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Contact: Katie English, 267-974-1250
Philadelphia Youth Orchestra Announces Final 2010/2011 Tune Up Philly Concert
80 elementary school students will perform final concert of the school year at St. Francis de Sales School on June 5th
Philadelphia, PA – June 1, 2011 (Download PDF). Maestro Louis Scaglione, President and Music Director of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) today announced that PYO’s Tune Up Philly final concert of the year will be held on Sunday, June 5 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Francis de Sales School. Led by Tune Up Philly Director Stanford Thompson, 80 elementary school students will perform a free concert that is open to the public as they conclude the first year of the program.
Tune Up Philly is the new, after-school musical education program of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra at St. Francis de Sales School in southwest Philadelphia designed to nurture urban children living in challenging social and economic conditions by keeping them engaged in success through weekday out-of-school hour’s musical instruction.
Most of the 80 students in Tune Up Philly did not previously study classical music. The program commenced in September 2010 and will run through July 2011, offering free concerts to the public. Instructed by a dozen local, professional musicians, the students in Tune Up Philly have been training five days a week with concentrations in woodwind, brass, strings, percussion, choral and general music education. Tune Up Philly believes that music education is a powerful vehicle for children to master skills that will enable them to acquire valuable tools for cooperative learning, teamwork, academic success and self-esteem. “As we conclude the first, monumental year for PYO’s Tune Up Philly program, the PYO organization is immensely grateful to the individuals and organizations that supported this endeavor, allowing us to create a program for children from challenging urban backgrounds to excel through classical music education,” said Maestro Louis Scaglione of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization. “As we celebrate what these young students have learned and accomplished since September 2010, I would like to recognize the entire community who embraced Tune Up Philly, allowing the children to flourish within it.”
On May 9, The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced that Philadelphia Youth Orchestra’s Tune Up Philly was one of several recipients of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge, receiving $150,000. PYO Board of Trustees Member, Carole Haas Gravagno, who funded year one of Tune Up Philly through a generous matching grant, will match the donation from Knight Foundation to assist in funding the second year of Tune Up Philly. For information about the concert, please call the PYO Office at (215) 545-0502.
About the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra: Founded in 1939, the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra (PYO) is one of the nation’s oldest classical music training and orchestra performance programs for gifted and talented students from the Tri-State region. Lead by Maestro Louis Scaglione, PYO’s companion ensembles include the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra (PYAO), formed in 1996; Bravo Brass, added to the program in 2003; Philadelphia Region Youth String Music (PRYSM) created in 2007; and the Musicopia String Orchestra partnership, which began in 2008. Young musicians from ages six through 21 are selected by competition audition and have represented the United States on five continents. The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra organization offers classical musical performances to the Greater Philadelphia region each year and supports musical education to children from Philadelphia’s more challenging neighborhoods through its newest after-school program launched in 2010, Tune Up Philly.
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