Carnegie Hall Education Program LinkUP! Celebrates 25th Year Anniversary 5/25-27

This May, LinkUP!-Carnegie Hall's oldest and one of its most popular education programs-celebrates its 25th anniversary with six concerts on May 25-27 in Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, presented for approximately 13,500 schoolchildren. Composer Thomas Cabaniss will host and guide the audience through the concert, entitled The Orchestra Rocks!

Featuring the Orchestra of St. Luke's led by Rossen Milanov, the wide-ranging and high-energy program includes music from Terry Riley's In C and Steve Reich's Clapping Music to Holst's The Planets and Shostakovich's The Nose. Also featured on the program will be composer and DJ Mason Bates, performing in his own piece Warehouse Medicine from B-Sides; The Brooklyn Steppers in Thomas Cabaniss's Drumlines; and vocalists Lynelle Jonsson, Amy Justman, and Jonathon Hampton performing Cabaniss's "Come to Play." Susan Fenichell will direct the performance.

LinkUP! and Carnegie Hall's annual springtime tradition of welcoming thousands of elementary school students into the hall began during the 1984-1985 season. The program began as a music appreciation program that introduced students to each instrument family of the orchestra. Over the years, the concerts began to feature some opera arias and popular overtures, allowing students to sing along with the orchestra. During the 1999-2000 season, the curriculum began to incorporate students' study and performance of the recorder, which has continued ever since.

In celebration of LinkUP!'s 25th anniversary, the Weill Music Institute (WMI) has updated the curriculum and incorporated a variety of new music-both contemporary and traditional-into this season's final concerts. The newly revamped curriculum, entitled The Orchestra Rocks!, gives third through fifth grade students in New York City and the tri-state area the opportunity to join a collective community of performers and creators and to explore musical concepts such as time, rhythm, and groove together through a range of exciting orchestral music. Utilizing curriculum materials provided by the Weill Music Institute, teachers have guided students in approaching repertoire through a composer's lens, incorporating skills-based work to support performing repertoire on recorder, violin, voice, or body percussion and creative work such as composition. Select classrooms, chosen by audition, will have the opportunity to perform onstage or be featured through video submissions at the final concerts.

In collaboration with WMI, regional partners across the U.S. participate in WMI's Communities LinkUP! program, which brings Carnegie Hall's educational expertise and resources to orchestras and school districts throughout the United States reaching tens of thousands of students. 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. Regional partners for the 2009-2010 season include: Albany Symphony (Albany, GA); Carnegie Hall West Virginia (Lewisburg, WV); Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (Fort Worth, TX); Meridian Symphony Orchestra (Meridian, MS); Omaha Symphony (Omaha, NE); Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra (Saint Louis, MO); University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg, MS); West Michigan Symphony (Muskegon, MI); and Gulf Coast Symphony (Gulfport, MS).

Spring Concerts for WMI School-Based Programs
Throughout the year, tens of thousands of students in the tri-state area participate in WMI school-based programs. In addition to LinkUP!, other programs include: Musical Explorers: My City, My Song, for first and second grades, which examines different styles of music and performers by focusing on different New York City neighborhoods, which will explore Sephardic music, musical theater, and jazz in concerts on April 20-23; Perelman American Roots, for middle schools, which explores the dynamic connections between American music and American history and this year focuses on the African American spiritual with two concerts on May 21; and the Global Encounters and Carnegie Hall Cultural Exchange programs for high school students, which this year incorporate the music of Mexico, India, and the U.S. into social studies, English, and music classrooms culminating with concerts on May 5 and May 6. Additionally, the Weill Music Institute has founded a Music Blueprint Model School, at PS/MS 161 in Harlem, which serves to create a model public school with sequential music programs, learning resources, innovative teaching practices, and assessment tools that other arts organizations and schools can eventually utilize and adapt. The Music Blueprint Model School culminates this year of partnership with Carnegie Hall in a concert on June 9.

The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall
The Weill Music Institute creates broad-reaching music education and community programs that play a central role in Carnegie Hall's commitment to making great music accessible to as wide an audience as possible. Woven into the fabric of the Carnegie Hall concert season, these programs occur at Carnegie Hall as well as in schools and throughout neighborhoods, providing musical opportunities for everyone, from preschoolers to adults, new listeners to emerging professionals. With access to the world's greatest artists and latest technologies, the Weill Music Institute is uniquely positioned to inspire the next generation of music lovers, to nurture tomorrow's musical talent, and to shape the evolution of musical learning itself. The Weill Music Institute's school and community programs annually serve over 115,000 children, students, teachers, parents, young music professionals, and adults in the New York metropolitan area and across the US, as well as 65,000 people around the world through its online and distance learning initiatives.

For more information, please visit: carnegiehall.org/exploreandlearn.

Program Information
CARNEGIE HALL LINKUP! CONCERT
Tuesday, May 25 at 10:15 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.
Wednesday, May 26 at 10:15 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.
Thursday, May 27 at 10:15 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
Orchestra of St. Luke's
Rossen Milanov, Conductor
Thomas Cabaniss, Host
Mason Bates, Composer and DJ
The Brooklyn Steppers
Jonathon Hampton, Vocalist
Lynelle Jonsson, Vocalist
Amy Justman, Vocalist
Susan Fenichell, Director

THOMAS CABANISS "Come to Play"
MASON BATES Warehouse Medicine from B-Sides
STEVE REICH Clapping Music
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH "Entr'Acte" from The Nose, Op. 15
TERRY RILEY In C
GUSTAV HOLST "Mars, the Bringer of War" from The Planets, Op. 32
THOMAS CABANISS Drumlines

No general admission tickets available. This event is for students enrolled in the LinkUP! program. Journalists interested in attending LinkUP! performances, or other WMI school-program concerts, may contact Maggie Ciadella at 212-903-9753 or mciadella@carnegiehall.org.

LinkUP! is made possible through the generous annual support of The Wachovia Foundation, The Rose M. Badgeley Residuary Charitable Trust, The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, and The Barker Welfare Foundation.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.