A photo from the Baker City High School gymnasium, where we gave in-school concerts and an evening concert in May, 2006. Click photo to enlarge.
Thanks to Sam Bergman for pointing out this excellent audio/visual slideshow of the Minnesota Orchestra’s “outstate” tour of rural Minnesota.
We used to do this sort of thing every year at the Oregon Symphony, but funding has been harder to come by, so we’ve given up the standard touring referred to in-house as the “drive-by” (where the orchestra shows up in a small town, gives an evening concert and some in-school concerts, then leaves never to be seen again for another locale) in favor of the more involved and in-depth Community Engagement Project, where smaller ensembles visit schools in a small town or towns over the course of the school year, culminating in the arrival of the full orchestra for in-school concerts and a final, big blow-out evening concert for the entire community.
Watching the slide show made me remember why doing this sort of work out in the rural areas is so important – there is a deep appreciation for the arts, and not a lot of the arts to be appreciated. And touching young, impressionable kids by exposing them to great classical music has an impact that we can barely begin to understand. Plus, they deserve it – just because one lives in a rural area does not mean that one does not deserve the best the state has to offer.