The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra has launched its Schools’ Season 2020, which will include a new program open to schools and students experiencing the greatest barriers to accessing the arts, aiming to engage these students and support classroom learning.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s (MSO) Schools’ Season is an inclusive and diverse program of performances and open rehearsals for students across all school years including kinder, primary and secondary students.
“Highlights in 2020 include our first ever Curriculum Concert devised in response to teacher feedback and exploring key works relevant to both the IB and VCE curricula; performances by some of the greatest artists in the world including Sir Andrew Davis and Nicola Benedetti; a celebration of the life, music and legacy of Beethoven in our annual Meet the Orchestra concerts; and all the passion and brilliance the wonderful musicians of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra bring to every performance,” said John Nolan, Director of Education and Community Engagement at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.
The 2020 program sees the launch of MSO Ignite, which is designed to support schools in accessing the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra through subsidised tickets, transport, workshops, free teacher professional development sessions and accompanying concert resources.
The program is designed around three key strands – Discover, Explore and Extend. For teachers, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra program delivers professional development activities and provides a wide range of learning resources.
“The MSO Schools’ Season brings together world-class artists and great orchestral repertoire in performances designed to complement and support classroom learning,” said Mr Nolan.
“Our Schools’ Season and the accompanying resources and teacher information sessions transforms MSO into a valuable resource supporting the extraordinary work of Victoria’s generalist and specialist music teachers.”
MSO Ignite is the first program of its kind delivered by an Australian performing arts organisation. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will partner with eligible schools to help students ignite their love of music. Eligible schools will have an ACSEA of 1000 or below.
To respond to specific school needs, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra engagement team will create bespoke pathways to address the requirements of each school.
