In January and February the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra’s Community Outreach Program sponsored visits to nine elementary schools in the western suburbs—Hillside, Berkeley, Bensenville, Lombard, Villa Park, Willowbrook and Westmont–performing for over 3,000 school children during the visits. A generous grant from the JCS Fund of the DuPage Community Foundation helped fund the programs.
This year’s ensemble was a woodwind quartet of Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra members: Claudia Cryer, flute; Dianne Ryan, bassoon; Elizandro Garcia-Montoya, clarinet; and Andrew Nogal, oboe. The ensemble was enthusiastically received at each school and developed a great rapport with the students, who interacted readily with the musicians and enthusiastically asked questions.
“The performance was outstanding,” remarked a principal at one of the schools. “We received lots of positive comments from kids and staff!” Another school expressed its appreciation in a note saying, “The Symphony visits are very beneficial. We consider the visits to be an extension of our music curriculum and (an) exposure to music, instruments and the symphony most of our students (and some staff) would never have if it wasn’t for your program.” A third school sent this thank you: “We truly enjoyed your Wind Ensemble’s performance and would love to have you visit again. Many of our students benefit from the cultural arts and we love having these opportunities available to us.”
The Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra is committed to outreach and educational programs such as this to help audiences of tomorrow come to a better understanding and appreciation of music of all types. For more information about the Outreach Program please call 630-941-0202 or visit www.elmhurstsymphony.org.