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Every year, all third and fourth grade students in the Piedmont region hear a dynamic program by the full Greensboro Symphony Orchestra. The Greensboro Symphony Elementary School Concert Programs serve over 18,000 students in Guilford, Rockingham, Randolph, and Alamance Counties. These performances may also be attended by private school and homeschool groups. Concerts take place in March and April every year.
Each year features a new program concept, designed to introduce third and fourth grade students to the world of orchestral music. Past programs have combined music with storytelling, American history, and dance. The symphony provides materials for students and teachers to prepare for the concerts. The concerts connect orchestral music and other concepts across academic subject areas.
Recent concert themes have included:
2018:Â Animated Music: Animals Then, Now, and Imagined –Â featuring music from Beethoven and Mussorgsky through John Williams’Â Jaws. The concert series featured the premieres of fifteen compositions, with themes created and performed by elementary school students, orchestrated for full symphony by UNC-Greensboro composition faculty and students.
2017: Weather Fore-chestra – a theme combining music of Beethoven, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, and Debussy with weather and the elements. The shows also included a surprise visit from Frosty the Snowman, two sing-alongs, a sassy singing-and-talking blue jay, and more.
2016: Pirates and Princesses – featuring a guest pirate king leading a multi-part Gilbert and Sullivan, an original narrated, concert version of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty, and yet another surprise guest at the end.
2015: Cirque de la Symphonie – in the Greensboro Coliseum, a once-in-a-lifetime performance with live aerialists and acrobats. The program continued in surrounding counties as “The Orchestra Games” with the same exciting repertoire.
2014: American Voices – famous compositions by notable American composers, along with an entertaining quiz and a surprise guest.
2013: Tell a Tale with Tunes – connections of music with and storytelling, through dance, narration, and film. With a centerpiece of “Peter and the Wolf,” the program featured extensive student-contributed media.