Philharmonic Schools
For more than 25 years, Philharmonic Schools has provided elementary schools with the opportunity to integrate orchestral music into school communities through culture, history, and other core subject areas. Philharmonic Teaching Artists use a range of orchestral repertoire, chamber music, and other genres to teach students, teachers, and families how to listen, perform, and compose, providing them with tools to enjoy concerts in their schools and elsewhere. The program employs music as an essential element of the classroom, of the school community, and as a tool to explore social and emotional expression.
Overview
Philharmonic Schools offers students a three-year curriculum that taps into their innate creativity, helping them to better hear and understand music, compose their own pieces, and perform both existing and original melodies and rhythms. The curriculum emphasizes exploration of orchestral and other musical works by diverse composers through a method that embraces culturally responsive pedagogical techniques.
Goals
- To nurture a lifelong love of music in students, teachers, and parents by cultivating a foundational knowledge of orchestral music through the lens of creative exploration
- To demonstrate a commitment to long-term partnerships through residencies, concerts, and other collaborative opportunities
- To reach every third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade student in partner schools — more than 3,000 students — of all learning types and abilities.
- Support the learning of middle and high school students and teachers through a similar age-appropriate adapted curriculum.
Student Experience
8 or 17 Teaching Artist sessions, delivered in-person, virtually, or asynchronously
Digital resources created for each school by Teaching Artists
Creative composition and instrument-making resources developed by the New York Philharmonic Very Young Composers Program
1–2 in-school interactive chamber concerts
Attendance at one New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts for Schools and / or a live community virtual watch party
Resources
Pathways to the Orchestra
A curriculum in three levels that introduces students to the orchestra and musical concepts.