Creating Young Listeners

In 1994, during the first year of his appointment as Music Director and Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony, Paul Phillips created what is now known as the annual PVS Education Concert. Intended for third and fourth graders of Franklin County, it is both a six-week curriculum and a field trip to a morning concert at the Greenfield High School Auditorium. The goals of the curriculum have been developed to the Learning Standards of Massachusetts Arts Curriculum Framework. Maestro Phillips and music teachers who are members of the PVSO review the curriculum and teacher's guide (accompanied by a CD) each year.

The repertoire for the Education Concert, which has its own theme, is based on the PVS orchestra's season each year. Imagine busloads of children spilling out into the parking lot, lining up, and walking into the hall well behaved and in high expectation. Each year the 1000-seat auditorium is filled to capacity. Students relish answering Mr. Phillips' questions, applauding with enthusiasm, cheering their favorite section or players of the orchestra. This season the PVS Education Concert reaches its 15-year milestone. Each year the PVS finds the financial support to continue this important educational outreach. Grants from foundations and local cultural councils, as well as gifts from local businesses and individuals make it possible. For the past 10 years, the Mary Stuart Rogers Foundation has played the leadership role with its generous underwriting of the program. "The whole thing was amazing…I myself play the clarinet…The theme of the concert was great, and I really think that it got everyone to like and appreciate music," wrote one youngster after the 2008 Education Concert.

During the season, many PVS chamber players in duos, trios, quartets, and quintets volunteer their talents and time to programs directed to helping youngsters to appreciate orchestral music and learn an instrument. They perform in schools, hospitals, or other community venues. Last season our players put on such programs as: the annual summer PVS Solar Series in Greenfield's Energy Park; concert for fifth and sixth graders at the Greenfield Middle School; program for young patients at Baystate Children's Hospital in Springfield; intergenerational program for seniors and elementary school children in Shelburne; and the Strings and Friends Play-in Program at Wilbraham Elementary School. Writes Elaine Holdsworth, PVS violinist and founder of the Wilbraham program: "The PVS string quartet performed one number, then divided up and played with smaller groups of students….The young cellist delighted in playing with an adult cellist -- at the end of the hour he just sat there and said he didn't want to leave, he wanted to keep playing. Sixteen young musicians were able to have a meaningful group musical experience at the very beginning of their musical careers."

Please think of your gift to the PVS Annual Fund or the Endowed Funds as a strategic investment in contining our mission to perform, share, and educate live symphonic music.