Music Education Program to Culminate with Interactive CSO Concert 

CHAUTAUQUA, N.Y. – In collaboration with Carnegie Hall, Chautauqua Institution Arts Education and the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra are participating in Link Up, a music education program provided by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI), during the 2018–2019 season. Chautauqua County students participating in Link Up attend a culminating concert on Sunday, June 30, 2019 at the Chautauqua Amphitheater, where they sing and play the recorder or the violin with the orchestra from their seats. This performance often serves as students’ first concert experience and provides them with the opportunity to apply the musical concepts they have studied.   

“We’re thrilled that Chautauqua Institution can now include an experience that celebrates Chautauqua County young musicians as special guests with our Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra,” said Deborah Sunya Moore, vice president of performing and visual arts at Chautauqua Institution. “Our current arts education offerings include field trips to Chautauqua, residencies in the schools and professional development for teachers; Link Up will tap into each of these elements. To partner with local schools on a program and curriculum designed by Carnegie Hall is a dream come true. We believe that the culminating concert during the 2019 summer season will provide a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students, teachers, families and visitors alike.” 

The 2018-2019 partnership culminates in a collaborative, interactive orchestral experience in the Chautauqua Amphitheater, where students will present the Link Up repertoire they’ve learned during the school year, including works from Beethoven, Copland and Dvořák. Students will be featured performers — as vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers — for some selections, and will be active listeners for others. This matinee performance will be presented under the baton of CSO Music Director Rossen Milanov, who has for many years led the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at culminating Link Up events at Carnegie Hall. Milanov was also instrumental in creating a revitalized curriculum for Link Up, and has seen first-hand the wide-reaching effects of the program. 

“I am so excited that we will be including the internationally acclaimed education program Link Up as part of the CSO season,” Milanov said. “The innovative concert format, which bridges the gap between performers and audience, is certainly going to be the spark igniting the imagination and creativity in our future audiences.” 

For more than 30 years, Link Up has paired orchestras with students in grades 3–5 at schools in their local communities to explore orchestral repertoire and fundamental musical skills, including creative work and composition, through a hands-on music curriculum. Link Up addresses the urgent need for music instruction and resources by providing a free, high quality, year-long curriculum that teachers can implement, along with classroom materials, online video and audio resources, and the professional development and support necessary to make the program an engaging experience for students. As a Link Up partner orchestra and organization, the Institution’s Arts Education faculty and a core team of county music educators will facilitate the professional development for teachers in January 2019. The extended deadline for county music teachers to register their classes is Thursday, Nov. 8. 2018, and registration information can be found at linkup.chq.org. 

Chautauqua Institution is one of more than 110 national and international organizations chosen for this program. Since 2003, Carnegie Hall has partnered with professional, community, and university orchestras across the US and around the world to support their existing education programs and strengthen their partnerships with local schools. In 2018–2019, Link Up will partner with sites in the U.S., as well as in Brazil, Canada, Spain, Kenya and Japan, to serve more than 450,000 students and teachers globally. Visit carnegiehall.org/LinkUp for a complete list of participants and further details. 

About Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute 
Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute produces an extraordinary range of music education and social impact programs each season that extend far outside the physical walls of the concert halls. These programs will reach over half a million people in New York City, across the US, and around the globe during the 2018–2019 season. 

About Chautauqua Institution 
Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue.