Carnegie Hall's Link Up Program Partners with 14 New Orchestras this Season

Link Up, Carnegie Hall's music education program for students in grades 3-5, celebrates its 30th year with dozens of energetic and interactive concerts across the United States and abroad this season. With the addition of 14 new partner orchestras this year, Link Up curriculum and program materials are now being shared for free with more than 70 orchestras across the country from Alaska to Florida, as well as in Canada, Spain, and Japan, serving approximately 300,000 students and teachers around the world.

With materials created by Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, Link Up pairs orchestras with students at schools in their local communities to explore orchestral repertoire and fundamental musical skills, including creative work and composition, through a hands-on music curriculum. The highly participatory music curriculum is composed of three distinctive, year-long program guides: The Orchestra Moves (exploring movement within music), The Orchestra Sings (exploring melody), andThe Orchestra Rocks (exploring rhythm). These materials are designed for use in classrooms throughout the school year, helping students prepare to take part in a culminating concert by their local orchestra at which they sing, play the recorder, or play the violin with the orchestra from their seats.

The program helps address an urgent need in the field for high quality, accessible music education resources by providing a free year-long curriculum that teachers can implement, along with classroom materials, online video and audio resources, and the professional development and support necessary to make the program an engaging and instructive experience for students.

"It's been exciting to take Link Up, our long-running music education program originally created for third through fifth graders from throughout New York City, and provide it to partners around the world in ways that they can adapt for use in their own communities," said Sarah Johnson, Director of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. "With this hands-on program that encourages creative participation, we are working together to build a broad community dedicated to bringing great music to young people."

The following national and international Link Up partners have been added for the 2014-2015 season:

• Adrian Symphony Orchestra, MI
• Akron Symphony, OH
• Colorado Springs Philharmonic, CO
• Columbus Symphony, OH
• Dorothy Delson Kuhn Music Institute, NY
• Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, PA
• Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, HI
• Huxford Symphony Orchestra at the University of Alabama, AL
• Modesto Symphony Orchestra, CA
• Orchestra London Canada, ON
• Stamford Symphony, CT
• Symphony Nova Scotia, NS
• Symphoria, NY
• Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, WA

During the 2014-2015 season, approximately 14,000 New York City students and teachers participate in The Orchestra Moves, which explores musical movement through a range of orchestral repertoire, including Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and "Toreador" from Bizet's Carmen. Participants will attend a culminating concert on May 19-21 in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage. Link Up is one of several programs for students and teachers offered by the Weill Music Institute. Others include Musical Explorers for students in grades K-2, and Count Me In, an afterschool initiative for middle-school singers.

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