Baltimore Symphony Performs at Ravens' Halftime Show Thanksgiving Night

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and Baltimore Ravens today announced that Music Director Marin Alsop, 32 musicians and a group of OrchKids will perform at the Ravens' Thanksgiving Night home game against the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight, November 28, nationally broadcast on NBC.

Marin Alsop, the Orchestra and the OrchKids, the BSO's flagship music education program serving inner-city Baltimore students, will join the Ravens Cheerleaders and Marching Band during the halftime entertainment on the field. This is the first time the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has partnered with the Ravens and marks their first appearance at M&T Bank Stadium.

"We have been wanting to work together with the Ravens, I am so glad that we are finally able to collaborate with our home team and Super Bowl champions this Thanksgiving," said Maestra Alsop. "We like to think of the BSO as the third major league team here in Baltimore and Purple Fever runs deep amongst the musicians, staff and board at the BSO. It is truly a thrill to be able to perform on the Ravens' turf and be part of a national broadcast."

"We are excited and proud that the OrchKids and Marin Alsop could come visit us today," said Dick Cass, Ravens president. "They and the musicians of the BSO represent the best of the Baltimore and we are thrilled to be associated with them."

Baltimore Ravens Vice President of Marketing Gabrielle Dow commented, "This is a dream come true for the Ravens organization. We tossed around the idea of presenting a halftime show with national talent, but we have also been discussing working with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for the last four years. It brings us tremendous pride to be able to partner with an arts organization from our community and showcase one of the premier orchestras in the country."

Also at today's press conference at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Md., Mr. Cass presented Maestra Alsop with a generous $15,000 donation to BSO's OrchKids. OrchKids is a year-round after-school music initiative designed to create social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Baltimore City neighborhoods. In partnership with the Baltimore City Public School system, OrchKids provides students with instruments, academic instruction, positive role models, field trips, daily healthy meals and more. Marking its sixth year in 2013-2014, OrchKids serves more than 700 students spanning pre-kindergarten through eighth grades across five Title I schools in West and East Baltimore.

COMPLETE DETAILS:
What: BSO and OrchKids performing at halftime at the Ravens vs. Steelers Thanksgiving game
Where: M&T Bank Stadium
When: Thursday, November 28, 2013, 8:30 p.m. (BSO and OrchKids will play during the halftime show)

ABOUT THE BALTIMORE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
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 three-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 700 student participants throughout four schools in Baltimore City. Last year, the BSO launched Orchlab, in partnership with 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.

ABOUT ORCHKIDS
OrchKids is a year-round after-school music program designed to create social change and nurture promising futures for youth in Baltimore City neighborhoods. In partnership with the Baltimore City Public School system, OrchKids provides students with instruments, academic instruction, positive role models, field trips, daily healthy meals and more. Marking its sixth year in 2013-2014, OrchKids serves more than 700 students spanning pre-kindergarten through eighth grades across five Title I schools in West and East Baltimore.

Under Music Director Marin Alsop's artistic leadership and direction, OrchKids is a cornerstone of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's efforts to expand the Orchestra's relevance within the City's broad and diverse community. In 2008, Maestra Alsop directed $100,000 of her MacArthur Genius Prize as seed money to launch the program, and remains an active participant as a mentor to the students, in joint public performances, and in advancing community and funding partnerships.

OrchKids is inspired by Venezuela's El Sistema, the music program that in 30 years has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of children in that country's most impoverished areas. Like El Sistema, OrchKids is intended primarily to address the most pervasive social challenges affecting underserved youth, using music to cultivate fundamental life skills such as self-expression, cooperative learning, discipline and creativity.

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