NJSO Early Strings Program
Spring is a busy time for NJSO Early Strings students, as they prepare for their annual FiddleFest performance at NJPAC in Newark prior to the NJSO’s last Family concert of the season. “Graduating” fourth-grade students and their teachers give a concert to demonstrate their musical skills to appreciative friends, family members and NJSO fans. School music teachers, NJSO musician instructors and the students themselves work hard to prepare for the big show, going through all the pieces in their repertoire and polishing them up to play for the eager audience.
When asked last year what they love most about playing the violin, students from Maple Avenue School have ready answers. Cashmere says: “I love playing all the notes in a song. I like figuring out the rhythm and practicing it extra times.” Her friend Princess adds, “I like to learn the difficult parts,” and Kaila says: “The violin lets me express myself. I practice it three hours a day.”
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What is the NJSO Early Strings Program? In collaboration with the Newark Public Schools, the NJSO provides modified Suzuki violin instruction to second- through fourth-grade students in several elementary schools. Orchestra musicians spend approximately 36 hours each year per participating school, working with both students and teachers on violin, viola and cello. The roles of the NJSO musicians range from assisting music teachers during a class, to providing individual student instruction to even providing lessons to teachers during their prep periods. Early Strings students also have the opportunity to attend both the fall and spring NJSO Concerts for Young People at NJPAC.
Maple Avenue music teacher Thaddeus Exposé says FiddleFest—and the chance for his class to perform with students from other schools—is a big accomplishment: “It is a great event. What means the most to me is that the students enjoy it. I want these kids to have everything I never got in school, as well as everything I did.”
Whatever his students decide to do in life, he says, “the important thing is that they’re happy. I tell them that whether they grow up to be a doctor, a teacher, a garbage collector … Playing music gives you a whole other option; it could lead to an opportunity to get a scholarship for college. [Or as a hobby,] you can play music when you’re sad or happy, when you have some time.”
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Join us on June 1 at 1 pm at NJPAC to hear all the hard work of the students of the NJSO Early Strings Program!
Learn more about the NJSO’s Early Strings Program.
Read an in-depth feature on the program at Maple Avenue School.
Meet some young alumni from the Early Strings Program.
All photos above are of Newark Public School students in their 2012 FiddleFest performance at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark.