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Fort Worth, Texas, August 17, 2010:
The Van Cliburn Foundation has teamed
up once again with nationally recognized educator John
Feierabend to write three exciting new
interactive programs for the Musical
Awakenings® children's education program. Musical
Awakenings will bring 122 free, interactive music programs
developed for second, third and fourth graders into schools in Fort
Worth ISD and nine other school districts in the 2010-2011 school
year.
The Van Cliburn Foundation creates new programs for Musical
Awakenings students every year to ensure that students always
get a fresh, exciting perspective on learning about music. This
year, three new programs look at getting surprising sounds out of
the piano, improvisation, and the ballad.
"Carnival of the Animals" teaches students about
tempo, theme transitions, and rhythm. Using music to depict the
movements of animals such as kangaroos, horses and turtles, the
children learn how different changes in a musical piece can engage
the imagination.
"On the Spot" utilizes the talents of 13-year-old
pianist Lewis Warren Jr. to teach students how to improvise on
rhythm structures and melodies to make any well-known song a tune
of their own creation. Students learn to improvise with words,
music, and rhythm.
"Story Songs" featuring Colleen Mallette, star of
the one-woman spoof "Lamaze School of Singing Presents: How to
Birth a Song!", shows students how to create a song that tells a
story. In this program, children will learn about the strophic
musical form, which makes up many common hymns, folk, and blues
songs.
Shields-Collins Bray,
principle keyboardist for the Fort Worth Symphony
Orchestra, has hosted the Musical Awakenings programs at
North Texas schools for over 10 years, and continues this year with
the assistance of TCU faculty member, singer, actress, and
comedian Colleen
Mallette.Some noteworthy local talent
will also appear during the year, among them, 13-year-old pianist
and composer Lewis Warren Jr., who studies with SMU's Dr. Carol
Leone and has appeared on NBC's America's Got Talent and
Nascar's Samsung 500, during which he performed the
national anthem.
Other artists include 2009 Cliburn Competitor Spencer Myer, piano
educator Jose Cubela, pianist Keith Critcher, pianist Dr. Jonathan
Tsay, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra double-bassist Brian
Perry.
About Musical Awakenings
The Van Cliburn Foundation has been presenting music
education programs to area elementary students for over ten years.
Musical Awakenings presents the excitement of live piano
recitals to second, third, and fourth grade students through a
series of concerts that give students the opportunity to observe,
interact with, and learn from accomplished pianists. The Musical
Awakenings series is offered at no cost to schools.
These interactive programs, lasting about 30-40 minutes, feature a
facilitator/host and guest pianist and are presented in the
school's auditorium/cafetorium. A grand piano is brought into the
school and a camcorder and projector are used to project the
pianist's hands onto a screen for all students to view.
Illustrations further enhance the students' experiences. Following
each presentation, students have the opportunity to ask questions
and learn more about the pianist. These programs address the
national standards in the arts for music education.
About the Van Cliburn Foundation
The Van Cliburn Foundation disseminates classical music worldwide,
launches and nurtures young artists' careers through the
quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, the
ensuing three-year international concert tour of its medalists,
award-winning documentaries and a syndicated radio series dedicated
to the competition and its most memorable performances. By making
the competition available in its entirety on the Internet, the
Foundation has extended its outreach to listeners in every corner
of the globe.
For audiences in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, the Van Cliburn
Foundation promotes great music and world-class artists through the
annual Cliburn Concerts series. It reaches over 30,000 elementary
school students annually with the education programs of Musical
Awakenings. In 1999, it established the quadrennial
International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs™, which
The Boston Globe proclaimed "a celebration of music, and
the people who have to make music, no matter what."
Visit
Cliburn.org to learn more about the Cliburn as it approaches
the 50th anniversary of the Van Cliburn International Piano
Competition in 2012. |
