Carnegie Hall, Lewisburg’s annual Link Up program partners with Carnegie Hall, New York, to offer Greenbrier County’s 5th grade students a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Every year, Carnegie Hall (NY) Link Up shares educational expertise and resources with arts organizations and school districts around the world. Carnegie Hall WV and The Weill Music Institute of Carnegie Hall then collaborate to bring this exciting program to West Virginia schoolchildren. This year over 300 thousand students and teachers participated in the Link Up program.
At the beginning of the school year, all elementary school music teachers participated in a professional development workshop taught by Carnegie Hall’s Education Director, Harmony Flora. Curriculum support materials are provided for students and teachers by CHNY’s Weill Music Institute, while Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg coordinates the program through Greenbrier County Schools. Using Link Up materials, 5th grade students engage in classroom activities to learnrecorder, movement, and vocal pieces from a rotating curriculum, which concludes with a live concert each spring. Throughout the concert, the musical concepts that the students have studied during the year are demonstrated, and students are given the opportunity to play along with a live orchestra.
This year’s concert took place on Thursday, Apr. 3 and featured the newly formed Carnegie Hall Community Orchestra, featuring members of the West Virginia Symphony and the West Virginia Jazz Orchestra, along with student musicians from Eastern Greenbrier Middle School and Greenbrier East High School. GEHS Music instructor Jim Allder conducted, with assistance from Greenbrier County Superintendent Jeff Bryant.
The Link Up program was ‘The Orchestra Swings’, a selection of upbeat pieces including “Duke’s Place” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” by Duke Ellington, “I Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin, and “when the Saints Go Marching in.”
Participating elementary schools included Alderson (Andrea Sloan), Crichton (Deidre Marshall), Frankford (Cassidy Hicks), Lewisburg (Amber Roehrig), Rainelle (Susan Simms), Ronceverte (Jeremy McClung), Rupert (Stephanie Boothe), Smoot (Stephanie Boothe), and White Sulphur Springs (Sarah Hann).
Special thanks to Barbara Lutz, Preston Hedrik, and Susan Adkins who helped coordinate the performances.
The Link Up program is funded by Greenbrier County Schools, Greenbrier County Commission, and the Carnegie Hall Guild.
Carnegie Hall WV is a member-driven nonprofit organization supported by individual contributions, grants, and fundraising efforts such as TOOT and The Carnegie Hall Gala. The Hall is located at 611 Church Street, Lewisburg. For more information, please call 304-645-7917 or visit www.carnegiehallwv.org.
