Baltimore Symphony Launches Sixth Annual BSO Academy Week, Now thru 6/27

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is pleased to announce the launch of its sixth annual BSO Academy Week. From today, June 20 through Saturday, June 27, 2015, instrumentalists from across the country are invited to rehearse and perform side-by-side with BSO musicians and under the direction of Music Director Marin Alsop in an intensive music "fantasy camp." The BSO's Academy Week was notably featured in The New York Times and has become a popular destination for amateur musicians from across the country. The Academy provides an immersive experience for participants who desire a comprehensive learning experience through four distinct tracks for performers, educators and administrators: Orchestral Track, Chamber Music Track, Music Educator Track and the Arts Administrator Track. Please see below for complete registration details.

The flagship of the BSO's lifelong learning curriculum, the Academy Week provides a variety of performing and learning experiences for adult musicians. Participants in Group One of the Orchestral Track (June 21-27) will rehearse and perform Wagner's Overture toRienzi, the third movement from Mahler's Symphony No. 1, "Titan" and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite (1919), while Group Two will work on Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture, the first movement from Mahler's Symphony No. 5 and the fourth movement from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 2. Participants in both groups will have the opportunity to work with both BSO Music Director Marin Alsop as well as BSO Assistant Conductor Nicholas Hersh.

The new and improved Chamber Music Track (June 20-26), developed with the avid chamber musician in mind, features chamber music and chamber orchestra sessions, sectionals, BSO-led workshops focusing on chamber music techniques and two performance opportunities.

Following the success of the inaugural Music Educators Academy in 2014, the BSO launches the second Academy specifically created for Music Educators in collaboration with the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), June 20-27. Designed to inspire and invigorate music educators, the Academy aims to improve musicianship, performance techniques, conducting skills, improvisation, arranging, practice techniques and ensemble skills. Three graduate credits for the Music Educators Academy are also available through UMBC.

The BSO continues to foster the professional development of arts administrators through the Arts Administrator Track (June 20-27). This program examines the Academy Week as an example for how an orchestra can engage its community in new and innovative ways. Participants attend a series of seminars, workshops and lectures by BSO staff and musicians on the various aspects of creating and managing a successful Academy program. The participants observe and, as space allows, have the option to play in select Academy activities throughout the week.

For more information about each track, visit BSOAcademy.org.

About the BSO Academy
Initially consisting of a week-long orchestral immersion program, the BSO Academy now embraces a full range of activities for adult musicians and music educators with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. The week-long immersive summer music program in June continues to be the cornerstone program, giving amateur adult musicians the opportunity to perform alongside a top professional orchestra. Since 2010, the Academy has grown to serve thousands of community members through performances, the Rusty Musician side-by-side experience, Instrument Clinics, Chamber Music Weekends, the Music Educators Academy and the BSO Academy Week. Unique in the country, the BSO Academy has earned extensive coverage including articles in The New York Timesby embedded reporter and amateur clarinetist Dan Wakin. (See "Band Camp for Grown-ups," and "Every chair in this temporary orchestra holds a story.")

About the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
The Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its enduring pursuit of artistic excellence, the BSO has attracted a devoted national and international following while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland with innovative education and community outreach initiatives.

The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra's 12thmusic director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Maestra Alsop's leadership has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences.

In recent years, Marin Alsop and the BSO have been regularly invited to Carnegie Hall, including Maestra Alsop's debut in February 2008, a critically acclaimed appearance later the same year to perform Bernstein's Mass, further performances in November 2010 and again in November 2011 for a performance of Honegger's dramatic oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher. The Orchestra under Maestra Alsop undertook their first domestic tour in March 2012 to the West Coast, including a three-day residency at the University of California, Berkeley.

