Every August, teachers from across the state flock to Meymandi Concert Hall for the North Carolina Symphony’s Education Concert Workshop. They spend an entire day of their summer vacations learning the repertoire and important lesson plans which they can use to prepare students to attend an NCS Education Concert. Our five teacher authors – Bo Reece, Katie Perkins, Kim Demery, Ann Goldfinch and Melissa Raley – did an amazing job leading more than 160 educators through activities at this year’s workshop. The accompanying pictures capture the excitement of the day.

Each year we try to find an inspiring guest speaker to kick things off and get everyone in the mood for learning. Who could be better than Branford Marsalis? Branford has a reputation as a dedicated teacher in the Triangle and, as those of you who attended our benefit concert on June 8 already know, he is a true friend of the North Carolina Symphony.

Branford did a beautiful job of expressing his gratitude to the teachers for the impact they have on the lives of children.

Later that afternoon, Kim Demery led her students from North Forest Pines Elementary through a lesson plan demonstration for Khachaturian’s Waltz from Masquerade Suite. The objective was to familiarize students with rondo form and if you look very closely, you can see that each child is wearing a hat or necklace with a picture on it representing their section.

After a delicious lunch in the lobby, we could sense a spike in the energy level. Our two authors Melissa Raley and Ann Goldfinch took over and those ladies know how to work a crowd! Here’s where the pictures will say more than I ever could!

An activity planned for Rossini’s Overture to William Tell required the participation of more than 30 people. Through a variety of movements, teachers portrayed the changes in dynamics and overall intensity throughout the storm section.

Here teachers are using Chinese jump ropes and a parachute with bouncing balls in the center controlled by over a dozen volunteers. As the storm intensified, so did the movements. I can tell you first-hand that the balls in the center of the parachute quickly went from mimicking raindrops to golf-ball sized hail! You’ll notice Melissa Raley, our author/presenter, is running for cover!

Our last activity was for Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8, Mvt. IV. Ann Goldfinch paired the main themes from this work with kid-friendly lyrics which depict guests arriving to a grand party. A small portion of those lyrics include: “We’re excited, we must hide it. We’ll have lots of fun!”

The pictures below are from an activity called “Act it Out!” where the teachers are literally acting out the lyrics as they sing along to Dvorák’s Eighth Symphony.