New York Photos

New York

On Friday 14 February 2014, I spent most of the day attending meetings with the education staff at Carnegie Hall and New York Philharmonic.

The day commenced with me attending two classes as part of the New York Philharmonic’s “Pathways to the Orchestra” at PS165 Robert E Simon in Manhattan, where I observed a Gr 5 and a Gr 2/3 class.

The Gr 5 class undertake visualisation, answering questions about the feelings expressed in Britten’s Peter Grimes and to identify the emotions they will feel about graduating. 5 of the identified emotions were allocated to 5 groups who using those themes created their own music using the recorder whilst also learning notes and then writing them down using alpha / visual notation. This creative process utilised team work, negotiating and communication skills. After approximately 15 minutes the students played the work to their peers and the students were asked to make observations about the music performed in terms of pitch, character and other musical elements.

In the second class with the Grade 2/3 students were firstly asked to share what they liked and enjoyed about recently attending the NY Phil’s School Day Concerts where they heard Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and works written by teenaged young composers who are part of the NY Phil’s “Very Young Composers” program. Then the class were taught the final notes of B-flat and C-sharp to learn how to play the D harmonic minor scale.

Carnegie Hall
Meetings took place with Weill Music Institute Staff:
Sarah Johnson, Director of WMI
Joanna Massey, Director of School Programs
Doug Beck, Director of Artist Training Programs (including the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America)

During the course of these meetings I learnt about Carnegie Hall’s programs and the philosophies which underpin their work.

The Weill Music Institute works in a very broad manner to provide learning and creative opportunities for children and other members of the community through a significant program of activity which includes over 50 performances in the five boroughs of New York State.

This is made possible through numerous collaborations with city departments, including health, justice and education.

The three big priorities of the Institute are:

1. Direct service – ensuring all of their programs provide positive impacts for their participants
2. Collegial support of the field of music education at a local, national and international level
3. Generation of new knowledge – through creating tools and resources

When Carnegie Hall established the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, a key part of their messaging was that it’s only able to exist because of the work and leadership of other youth orchestras and music educators.

A particular area in which Carnegie Hall has invested in is middle school at a stage when high levels of students can drop out of learning music. This in part is being achieved with a vocal program called “Count Me In” which provides a choral program after school for students who don’t have a choral or music program in their school.

The Weill Music Institute’s work at higher grades continues into their Creative Learning Projects where groups of students throughout the year learn and create works. The methodologies used in this program are also utilised in their outreach programs with probation centres and schools.

In meeting with Doug Beck I learnt about National Youth Orchestra of USA inaugural tour with Joshua Bell and Valery Gergiev with particular discussion about the skills development the tour provided the students. Key areas they covered issues such as community engagement, how to work in a side-by-side orchestra and skills required for touring.

New York Philharmonic
Their education program headed by Ted Wiprud has 5 admin staff, 21 teaching artists and 2 teaching artist apprentices. In meeting with Debora Kang NY Phil’s Education Assistant I learnt more about their Schools Partnerships Program which was what I observed being taught at PS165 school.

The program is a three year program with a curriculum called “Pathways to the Orchestra”. Presently the NY Phil delivers about 14 to 16 partnerships which are made possible through philanthropic and corporate support and the school paying a small fee. As part of the Partnership, the partnered schools attend a School Days concert, which also includes professional development for the classroom teachers.

Other programs which NY Phil deliver include:

• Very Young a Composers Workshop: a program for middle school aged composers who have lessons at the NY Phil and then have their works performed at the Schools Day concert.
• Workshops and Clinics: where school students come to NY Phil to hear a concert or rehearsal and then they hear a musician speak or participate in a master class
• International – a fee for service program where teaching artists visit and provide skills development to overseas teachers.

New York Youth Symphony
Established over 50 years ago it has a reputation of being one of America’s finest youth orchestras. Whilst meeting with their Executive Director, Shauna Quill I learnt about their youth orchestra, chamber orchestra, jazz orchestra and conductor training and young composers programs. NYYS is fortunate through benefaction to provide free programs which each year cost $6,000 to over 120 students. A long term focus of the organisation has been to commission new works and to provide high quality education which provides beneficial foundations for students who have gone onto tertiary study at the US leading’s conservatoires.