Most symphony attendees sit quietly in their seats during orchestral performances. That did not happen yesterday.

Hundreds of local third, fourth and fifth-graders used their voices and recorders to help an orchestra make beautiful music in Appleton, thanks in part to the generosity of a Fox Valley family.

A grant to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center from the Les and Dar Stumpf Family Fund within the Community Foundation provided the recorders  for students attending a Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra performance. The students didn’t just watch the performers from their seats, they sang and played along with them.

The Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Fox Cities P.A.C. are one of more than 100 national and international organizations chosen for Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute music education program called Link Up: The Orchestra Sings. The performances often serve as students’ first concert experience and provides them with the opportunity to apply the musical concepts they have studied.

Link-Up is part of the Fox Valley Symphony Orchestra’s Music for Everyone program, which is sponsored by the Mielke Family Foundation within the Community Foundation.

The Link Up program pairs orchestras with students in grades 3-5 at schools in their local communities to explore orchestral repertoire and fundamental musical skills, including creative work and composition through a hands-on music curriculum.

Link Up addresses the urgent need for music instruction and resources by providing a free, high quality, year-long curriculum for teachers, 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.

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