Learn more about the BSO’s Educational Outreach Initiatives by watching the video below

Each year, BSO provides an engaging and interactive program to 5th-grade students from Bartlesville and the surrounding area. The Link Up program has been developed over the past 30 years by the Weill Institute at Carnegie Hall. There are over 100 Link Up partner orchestras around the world, and the Bartlesville Symphony was fortunate to be selected as a partner in 2018. Link Up is much different than the typical “school concert” in which students attend and observe a performance; it is a yearlong program designed to be integrated into the regular music curricula of elementary schools. Carnegie Hall provides high quality resources to music teachers through BSO, allowing them to incorporate the program into their classroom and thereby deepening the impact of the program beyond what could be offered by an orchestra concert alone.

The program consists of three components: (1) Professional development sessions offered to area teachers in which they are introduced to the curriculum and are provided with the online resources to begin teaching the students. (2) Teachers integrate the Link Up materials into their existing curriculum in whatever way works best for their students. Most students practice the music and skills over several months in preparation for the culminating concert. (3) The culmination of the program is a live performance with the Bartlesville Symphony in which students travel to the Bartlesville Community Center and perform along with the symphony from their seats in the concert hall.

We are very grateful to the Oklahoma Arts Council, Bartlesville Rotary Club Foundation, Doenges Family of Autos, and the Schmoldt Family Foundation for their support of this year’s Link Up program.