Handel & Haydn Society Ed Outreach Program Choruses Hold Annual Concerts

The Handel and Haydn Society's Karen S. and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program, established in 1985, reaches over 10,000 students annually in the Greater Boston area. As part of Handel and Haydn's mission to give students in the program performance opportunities throughout the community and to share music with as broad an audience as possible, students from H&H's Vocal Apprenticeship Program (VAP) will perform around Boston during the holiday season. In addition to the High School Soloists pre-professional vocal program, VAP consists of Singers (preparatory choir, grades 3–5), Youth Chorus (grades 6–8), Young Men's Chorus (grades 8–12), and Young Women's Chorus (grades 9–12). The ensembles are led by conductors Heather Tryon (Singers and Youth Chorus), Joseph Stillitano (Young Men's Chorus), and Alyson Greer (Young Women's Chorus).

Events at a Glance

November 27, 2.15pm and 2.45pm
H&H Singers at Boston Children's Museum
The Common, Boston Children's Museum, Rowe's Wharf, Boston
Free with museum admission

November 27, 5.30pm
Young Women's Chorus at Copley Place Holiday Music Series
Copley Place, Boston
Free admission

December 2–4, pre-Handel Messiah
Chorus members caroling in the halls
Symphony Hall, 301 Massachusetts Ave, Boston
Free admission with concert ticket

December 11, 5pm
Winter VAP Choral Ensembles Concert
United Parish, 210 Harvard Street, Brookline
$5 general admission

December 17, 3pm
Winter VAP High School Soloists Recital
Seully Hall, The Boston Conservatory, 8 The Fenway, Boston
Free admission

The Karen S. and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program
Established in 1985, the Handel and Haydn Society's Karen S. and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program was created with strong ties to the organization's early leaders. Lowell Mason, best known as the founding father of music education in American public schools, enjoyed a long association with Handel and Haydn, first as musical editor and later as President of H&H from 1827–1832. Mason taught classes at the Bowdoin Street Church and founded the Boston Academy of Music in 1833 to promote music education to the public. When H&H launched its official educational initiative in 1985, it focused on public education with its free school visits that now reach public schools in nine Massachusetts districts; the Collaborative Youth Concerts followed in 1987, in which students from different school districts and cultural backgrounds come together to perform for their communities alongside Handel and Haydn musicians.

In 1994, H&H started the Vocal Apprenticeship Program (VAP) with Youth Chorus (grades 6–8) and the High School Soloists pre-professional program, held at New England Conservatory. Later, VAP reached younger students with Singers (grades 3–5) and high school students with its Young Men's (grades 8–12) and Young Women's (grades 9–12) Choruses, so that students could grow with the program for several years, increasing their individual sense of accomplishment as they passed through each level. Students enrolled in VAP learn music theory and receive performance opportunities throughout each season. VAP classes take place in the state-of-the-art music division wing of the Boston Latin School, located in one of the most culturally accessible neighborhoods of Boston, next to Massachusetts College of Art; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Handel and Haydn Society is the only professional music organization in Massachusetts serving as a parent to its own youth ensemble program and regularly presenting them in conjunction with its professional series at Symphony Hall. VAP is also the only youth ensemble program in New England to include individualized scholarships for vocal instruction, diction, and other classes for potential music majors in collaboration with New England Conservatory.

See attached Newsletter for more information on our education programs.

ABOUT HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY
Handel and Haydn Society (H&H) is a professional Period Instrument Orchestra and Chorus and an internationally recognize­d leader in the field of Historically Informed Performance, a revelatory style that uses the instruments and techniques of the composer's time. Founded in Boston in 1815, H&H is the oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States and has a longstanding commitment to excellence and innovation: it gave the American premieres of Handel's Messiah (1818), Haydn's The Creation (1819), Verdi's Requiem (1878), and Bach's St. Matthew Passion (1879). Handel and Haydn today, under Artistic Director Harry Christophers' leadership, is committed to its mission to perform Baroque and Classical music at the highest levels of artistic excellence and to share that music with as large and diverse an audience as possible. H&H is widely known through its local subscription series, tours, concert broadcasts on WGBH/99.5 Classical and National Public Radio, and recordings. Its recording of Sir John Tavener's Lamentations and Praises won a 2003 Grammy Award and two of its recordings, All is Bright and Peace, appeared simultaneously in the top ten on Billboard Magazine's classical music chart. In September 2010, H&H released its first collaboration with Harry Christophers on the CORO label, Mozart's Mass in C Minor-the first in a series of live commercial recordings leading to H&H's Bicentennial in 2015. The 2010–2011 Season marked the 25th anniversary of Handel and Haydn's award-winning Karen S. and George D. Levy Educational Outreach Program, which brings music education, vocal training, and performance opportunities to 10,000 students annually throughout Greater Boston and beyond.

Handel and Haydn Society is funded in part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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