passive experience. It’s something people actually need.” The orchestra’s youth education program is built on that principle. The elementarylevel Adventures in Music (AIM) reaches some 24,000 students with a blend of live concerts at Davies Hall and in-classroom instruction coordinated to the school curriculum. From the sixth grade on, the orchestra offers elective instrumental-music classes in the public schools. The organization also provides and repairs school instruments and other musical supplies. It’s all free of charge to the schools. SFS Kids (sfskids.org), the orchestra’s pioneering ten-year-old website for children, is getting a major makeover. “The program is large and costly,” says SFS Director of Education Ron Gallman, whose budget will grow to $3.2 million this year. “But sustaining and expanding our service to the community remains a commitment and a very important aspect of the centennial.” Susan Stauter, artistic director of the San Francisco Unified School District, gives the program high marks. “I travel around a lot,” she says. “This is the finest model of its kind, because it’s not just superimposed
as a mustard plaster. It’s all very thoughtfully aligned to the teaching objectives.” Stauter describes one classroom session that was keyed to Goethe’s notion of architecture as frozen music. “It was all about pattern, repetition, and structure,” says Stauter, “in a way that clearly connected the dots between the academic, the musical, and the real world.” Those same students were encouraged to rhythmically clap and conduct along, responding in a full-body way at the concert they attended at Davies Hall. While those sorts of audible and athletic displays might not necessarily be seen when the orchestra opens the season September 7 with its Fanfare for a New Century Gala on September 7, that actively engaged spirit is very much in keeping with the centennial mood. The following day, the orchestra will play a free outdoor concert at noon in Civic Center Plaza. Asked where planning the centennial had led him, MTT is soon talking about the orchestra’s second century. “I’m very much looking forward to the years beyond the centenary,” he says, “because there will be more space to embark on still more delightful new
projects.” He discusses his deep interest in the visual arts and goes on to envision a new generation of musicians who “realize that the visual can be a primary extension of their core understanding of music. I’m really just beginning my own explorations.” With “my friends at Google and YouTube,” he says, he’s been in lively discussions about the differences between improvised music and the “encoded” language of classical music that’s written down. One hundred years may sound like a big achievement, a gratifying mark of endurance and longevity. And so it is. But with Tilson Thomas leading an orchestra that’s imbued with his own restlessly adventuresome nature, no one’s spending much time in retrospective self-congratulation. The centenary has everyone at the San Francisco Symphony looking in one direction—into the future. San Francisco arts journalist Steven Winn writes frequently on music for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Classical Voice (sfcv. org). He is the author of a memoir, Come Back, Como: Winning the Heart of a Reluctant Dog, which has been translated into nine languages.
The Academy
A program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education
A two-year fellowship for the finest young professional musicians who are passionate about education, community engagement, and advocacy. • A series of performances at Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and other venues • Opportunities to interact with schools and communities through music • Mentorship by professional teaching artists; and other staff of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute
Application Deadline: December 1, 2011
Jennifer Taylor
• Fellows receive a stipend, monthly MetroCard, and health benefits
Visit acjw.org or call 212-903-9799 for more information.
Weill Music Institute
americanorchestras.org
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