Chicago Public Schools is the third largest school district in the US, serving more than 400,000 students. The district has made arts education a priority in recent years, creating the first-ever CPS Arts Education Plan in 2012 to increase access, equity, and the quality of arts education provided to CPS students. CYSO’s Music Pathways In-School Residencies, part of our Community Engagement Programs, support the district’s goals of bringing music education to under-resourced schools where there would otherwise be little to no arts programming.
Through Music Pathways, CYSO partnered with four CPS elementary schools for the 2015-2016 school year—National Teachers Academy, Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy, Suder Montessori School, and Oliver Westcott Elementary—to provide beginner ensemble instruction in which students explored brass instruments, woodwind instruments and world drumming.
CYSO Chamber Music ensembles, each representing the different instrument families of the orchestra, also visited the Music Pathways partner schools throughout the year, performing concerts that gave audience members an opportunity to experience music played by young people just a little older than themselves. The high school-age Chamber Music students prepared throughout the season to present these educational concerts, performing classical pieces including In the Hall of the Mountain King and Anitra’s Dance. The ensemble members also worked together to create stories that highlight their instruments, and used the in-school performances as an opportunity to share examples of how music can tell a story, take the audience back in time, and teach about other cultures.
These in-school concerts proved to be an inspiring experience for both groups of students. For the audience members just beginning their musical journey, these concerts are an opportunity to experience the musicianship that can be achieved after years of hard work. It is especially exciting for the younger students to learn that the high school performers began on their instruments when they were the same age at the students in the audience. And the Chamber Music students also talked about how good they felt giving back through these performances, as well as the public speaking and performance skills they gained.
Each year the Music Pathways residency ends with a culminating Education Concert featuring CYSO’s 112-member Concert Orchestra. The concert will take place later this month in the Fine Arts Building’s Studebaker Theater with hundreds of fourth through eighth-grade students from Music Pathways partner schools in attendance.
As we wrap up a great year, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank all the Chamber Music ensemble performers, along with their coaches, Hanna Sterba, Scott Tegge, and Mira Luxion, our After-School Band Instructor, Ouida Zaporta, After-School Percussion Instructor, Scott McConnell, as well to the staff at National Teacher’s Academy, Mark Sheridan Math and Science Academy, Suder Montessori Magnet Elementary School, and Oliver Westcott Elementary. CYSO would also like to thank the funders of the Community Engagement Programs and Music Pathways program, including: Polk Bros. Foundation, The Crown Family, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, Henrietta Lange Burk Fund, John R. Houlsby Foundation, Northern Trust Charitable Trust, Mardi Gras Fund, The D’Addario Music Foundation, and the Kinder Morgan Foundation.
