In a corner, twenty young fiddlers mingled and joked while warming up for the Friday afternoon concert at Strong Elementary School. On the bleachers, musicians and sisters Rachel and Clarissa Maynard listened intently as Jens Kruger explained essential string techniques. Sitting nearby, mother Deborah Maynard shared her enthusiasm for teaching young people at an early age to appreciate all kinds of music.
"The kids can see that all of these people playing are having a great time and that they all started as beginners at some point," Maynard said. "This is about exposing kids to the choices and styles of music for everyone." The Bangor Symphony Orchestra launched a series of educational "informances"through the Strings Attached Outreach program and began visits to Maine schools to share their love of music.
The program showcases the connections of several music styles. An important long-term goal of this collaboration is to encourage string lessons among the area's young people. The project allows talented young musicians to show their stuff and perform in live concerts with their peers and with seasoned professionals.
The whirlwind tour through School Administrative districts 9 and 58 brought members of the Orchestra and American folk group Kruger Brothers to hundreds of students in Farmington, Wilton, Kingfield, Phillips, Stratton, and Mt. Abram High schools. POPS president Donald Tranten said that supporting youth music programs, performance opportunities, and music education benefits the whole community.
"Bringing the Strings Attached Outreach to this area offers a terrific opportunity for the POPS to further the music enrichment of the young people in our backyard," Tranten said. The Kruger Brothers, who tour internationally, took a break to join the symphony members and two student fiddling ensembles, the Abbott Hill Ramblers and the Franklin County Fiddlers, on their western mountains trip. The final performance in the Strong Elementary School gymnasium ended with a rousing jig amid cheers from the audience.
"The best part for me," fifth grader Alexis Deming enthused, "was the way they would play something and then sing something so we could hear how it all worked together." "I liked how they made us part of it with the coyote noises and sounds of the prairie," Elliott said. "That was cool!
" The Krugers' educational outreach visits are a prelude to the Bangor Symphony Orchestra and Kruger Brothers' world premiere of "Music from the Spring: A Romantic Serenade for Banjo, Guitar, Bass Orchestra," on June 2, at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono.
News RSS