Adults / Youth Orchestra / Arts Partners / Guild / Teachers

ASO Arts Partners

Created in 2000, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's Arts Partners, funded by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Roy and Christine Sturgis Charitable and Educational Trust, the U.S. Forestry Service and the National Endowment for the Arts, is an outreach program that provides basic music education to children ranging in age from kindergarten to sixth grade, throughout the state of Arkansas.

Through the Arts Partners program, the ASO works in partnership with parents, school administrators, teachers and supportive friends to ensure that primary, elementary and middle school students in underserved areas of the state have access to quality music education. Programs include partial, one, or two-day residencies, plus special initiatives.

More Than Music - The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Educational Outreach Programs

As the foremost arts organization in the state, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra understands that it is our responsibility to help shape the future of our children. An essential component in the ASO’s mission is to encourage music education and strengthen ties with the communities of Arkansas.

CURRICULUM INTEGRATION

The ASO Arts Partners perform “demos” for elementary school children ages 3rd grade and up. These theme-based demos from 30-45 minutes teach basic musical ideas that enhance and augment Arkansas’ music curriculum framework. Children learn to identify connections between music and the other arts, music from various periods, composers and cultures, and learn first hand about the basic elements of music: tempo, dynamics, pitch and rhythm.

DEMO THEMES FOR THE 2007/2008 SCHOOL YEAR

“Mozart-The Man Behind the Music”

“Music Through the Ages- A Musical Timeline”

“Story Time”

“Lines & Dots”

HANDS ON

Children can touch and play real stringed instruments with guidance from the Arts Partners. Petting Zoos can be individual presentations or done in conjunction with the demos. The petting zoo is a fantastic way for a child to experience what it is like to be a musician. In most cases, this is the first opportunity a child has had to see, touch and play these instruments.

STRING TEACHING

The ASO is particularly proud of our partnerships with schools in the Little Rock, North Little Rock, Pulaski County and Hot Springs School districts establishing a resident string instructor in an after-school program one day a week. Students learn the basics of playing a stringed instrument and reading music and perform in a spring recital at the end of the school year.

With balanced class sizes, high-level instruction and inexpensive instrument rentals the ASO String Residencies have been among the most popular with schools and students alike.

ARKANSAS SYMPHONY YOUTH ORCHESTRAS

Now in its fourth decade, the Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestras provide the opportunity for more than 200 young musicians to participate in three separate orchestras. ASYO members range in age from 9 – 18 years and come from 37 communities throughout our state. Designed to challenge each student in progressively more difficult classical repertoire, the ASYO, for many, provides the only music program available. Complementing the ASO’s highly successful Arts Partners Program, whose statewide outreach has grown to more than 60 communities, the ASYO provides one more opportunity for students to experience the joy of listening and performing classical music.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

The many small ensembles of the ASO are in demand throughout the state to do chamber music recitals, introducing the magic of classical music to thousands of Arkansans every year. In addition to full recitals the ASO Arts Partners also do “informances” for civic groups and middle school and high school aged students. These informances vary in subject matter, but allow the listeners to become engaged in the performance on a more intellectual level.

The ASO is proud of their residencies at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the Step-Up Center in SW Little Rock. Featuring specially tailored programs, the Arts Partners reach out in a manner that is appropriate to the student’s learning environment and background.

CHILDREN’S CONCERTS

Sponsored by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society Guild, the ASO performs a yearly SOLD-OUT children’s concert for the public and private schools of Central Arkansas. This season the concert will be held on Thursday, October 18, 2007 at Robinson center Music Hall at 10:30 am.

THE ORCHESTRA AND YOU PROGRAM

Sponsored by the ASOS Guild, this nationally award-winning program reaching the very youngest of our school children. Trained Guild members and one ASO musician take an orchestra of plastic instruments, a tape, conductor’s baton and tails, and present an interactive, scripted presentation that explores the sights and sounds of the orchestra.

STUDENT TICKET RUSH PROGRAM

Providing the most valuable enhancement to every student’s musical education, the ASO offers $6 tickets to any Masterworks or Chamber concert to any student presenting proper identification. These seats are many times, the best seats in the house.