ClassNotes, Inc.
ClassNotes is a non-profit organization committed to introducing public school students to classical music through interactive workshops and concerts led by critically acclaimed young musicians. By presenting teaching musicians who are exemplary artists, articulate speakers, and charismatic personalities, ClassNotes seeks to inspire enthusiastic and engaged new listeners.
Musicians
ClassNotes’ current roster of artists includes sixteen professional young musicians, recent graduates of the best conservatories in the country. ClassNotes’ musicians have performed as soloists with the world’s top orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Moscow State Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Competitions and awards include the Naumburg Foundation Awards, Avery Fischer Career Grants, Concert Artists Guild International Competition, Young Concert Artists International Competition, and Washington International Competition, among others. Members have won coveted spots in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony. As chamber musicians, ClassNotes’ artists have performed at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival and Prussia Cove.
In the Public Schools
ClassNotes offers a one-day workshop or a one-week residency in each school. The one day workshop intersperses performances by ClassNotes’ musicians with interactive listening and improvisatory dramatic games. This workshop explores the concept of classical music as an outlet for emotion, energy, and creativity. The one-week residency is more intensive; ClassNotes works with teachers in advance to create customized lessons which integrate music education into the academic curriculum. At the end of the week, the students and their families are invited to a concert by ClassNotes’ musicians featuring complete readings of pieces they’ve been hearing and studying all week.
Connecting Kids to Classical Music
ClassNotes’ musicians recognize that every piece of classical music contains a blueprint for a wide range of human emotions. While we believe in the sound pedagogical benefits of connecting music with other academic disciplines throughout our workshops, our true mission is to inspire public school children to love classical music as we do and to find their own emotional connections to the music. By presenting the music in an exciting and accessible way, our dynamic musicians convey to the students that listening to classical music engages a rollercoaster of feelings and memories that can take one from highs of exhilaration to depths of contemplation, with everything in between.