Virginia Symphony Orchestra

Special Section: Combined Federal Campaign 2009

The Virginia Symphony: A Resource for your Children’s Future

Imagine the hand of a small child in Park Place School, fingering the strings of a cello for the first time, eyes wide with excitement. Imagine the smile of pride of the homeless middle school student at ForKids, composing music on a computer with music notation software. Enjoy the soaring grin of accomplishment of the high school horn player as the professional musician resident in his school praises his performance in a master class. Experience your own young musician playing side by side on stage at Chrysler Hall with the Symphony musicians. These are real stories taking place all over Hampton Roads every year through the Virginia Symphony Orchestra education programs.

In uncertain and difficult times, the arts become essential because of the role they play in helping young people understand and cope in a complex environment. The arts can help prepare them for future jobs requiring literacy, creativity and discipline, all of which are enwrapped in all of the arts, but especially music. While the Virginia Symphony Orchestra is most visible as a concert provider, it is these educational programs which will make the difference for our children and our future as a healthy community.

Elementary school students by the thousands from all 13 local school districts this year will board yellow school buses and travel with their fellow students to performance stages all over Hampton Roads to experience Young People’s concerts presented by the 79 professional musicians of the orchestra. “Of Maestros, Maestras and Muses: Women Who Inspire and Create Music,” the concerts feature orchestral pieces written by great male and female composers who were inspired by the stories and lives of real and fictional women. And the concerts will be conducted by VSO Staff Conductor Akiko Fujimoto.

The Young People’s concert program is only one of a cornucopia of pleasurable musical learning experiences by the Symphony and its musicians, which are at the heart of music education in Hampton Roads. You and your children can bring your kazoo, your violin, or your drum and play in the Community Play Along with the Symphony’s professional musicians; your children can learn in musician-conducted Master Classes; young children can learn about music and the instruments that make it at Family Peanut Butter & Jam concerts. Free nights of music in community parks happen every fall and spring.

The Virginia Symphony shares its passion for music with students and adults of all ages. To continue to sustain these musical experiences, we need your help.

By designating your gift this year to the Virginia Symphony through the Combined Federal Campaign, #70701 or #46038, you can help us make a difference. And you can help your children prepare for their future.