Educational Programs
Our Educational Programs
Our educational programs serve over 8,000 children a year, and we are recognized nationally for our innovative approach and high impact. We all know of the documented benefits of children learning music, and we firmly believe that by introducing classical music to a new generation of students through our programs, we are helping them to make critical connections between music and their everyday lives, making their NBSO experience enriching on multiple levels.
With innovative and exciting musical programs like Learning in Concert, The Fanfare Project, Pathway to Performance, Pre-K Music and Literacy, Parenting Teens, and the Southeastern Massachusetts Youth Orchestras, the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra continues to provide authentic and engaging musical experiences for the children in our local schools. We believe educating young people is a central part of our mission.
Education Director
Education Director Terry Wolkowicz’s innovative and creative approach to designing music education curriculum has made the NBSO a leader in educational programming. Now in her ninth season with the NBSO, she continues to create innovative programming that connects classical music to our South Coast children’s lives and to encourage learning by exploring concepts that are authentically shared between classical…
Educational Programs
Learning in concert
This program is designed as a unified, comprehensive, three-phase curriculum project spanning an entire school year. LIC uses a concept-based arts integration model where a musical concept is explored alongside other art and academic areas that authentically…
SEMAYO
The Southeastern Massachusetts Youth Orchestras (SEMAYO) program was established in 2008 under the auspices of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra for students from beginners to advanced college players.
The Fanfare Project
In the Fanfare Project, students select a person in their lives that is deserving of their own fanfare. Students then compose an original fanfare for their recipient using the NBSO’s graphic music composition program Compose-it Fanfare Edition. At a presentation event, students read their dedication to their recipient, and a musician performs the student’s original fanfare.
PARENTING TEENS PROGRAM
The NBSO has partnered with the New Bedford Parenting Teens program to offer a weekly music course to teen parents. In the course, students study music composition techniques, compose original melodies, and develop listening perception skills. Weekly listening examples are selected from the NBSO’s K-12 Music Keyword Equity Database to reinforce music concepts studied in each lesson.
PATHWAY TO PERFORMANCE
The NBSO has introduced Pathway to Performance, a free private lesson program in partnership with New Bedford schools, erasing another barrier preventing all our young people from having equitable access to instrumental performance instruction. Educating and enriching the lives of children is a central part of our mission. By offering a Pathway to Performance to children who love music and want it to be a big part of their life, we are expanding and deepening this commitment to our community.
PRE-K MUSIC AND LITERACY
In the Pre-K Music and Literacy program, children discover the similarities between the rhythmic features of words and the rhythmic sounds we hear in music. Using the NBSO’s original musical children’s book A Concert at the Zoo, students perform animal and instrument word pairs using speaking and drumming patterns. Following the classroom sessions, the students visit the local zoo to perform their animal/instrument rhythmic patterns for the animals.
This emphasis on the sounds of words is based on research that shows that listening comprehension is a predictor of reading comprehension and fluency.