For more than 80 years, the BSO has maintained a vibrant educational presence throughout Maryland, supporting the local community not only through concerts and recordings, but also through its commitment to actively giving back with its education, outreach and mentorship programs. The 2014-2015 season marks the seventh year of OrchKids™, a year-round in-school and after-school music program designed to create social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Baltimore City's neighborhoods. OrchKids provides music education, instruments and tutoring to Baltimore's underserved children at no cost. Since its start in 2008, the program has grown from 30 students to more than 750 student participants throughout five schools in Baltimore City. Last year, the BSO launched OrchLab, in partnership with the Montgomery County Public Schools. This music-in-schools program for elementary, middle and high school students in Montgomery County was created to enrich the instrumental music program in schools within the MCPS system that have the greatest need, as well as to provide professional development opportunities for MCPS music instructors. In the 2012-2013 academic year, OrchLab was piloted in 23 schools located in the Downcounty and Northeast Consortia of the MCPS System. OrchLab is an outgrowth of BSO on the Go, the Orchestra's education outreach program that has provided more than 12,000 students with classroom instruction and performances from BSO musicians since that program's start five years ago.

About UMBC
UMBC is a dynamic public research university integrating teaching, research and service. As an Honors University, the campus offers academically talented students a strong undergraduate liberal arts foundation that prepares them for graduate and professional study, entry into the workforce, and community service and leadership. UMBC is dedicated to cultural and ethnic diversity, social responsibility and lifelong learning. In the arts, UMBC offers undergraduate majors in Music, Dance, Theatre and Visual Arts, and graduate and certificate programs in Visual Arts and Music. The university is home to the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture; the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery; the Center for Innovation, Research and Creativity in the Arts; and the Imaging Research Center.

For the fifth year in a row, UMBC tops the U.S. News ranking of "Up-and-Coming" national universities - a designation recognizing universities that consistently find innovative ways to improve students' educational experiences. UMBC also was named one of the top national universities for undergraduate teaching, tied at eighth with Duke University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Chicago and the University of Notre Dame. The Princeton Review again named UMBC one of the "Best Values" among colleges and universities nationwide, and The Chronicle of Higher Education recognized the campus as a "Great Place to Work." CBS's "60 Minutes" also featured UMBC, calling it "one of America's most innovative colleges."

About the UMBC Department of Music
Residing in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Department of Music at UMBC offers undergraduate degrees in composition, jazz studies, music education, music technology and performance. The faculty currently numbers 42, who teach more than 150 student majors. In addition to the standard curriculum, the Department is especially keen to build entrepreneurial skills in students so that they are prepared to contribute as musicians to society in the 21st century as highly-skilled innovators. Undergraduates engage in research and collaborations, often conducted jointly with faculty through performances or publications, and gain important skills in cutting edge music technology (the Department boasts the largest and most sophisticated music technology program in the state). Graduate students can enroll in one of two innovative certificate programs: one in American Contemporary Music, and the other in Music Entrepreneurship. Music students also have an option to study abroad through an exchange program with the Nicolini Conservatorio in Piacenza, Italy. Faculty have won prizes at a number of prestigious international events, performed with some of the world's leading ensembles, received grants from major national and international foundations and organizations, and completed more than 1000 recordings for international labels. The Department of Music has a new home at the Performing Arts and Humanities Building at UMBC which opened in August 2014.

COMPLETE REGISTRATION DETAILS, BSO ACADEMY WEEK
BSO Academy Week: June 20-27, 2015
Marin Alsop, conductor
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
BSO Academy participants

Group 1:
Wagner: Overture to Rienzi
Mahler: Third Movement from Symphony No. 1, "Titan"
Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1919)

Group 2:
Rimsky-Korsakov: Russian Easter Overture
Mahler: First Movement from Symphony No. 5
Tchaikovsky: Fourth Movement from Symphony No. 2

• To register, participants should visit BSOAcademy.org to fill out an online application form and submit the non-refundable application fee.
• Applicants must be at least 21 years old for consideration into the program.
• Registration is now open

All applications, supplemental materials and the non-refundable application fee must be received by 5 p.m. on January 9, 2015.

Orchestral Track Base Tuition: $1,900

• Chamber Music add-on: $650
• Chamber Orchestra add-on: $650

Chamber Music Track Base Tuition: $1,900
Music Educator Track Base Tuition: $1,900 (with $400 discount to participants registered for UMBC graduate credit)
Arts Administrator Track Base Tuition: $950

Additional opportunities for chamber music, chamber orchestra, solo with piano and private lessons available at additional costs. SeeBSOAcademy.org for more details.

Photo Courtesy of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

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