| Why I'm proud...
... to be a member of the MO (just got this mesage in a mass e-mail to the MO orchestra members):
The American Symphony Orchestra League has notified us that the Minnesota Orchestra has won the ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Award for Educational Programming for an unprecedented three years in a row! This is “awarded to the orchestra whose educational programs integrate the music of our time and are creative, relevant, and based on the best practices of music education.” Only one orchestra receives the award each year.
Not only is the Minnesota Orchestra the only orchestra to receive the award three years in a row – we are the only orchestra that has ever received the award more than once. This says a tremendous amount about the quality and scope of our educational programs and how they compare with what all the other U.S. orchestras are doing in the area of contemporary music.
We had a strong case for this award because of many programs that work to bring new music and education together: the Composer Institute and Future Classics! concert, Kinder Konzert programming, educational residencies, YP/Family concert programming, the Heitzeg commission on the MMEA concert, and more.
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That's the reason I'm optimistic about the future of music, orchestral music in particular. It's not about money because there are some orchestras with bigger budgets than ours. It's about caring about young ones and doing something about it. We have a tremendous education and outreach staff and that's the reason we have gotten these awards.
Yeah, I'm proud of them. They give my job meaning beyond the notes I play in a concert. They help me feel like it's going to mean something years from now not just tonight.
ML |