Area Children to Perform Community Concerts

Local children will be the featured performers in two free community concerts presented in February by the Santa Barbara Symphony Music Education Center in partnership with the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD). String musicians in grades three through six will perform at 5:30 pm on Thursday, February 2, in the Marjorie Luke Theatre, and instrumentalists of all ages will perform at 7 pm on Thursday, February 23, in the San Marcos High School Auditorium. All performers are SBUSD students.

The February 2 concert will feature participants in BRAVO!, an afterschool program that provides hands-on instrument instruction to elementary students ages 9 to 12. The Santa Barbara Symphony Music Education Center is partnering with the SBUSD to administer the district program following its expansion last fall. The SBUSD Honor Band Concert on February 23 will feature BRAVO! musicians as well as students in junior high and high school.

The Marjorie Luke Theatre is located on the campus of Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota Street in Santa Barbara. San Marcos High School is located at 4750 Hollister Avenue in Santa Barbara.

"These concerts will feature student musicians who took up their instruments as recently as last September alongside their accomplished peers. It'll be a wonderful demonstration of the progress and development fostered through quality music instruction programs such as BRAVO! We are very proud of our leadership role, alongside the SBUSD, in such educational efforts throughout the region," said Dr. Amy Williams, director of education and community engagement for the Santa Barbara Symphony.

BRAVO! participants take part in afterschool music classes twice a week at Santa Barbara Junior High School, and present a series of public concerts throughout the school year. In addition to the Santa Barbara Symphony, SBUSD, and the Incredible Children's Art Network, funding partners include Westmont College, the Mosher Foundation, and the Santa Barbara Bowl Foundation, which also is assisting with instrument maintenance and repair. Symphony officials say the program is poised to grow to outlying communities in the near future.

Related Santa Barbara Symphony Music Education Center initiatives include a Hope Elementary School District program for novice violin students ages 9 to 12, and a Goleta Union School District program that provides students in grades four through six with string instrument instruction (violin, viola, cello, and bass).

The Santa Barbara Symphony serves approximately 8,300 young people directly through its Music Education Center, whose programs also include the Music Van, Concerts for Young People, the Junior Orchestra, and the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony. In operation since 1978, the Santa Barbara Symphony Music Van visits third-grade classrooms in the greater Santa Barbara area between September and December, serving some 2,000 students in more than 40 schools each year. The program is the recipient of a California Teachers Association Gold Award for Outstanding Support of Public Education (2009) and a Sally Parker Education Gold Award from the League of American Orchestras (2007).

The Santa Barbara Symphony was founded in 1953 on the belief that a special city deserves a special orchestra. Consistently lauded for its unique ability to present brilliant concerts, engage the community, and deliver dynamic music education programs, the organization prizes both innovation and artistic excellence, and is widely recognized as one of the region's premier cultural institutions. Its award-winning Music Education Center serves more than 8,000 students throughout Santa Barbara County each year. Charismatic Israeli conductor Nir Kabaretti was appointed music and artistic director of the Santa Barbara Symphony in 2006. For additional information, visit www.thesymphony.org.

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