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Arts Commission News

Mississippi Arts Commission and Carnegie Hall Announce Expansion of Communities LinkUp! Program

DATE:          August 4, 2009 

CONTACT:    Susan Dobbs, Public Relations Director

601/359-6031, sdobbs@arts.state.ms.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

JACKSON __ It takes practice, practice, practice to get to Carnegie Hall, but it takes a partnership to bring Carnegie Hall to Mississippi.

Through Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute (WMI) Communities LinkUP! Program, the Mississippi Arts Commission is partnering with Mississippi’s symphony orchestras to bring students an opportunity to study orchestral music and to perform with the orchestra.

The University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Meridian Symphony Orchestra and the Mississippi Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra are currently participating in this unique arts education program.  Each symphony receives $5,000 from the Mississippi Arts Commission to support the initiative.

“This unique collaboration began as a pilot program in 2003 with the University of Southern Mississippi Symphony Orchestra,” said Malcolm White, Executive Director of the Mississippi Arts Commission.  “This year, we enlarged the partnership to include the Meridian Symphony Orchestra and next year the Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra will be included.  It is our goal to expand this innovative educational opportunity to encompass all of the symphony orchestras in Mississippi, thereby reaching more children across the state.”

Communities LinkUP! is a program that shares Carnegie Hall’s educational expertise and resources with orchestras and school districts throughout the United States. In addition to providing standards-based curriculum, Communities LinkUP! enables orchestras to expand their current education programs and to strengthen relationships with their surrounding schools and community.  Targeted for students in the fourth through sixth grades, the WMI Communities LinkUP! program increases students’ performing, creating and listening skills through a series of sequentially linked activities, which include classroom instruction as well as interactive orchestra concerts.  The culmination of the yearlong program will be a live orchestra performance with the participating students.  The concerts will take place during the 2009-2010 school year.

The Weill Music Institute creates broad-reaching music education and community programs that play a central role in Carnegie Hall’s commitment to making great music accessible to as wide an audience as possible. These programs are woven into the fabric of the Carnegie Hall concert season, with opportunities for preschoolers to adults, new listeners to emerging professional musicians, occurring at Carnegie Hall as well as in schools and neighborhoods. With its access to the world’s greatest artists and latest technologies, The Weill Music Institute is uniquely positioned to inspire the next generation of music lovers, nurture tomorrow’s musical talent, and shape the evolution of musical learning itself.

The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Wallace Foundation, The Phil Hardin Foundation, Donna & Jim Barksdale, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson, and other private sources. MAC is the official grants-making and service agency for the arts in Mississippi.  The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education.

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