Dynamics

Project M.U.S.I.C.

In the past several years, the Christina School District has had to deal with some critical financial issues causing many crucial programs to be cut back or eliminated entirely. Music and arts are often the first to be cut in these situations, but this time, some organizations have come together to make a difference. The University of Delaware, the Delaware Symphony Orchestra(DSO) and Thurgood Marshall Elementary School of the Christina School District have teamed up to bring a musically enriching new program to a group of second graders.

University of Delaware Junior and Service Learning scholar Brittany Snyder, with the help of faculty advisor Dr. Suzanne Burton,as well as Debbie Engel and Holly Grasso of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and the general music teacher of Thurgood Marshall, Marty Burke, created a thoughtful new program that will help foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of music to children who would otherwise receive only very limited musical exposure.

Project M.U.S.I.C. (Music Uniting Students, Inspiring Communities) was created to work collaboratively with the Delaware Symphony’s In-School Ensemble Program, in which select elementary schools receive visits from four musical groups of Delaware Symphony musicians; a percussion trio, woodwind quartet, brass quintet and a string quintet. During these visits, the musicians present to individual classes for about half an hour, and then come together as an ensemble for the remainder of the time in front of the entire grade and perform an interactive concert. Project M.U.S.I.C. takes the program to the next level. Brittany Snyder, with the help of Dr. Brian Stone, put together a University of Delaware student string quartet, made up of Erin Flynn and Janice Nieves, violins, Sam Peters, viola, and Denisa Shahu, cello. The Blue Hen Quartet, as they are now known, makes several visits to three second grade classes at Thurgood Marshall Elementary, expanding upon the knowledge the students have gained with the DSO In-School Ensemble Program. The Blue Hen Quartet teaches lessons that pertain to their music classes, and performs pieces written specifically for them by senior composition major, Gracin Dorsey. This gives the members of The Blue Hen Quartet the opportunity to really learn how to become teaching artists, and not just performers. The program also includes assessment in order to document the learning that takes place throughout the entire process. The program will conclude with a trip for the elementary students to the Grand Opera House to see the Delaware Symphony Orchestra’s Explorer Concert, conducted by Maestro David Amado, on April 18, 2007.