Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 's Fifth Annual BSO Academy Week Set for June 2014

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is pleased to announce the launch of its fifth annual BSO Academy Week as well as a new Academy program specifically designed for aspiring and experienced music educators, the BSO Music Educators Academy. From Saturday, June 14 through Saturday, June 21, 2014 instrumentalists from across the country are invited to rehearse and perform side-by-side with BSO musicians and Music Director Marin Alsop in an intensive music "fantasy" camp. The BSO's Academy Week was notably featured in The New York Times and has become a popular destination for amateur musicians from across the country. From Monday, July 7 through Saturday, July 12, 2014 instrumental and vocal music educators will take part in the first-ever week-long orchestral immersion program playing side-by-side with BSO musicians and expert faculty to improve musicianship, performance technique, conducting skills, improvisation, arranging, practice techniques and ensemble skills. A distinctive professional development program, qualifying participants in the BSO Music Educators Academy may obtain three graduate credits through the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Please see below for complete registration details.

The flagship of the BSO's lifelong learning curriculum, the Academy provides a variety of performing and learning experiences for adult musicians. New in 2014, the BSO Academy Week will launch a chamber music track designed to give participants a more personalized playing opportunity within two different chamber ensembles. The BSO will also accept pianists into the chamber music track. Repertoire for the chamber program will be determined based on applicant instrumentation. Participants in the orchestral track will rehearse and perform Dvo?ák's Carnival Overture; selections from Debussy's Iberia; Valse from Tchaikovsky's Suite from Swan Lake; Allegro energico, ma non troppo and Scherzo: Wuchtig from Mahler's Symphony No. 6, Tragic; and Reveries, Passions, Un Bal, Marche au Supplice and Songe d'un nuit de Sabbat from Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique under the baton of Music Director Marin Alsop.

The BSO continues to foster the professional development of arts administrators through the arts administrator track. Launched in 2013, this program examines the Academy Week as an example for how an orchestra can engage its community in new and innovative ways. Participants will attend a series of professional development seminars, workshops and lectures by BSO staff and musicians on the various aspects of creating and managing a successful Academy program. The participants will observe and, as space allows, have the option to play in select Academy activities throughout the week. For more information, visit BSOAcademy.org.

The BSO Music Educators Academy, Monday, July 7 through Saturday July 12, 2014, is a new initiative of the BSO in collaboration with UMBC. The BSO will offer instrumental and vocal participants the chance to improve musicianship, playing technique, conducting skills, ensembles skills, and improvisation through side-by-side rehearsal and performance with the BSO and a professional choir, led by Case Scaglione, assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and a range of classes by expert faculty. Class topics include secondary instrument clinics, diction courses, piano classes, seminars in music technology and arranging, and a series of conducting workshops leading up to select participants conducting the BSO. Participants will play and sing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras, Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen and Selig sind die Toten from Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, culminating in a performance at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

In addition to the BSO Academy Week and the BSO Music Educators Academy, the year-round BSO Academy continuum includes:

• Rusty Musicians: A one-night side-by-side experience with the BSO.
• Instrumental Clinics: Day-long workshops and master classes to refine instrumental technique and musicianship.
• Chamber Music Weekends: Two-day experience developing ensemble skills with BSO musicians.
  Registration details for the programs above will be announced at a later date.

Initially consisting of a week-long orchestral immersion program, the BSO Academy now embraces a full range of activities for adult musicians with the Baltimore Symphony. The week-long immersive summer music program in June continues to be the cornerstone program, giving amateur adult musicians the opportunity to perform alongside a top professional orchestra. Since 2010, the Academy has grown to serve 3,591 community members through performances, the Rusty Musician side-by-side experience, Instrument Clinics, Chamber Music Weekends and the BSO Academy week. Unique in the country, the BSO Academy has earned extensive coverage including articles in The New York Times by embedded reporter and amateur clarinetist Dan Wakin. (See "Band Camp for Grown-ups," and "Every chair in this temporary orchestra holds a story.")

The Grammy Award-winning Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is internationally recognized as having achieved a preeminent place among the world's most important orchestras. Acclaimed for its enduring pursuit of artistic excellence, the BSO has attracted a devoted national and international following while maintaining deep bonds throughout Maryland with innovative education and community outreach initiatives.

The BSO made musical history in September 2007, when Maestra Marin Alsop led her inaugural concerts as the Orchestra's 12th music director, making her the first woman to head a major American orchestra. With her highly praised artistic vision, her dynamic musicianship and her commitment to accessibility in classical music, Maestra Alsop's leadership has ushered in a new era for the BSO and its audiences.

In recent years, Marin Alsop and the BSO have been regularly invited to Carnegie Hall, including Maestra Alsop's debut in February 2008, a critically acclaimed appearance later the same year to perform Bernstein's Mass, further performances in November 2010 and again in November 2011 for a performance of Honegger's dramatic oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au Bucher. The Orchestra under Maestra Alsop undertook their first domestic tour in March 2012 to the West Coast, including a 3-day residency at the University of California, Berkeley.

For more than 80 years, the BSO has maintained a vibrant educational presence throughout Maryland, supporting the local community not only through concerts and recordings, but also through its commitment to actively giving back with its education, outreach and mentorship programs. The 2013-2014 season marks the sixth year of OrchKids, a year-round in-school and after-school music program designed to create social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Baltimore City's neighborhoods. OrchKids provides music education, instruments and tutoring to Baltimore's underserved children at no cost. Since its start in 2008, the program has grown from 30 students to more than 600 student participants throughout four schools in Baltimore City. Last year, the BSO launched Orchlab, in partnership with the Montgomery County Public Schools. This music-in-schools program for elementary, middle and high school students in Montgomery County was created to enrich the instrumental music program in schools within the MCPS system that have the greatest need, as well as to provide professional development opportunities for MCPS music instructors. In the 2012-2013 academic year, Orchlab was piloted in 23 schools located in the Downcounty and Northeast Consortia of the MCPS System. Orchlab is an outgrowth of BSO on the Go, the Orchestra's education outreach program that has provided more than 12,000 students with classroom instruction and performances from BSO musicians since that program's start five years ago.

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