in Music Education (violin) and another in Piano - and a Masters Degree in Orchestral Conducting. The HSO is thrilled to have Gregory Woodbridge directing the Youth Orchestra program, conducting the Harrisburg Symphony Youth Orchestra, and serving as Assistant Conductor to Maestro Malina.
Looking to Volunteer with the HSO? We are always looking for assistance with our many programs. Here are but a few of the ways you can get involved with the HSO by volunteering. • Serve as a concert volunteer. Take tickets, Welcome guests to the Forum, show people to their seats at concerts, set-up and clean-up at the Forum before and after concerts. • Serve as a docent/leader at Welcome to the Concert, Young Person’s Concerts, or one of our other Education events. • Help in the HSO office with periodic mailings and other office work. • Work in the HSO office as an intern in our Library, in Operations, or with the Youth Symphony. You may sign up as a volunteer on the HSO website: www.HarrisburgSymphony.org under the Support HSO tab. Please call or email Alice Anne Schwab, Director of Education, for more information. aschwab@harrisburgsymphony.org or 717-612-4965.