Purple LogoEducational Activities and Programs

The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra seeks to encourage the understanding, appreciation, and mastery of music from the baroque through the contemporary periods. It reaches out and provides for the musical enjoyment and education of all adults, children, and students in South Central Indiana.

Meet the Instruments
Young Violing Player
Date Location Time
Saturday, December 12, 2009 Bloomington College Mall, 2894 E 3rd St,, Bloomington 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Free; followed by Family Concert
Saturday, November 7, 2009 WonderLab, 308 West Fourth Street, Bloomington 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Free with museum admission

The Bloomington Symphony Orchestra is recognized throughout Indiana for its work with young people. "Meet the Instruments" is our highly praised, hands-on opportunity for children. Performers gather with their instruments and introduce young, potential players to percussion, wind, and stringed musical instruments. Best of all, the kids get a chance to hear the sounds and then try different instruments. (Parents are often just as fascinated).

Children can play a clarinet or hear a percussion presentation that thrills all listeners, young and old alike. Kids can try out a tiny violin that's the size of the one with which Mozart started his career.

Stand next to a doublebass or harp and try it out for size!

Meet the Instruments lets your children explore various musical instruments and the sounds they make.

 

 

"Noisy, educational fun"

One of the highlights of the BSO season, Meet the Instruments is attended by hundreds of children and their parents every year!

Meet the Instruments

Side-by-Side Concerts feature performances by the Youth Concerto Competition winner.

In this long-running educational and musical partnership, high school musicians from the Hoosier Youth Philharmonic or the Bedford-North Lawrence Orchestra join forces with the Bloomington Symphony.

CHIRP

The BSO's CHIRP (Instrument Recovery Program) collects forgotten and abandoned musical instruments for use in musical education and enrichment programs.

Youth Concerto Competition

Over the years, the orchestra has provided budding musicians such as Ricardo Javier Morales-Matos, Joshua Bell, and Rachel Caswell an early chance through its Youth Concerto Competition.

January 5, 2008: The winner of this annual concerto competition performs with the Hoosier Youth Philharmonic in concert with the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra at the Side-by-Side Concerts. Concerto competition information is sent to 31 schools in Monroe, Brown, Jackson, Lawrence, Morgan, and Owen Counties. Contestants must be amateur musicians who have not yet reached their 19th birthday and who have not yet graduated from high school. Competitors must reside in one of the counties mentioned. Judges are selected from the community and from the BSO.

In addition to performing with the BSO, the winners are awarded cash prizes.

Aaron Ritter, Winner 2004 BSO Youth Concerto Competition, pictured at right