Education and Outreach
Our community outreach is as multi-faceted as our programming. We have performed hundreds of concerts for school children of all ages. For younger students our programming revolves around the instruments themselves--how sound is produced, the different types of saxophones (soprano, alto and tenor), the complexity of different bow strokes on the violin, etc. accompanied by short, lively selections. We also like to talk about the feelings that different sounding music can evoke and kids respond overwhelmingly well to this. Our programs have titles, such as "Music from Around the World" and "Shh, We are Listening to Chamber Music"; they highlight the relationships in a chamber music group and how we stay together without a conductor!
For high schools and university students, we conduct instrumental master classes, choach ensembles, and hold orchestra and band clinics. We also talk a lot about careers in music, the process of commissioning composers, the complexities of transcribing music, and the art of self-promotion. We also perform for senior citizens, hospital patients and even inmates of detention centers, all of whom respond very positively to music.