75th Anniversary of Young People’s Concerts
2012 will mark the 75th anniversary of the Wheeling Symphony’s Young People’s Concerts. Now a week-long Tour, the concerts provide elementary school students and teachers with the great opportunity to experience high quality, age-appropriate symphonic programming.
The Wheeling Symphony does its best to make the YPC Tour more than simply entertainment, but an educational experience as well. To that end, Teacher’s Guides and CDs are provided to participating schools in advance of the concerts. Created and distributed by the WSO, these free materials
allow teachers to better prepare students for the concert while maximizing the educational and entertainment value of the program.
The 2012 YPC Tour is set to include eight performances and will reach an audience of more than 6,000. Since the concerts cast a wide net geographically, they promote a positive message about the Wheeling Symphony and classical music in general.
2011 Young People’s Concerts
Nearly 6,000 students and teachers from West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania delighted in the sounds of the Wheeling Symphony during the orchestra’s 2011 Young People’s Concert Tour April 4-7.
The four-day tour included concerts in Wheeling, New Martinsville, Morgantown and Washington, Pa. and included 60 schools and home schools.
Maestro André Raphel’s program, titled “The Movement of Music,” engaged audiences as the inherent connection between music and dance was explored. The 50-minute concert was performed by 39 of the Wheeling Symphony’s professional musicians. Music on the program included Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance No. 1, Tchaikovsky’s Waltz from Swan Lake and the 1st movement of Holst’s Jig from St Paul’s Suite, just to name a few. In addition, select pieces featured dancers Anna Harsh and Michael Morris of the Allegro Dance Co., whom performed a variety of styles, including waltz, tango, and polka.
Sponsors for this year’s tour included: American Electric Power; Chesapeake Energy Corporation; Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust; Hess Family Foundation; Levenson Family Charitable Trust;
Elizabeth Stifel Miner; Ohio River Border Initiative, a joint project of the Ohio Arts Council and the West Virginia Commission on the Arts; Helen J. Prince Foundation; Sands Charitable Trust, and W.E. Stone Foundation.
The Wheeling Symphony is funded by the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, West Virginia Division of Culture and History. Wheeling Symphony concerts are presented with financial assistance from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the
West Virginia Commission on the Arts.
For more information about the Wheeling Symphony’s Young People’s Concert Tour, please contact Micah Labishak, Development Associate & Education Coordinator, at 304.232.6191 or mlabishak@wheelingsymphony.org.
