Photo Flash: PSO BRAVO! Presents School Day Concert Full of Surprises

On Tuesday, May 10, at 9:30 am, 11:30 am, and 1:15 pm at Richardson Auditorium, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra's (PSO) BRAVO! education program presented "The Sky is the Limit!", a concert designed to get the imaginations of over 2,000 area school children soaring with works ranging from Ottorini Respighi's "The Hen" and Nikolaï Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee to Daniel Dorff's Blast Off! and Gustav Holst's "Mars." Music Director Rossen Milanov conducted as he guided the students through the upper stratosphere and beyond. Scroll down for photos!

The PSO's principal trumpet Jerry Bryant fingers flew as he set an unofficial world record performing the Flight of the Bumblebee as student volunteers stood by with stop watches. The excitement continued when Riverside Elementary School's Paul Chapin, interim principal and veteran teacher of music, surprised his own students when he took the stage to narrate Daniel Dorff's work, complete with countdown. "Performing Daniel Dorff's piece in front students I teach, sitting on the front of the stage with the orchestra behind and seeing the students' faces light up as they recognize pieces they've studied-how exciting and wonderful!"

Mr. Dorff attended two of the day's concerts, giving students the opportunity to put a face to the composer and forge a further connection to the music performed. He said with a grin, "I come to concerts like this for pleasure, to see all these kids, some of them who have never been to the orchestra before, totally loving it and applauding with glee."

Students from the following schools participated in this year's concert, singing along to "America the Beautiful", accompanied by the professional musicians of the PSO: Community Park, Johnson Park, Littlebrook, Riverside, Toll Gate Grammar, Stony Brook, Hopewell Elementary, Newgrange, South Brunswick Schools, Princeton Montessori, Trenton Catholic, Cambridge School, Bear Tavern, Princeton Charter, Princeton Friends, Christina Seix Academy, Carmina Homeschoolers, Stuart Country Day, Princeton Junior School, and St. Paul's School.

Over 30 volunteers from Bloomberg were on hand helping to shepherd the hundreds of children attending each of the three concerts.

The annual school day concert in May is looked forward to as the culmination of the PSO BRAVO! in-school ensemble program which introduces students to Wind, Brass, String, and Percussion instrument families through rotating presentations. In the setting of Richardson Auditorium, all these instruments combine to create the thrilling experience of hearing a full orchestra, live.

School Day Concerts are presented free to schools through the support of the Robert Wood Johnson 1962 Charitable Trust and hundreds of other corporate, foundation, government, and individual donors. For more information about PSO BRAVO!, visit princetonsymphony.org/education.

Photos courtesy PSO staff.

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