Showtime with the Austin Symphony!

Yesterday, I joined the Austin Symphony Orchestra on stage and played the recorder along with hundreds of fourth and fifth graders from Allison, Cowan, Govalle, Kiker, Mills, Pillow, Reilly and Woolridge elementary schools. The Austin Symphony is one of 25 in America bringing great works of music to students as part of the Young People's Concerts program, in conjunction with the Carnegie Hall's Link-Up program. All of our elementary schools are participating in the program.

The morning's performance began with excerpts from Dvořák's Symphony No. 8, followed by his "New World" Symphony, which was the first piece to feature the AISD recorder ensemble.

Next, we took a break as the symphony played excerpts from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, while appropriately themed student art was projected on stage. As you can see, the artwork was fantastic and perfectly complemented the themes expressed in the music.

For our final instrumental performance, the AISD recorder ensemble joined the symphony in a gleeful rendition of Ode to Joy. Although Beethoven originally imagined a choral accompaniment to this piece, I'm sure he would have been delighted by our version! As an encore, the orchestra's percussionists struck up an irresistible Latin rhythm while we sang along to Oye by Papoulis.

My thanks go out to Diana Eblen, the Austin Symphony's Director of Education, for organizing such an enjoyable event, which allows our students to see, hear and participate in the making of great music. And I would have been lost without the expert tutelage of Patty Moreno, AISD's Instructional Coordinator of Elementary Music. Thanks for the recorder lessons, and for all you do for our students every day.