Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers Program to Launch in Select Omaha Classrooms

Dozens of local teachers will be at the Holland Performing Arts Center this month to attend a two-day workshop for the pilot year of the Carnegie Hall program, Musical Explorers. Musical Explorers is a semester-long, curriculum-based program for children in kindergarten through second grade presented by Omaha Performing Arts in partnership with Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. More than 600 Omaha Public School students and educators from Gilder Elementary, Walnut Hill Elementary and Harrison Elementary will take part in the inaugural year, which culminates with an interactive concert at the Holland Center on May 3, 2016. The program is supported by Bank of the West, the Richard Brooke Foundation, Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Memorial Foundation, Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and The Presenters.

"We've anticipated the start of Musical Explorers for months, knowing students will enjoy the benefits of increased arts integration and music instruction in the classroom from day one," said Kendra Whitlock Ingram, Vice President of Programming and Education at Omaha Performing Arts. "This program is an incredible opportunity for students. Omaha Performing Arts is proud to be one of the first in the nation to be a part of this pilot program."

The professional development workshops for participating teachers will be led by a Carnegie Hall teaching artist January 22 and 23, 2016 at the Holland Center. At the workshops, teachers will learn about the curriculum for the semester and how to incorporate it into their classrooms with the help of lesson plans, activity guides, music recordings and other resources. Teachers will begin implementing the Musical Explorers curriculum in their classrooms starting in February.

Focusing on the voice as an instrument, Musical Explorers is designed to build basic music skills in the classroom as students learn songs from different cultures, reflect on their own communities, and develop listening and singing skills. The curriculum will feature three local musical ensembles, each representing a different musical style and cultural community. The 2015-2016 Musical Explorers program in Omaha will feature West African music with Charles Ahovissi and African Culture Connection; Mexican music with Marcos Mora; and Jewish folk music with Cantor Wendy Shermet. At the May 3 concert, the local musical ensembles will each perform two songs the students learned this semester, as well as one surprise song.

Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute launched Musical Explorers in New York City during the 2008-2009 school year. The program expanded beyond New York City for the first time last season in pilot partnerships with the Savannah Music Festival in Savannah, Ga., and The Broad Stage in Santa Monica, Calif. Carnegie Hall has now partnered with The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut as well as Omaha Performing Arts, bringing the total number of students served by Musical Explorers to over 15,000 across the US during the 2015-2016 season.

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