Education Update: Check out our Crews

New York Crew in New Jersey

Brian Ge (left) and Patricio Molina (top) at the Belmont Runyan School

We just wrapped up another year in our partnership with Young Audiences New Jersey (YANJ) to bring From the Top alums into Newark schools through a grant from the Prudential Foundation. In addition to implementing a Make Your Own Radio Show program in three schools, we started a new program called “From the Top Times Two”. This new program includes a one-day, two-visit performance and workshop for the schools, with a From the Top alum accompanied by a YANJ teaching artist. From the Top recruited five New York area alums, including Brian Ge, Patricio Molina, Dasha Bukhartseva, Hannah Ji, Julian Langford, and co-led a one-day training session with YANJ staff to prepare the young musicians for their school performances.

This pilot program reached 4 Newark schools this spring and was a huge success among teachers, students and performers alike. 11-year-old pianist Brian Ge writes:

“I loved just seeing a little group of the kids so interested in music. The YA hosts were amazing and they really connected with the audience. I’d love to come back next year as well. It was a great experience.”

We’re excited to continue our partnership with YANJ next year and expand this new program to reach even more students and schools. We will be recruiting a new pool of NY area alums over the summer with the aim of holding a training session in the fall.

Boston Crew

Rainer Crosett at Whelan Elementary in Revere, MA

Just a brief year-end update: This school year our Boston alums, including Karen Cueva, Trio Con Brio (Daniel Kim, Yuki Beppu, Harry Doernberg), Julia Glenn, Rainer Crosett,  Mackenzie Melemed, Sebastian Baverstam, and Lev Mamuya, visited nine schools. The performers reached out to nearly 1300 children in grades K – 12. Education is busy gearing up for another exciting year in the Boston area.

Teacher Kit

We are developing a Teacher Kit to re-energize classical music learning in the classroom. This kit will contain all of our media products: the “Sample the Sounds” instrument demo CD, a From the Top at Carnegie Hall Season Two Teacher Resource Disc with PBS lesson plans for each episode, the “Music to Me” From the Top education video. This will all be packaged in a snazzy folder/container (still being designed) along with a classroom poster and bookmarks for the students, and general info about From the Top.

The Teacher Kit will be ready for the fall and we will be distributing them across Massachusetts and across the country. Keep watching the blog for more info.