Education Initiatives

Third Grade Youth Concert

Each spring, the Lowery Freshman Center Auditorium is seated to capacity for three concurrent concert programs, as every Allen ISD third grade student, their teachers, and all elementary school music teachers attend our annual Youth Concert. Developed nine years ago as the first stage that enriches the fine arts experience every elementary student enjoys from third through sixth grade, this concert experience is the collaboration of our artistic director, the Allen ISD elementary school music coordinator and our community.

Our Conductor, Richard Giangiulio and Tony Driggers, the Elementary Music Education Coordinator for Allen ISD develop the entire concert program so that it is age appropriate and enriches the experience the students learn in their music education classes. Past performances celebrated Mozart’s 250th Birthday and have featured selections from the UIL Third Grade Music Memory competition that included Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, Leroy Anderson’s Plink, Plank, Plunk, and the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony #5.

This past season, our guest artist was the Dallas Black Dance Theatre troupe who performed Peter and The Wolf. This allowed the students to hear the music by the orchestra, listen to the narration of the story the music, and visualize the experience with the dancers. In Cheryl Goodwin’s words, Music Director for Anderson Elementary, "This is by FAR the best performance by the Allen Philharmonic for our 3rd graders. Age appropriate, engaging, and it exemplifies the district's focus on 'Working on the Work (WOW)'! As far as I'm concerned, there is no need to change anything for next year. They have reached perfection!"

The music teachers prepare the students for this concert by sharing the lives of the composers and teaching about the instrument families of strings, winds, brass, and percussion, as there is always a full orchestra on the stage. The students also listen to recordings of the music so they will be familiar with these selections at the performance.

Students pay $5.00 to attend this performance with waivers granted to those who cannot afford the fee.

Additional Initiatives Include:

• Members of the Allen High School Orchestra program are invited annually to join our orchestra’s musicians on the stage in a “side-by-side” performance. We want the students in the audience to visualize what they can accomplish and one day if they choose to excel in Allen’s Performing Arts studies.
• Each season, students audition for chairs in the string section of our orchestra. This provides “real world” experience for the student musician who has the desire and the maturity to perform in a professional orchestra. Since the inception of the program three years ago, seven students have held chairs with the orchestra.
• Annually we provide scholarships to students. Funding is teacher recommended and can be used for instrument rentals, camps and enrichment experiences, or private lessons.
• Guest Artists present Master Classes for students in the performing arts.
• Cynthia Nott, Artistic Director for the Greater Dallas Children’s Chorus, is our guest director as she prepares the District Honor Choir to perform for our Christmas Concert and the Honor Choir’s winter program.
• Paint To Music, a visual arts competition through Allen High School, will compete to draw the cover of our program for 2008-2009.