Tracy Rogers, music teacher at Perkinston Elementary; Tim Bergman, with the Gulf Coast Symphony; Susan Peterson, with the Hattiesburg Symphony; and Tonya Bolton, principal of Perkinston Elementary School.
The Fine Arts Department at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College’s Perkinston Campus has partnered with Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra and the Gulf Coast Symphony Youth Orchestra to bring a LinkUP! Concert to students at Gautier and Perkinston elementary schools. The LinkUP! Concert, culminating a year-long program, will be held Monday, April 19, at 10 a.m. in the Malone Fine Arts Building on the Perkinston Campus.
For many students, this performance will serve as their first interactive concert experience, and will provide the opportunity to apply the musical concepts they have studied during the year. LinkUP! also offers students the unique opportunity of playing recorder or singing along with the Youth Orchestra throughout the performance of the studied repertoire. A total of about 150 students from both schools are participating in LinkUP!, and an additional 300 third graders from Perkinston Elementary School will attend the concert as audience members.
The program, a collaboration with Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI), allows Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra to share Carnegie Hall’s educational expertise and resources with orchestras and school districts along the Coast. Along with providing repertoire-based curriculum that aligns with national standards, this program provides orchestras with the resources necessary to expand their current education programs and to strengthen relationships with their surrounding schools and community.
Through a series of sequentially linked activities in the classroom and interactive orchestra concerts, the Communities LinkUP! program is designed to increase each student’s skill set in performing, creating and listening. In addition to the yearlong curriculum, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute offers Web-based professional development sessions for teachers and orchestra administrators, curriculum workbooks for students and teachers, and supporting audio and online resources and materials.
This 2009-2010 school year is the inaugural launch of LinkUP! on the Mississippi Coast. Communities LinkUP! will grow in 2010-2011 as the Gulf Coast Symphony expands its partnerships with more schools.
