A file photo of the American Heritage Chorus at a recent concert.
LOGAN – The American Festival Chorus and Orchestra (AFCO) will be collaborating with a music education program and Carnegie Hall, one of the nation’s most famous concert venues, for the Link Up Concert to be held on Thursday, March 17, at 10 a.m.
The concert will be held at Utah State University’s Daines Concert Hall. This is the first time Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute has worked with the American Festival music group and schools in Cache Valley.
These programs will reach over half a million people in New York City, across the US, and around the globe during the 2021-2022 season.
The American Festival Chorus and Orchestra is one of the premier professional musical organizations in the region.
The world-famous Carnegie Hall started partnering with professional, community, and university orchestras across the United States in 2003.
Approximately 1,300 Cache Valley students will sing, move, and play instruments with the orchestra from their seats and be a part of something bigger than anything they can do locally. For many of these students, performing their first concert will provide them with an opportunity to apply musical concepts they have learned during the year.
Leslie Timmons the director of AFCO’s Education Outreach said there is nothing comparable to attending a concert in person and to experience live music-making.
“For these students, the impact is magnified by actively playing or singing as a part of the performance,” Timmons said. “It is an event they are likely to remember as a highlight of their elementary school experience.”
Timmons is coordinating the Link Up program with music specialists in local elementary schools.
AFCO Director Craig Jessop often attributes his successful career in music to his first-grade teacher’s singing class at Millville Elementary.
“The arts have the power to inspire and empower learning in so many ways,” he said. “It is easy to underestimate the magic of the spark that is music.”
For more than 35 years, Link Up has paired orchestras with students in grades 3–5 at schools in their local communities. Students will have an opportunity to explore orchestral repertoire and fundamental musical skills, including creative work and composition, through a hands-on music curriculum.
Link Up supports the essential need for music instruction and resources by providing a free, high quality, year-long curriculum that teachers can implement, along with classroom materials, online video and audio resources, and the professional development and support necessary to make the program an engaging experience for students.
The American Festival Chorus and Orchestra is one of over 100 national and international organizations chosen for the Carnegie Hall program.