Youth Education Program

The San Juan Symphony’s Youth Education program serves all communities in the Colorado and New Mexico Four Corners region.

The Meet-a-Musician program is the San Juan Symphony’s primary outreach element. The musicians speak about and demonstrate their instruments, answer questions, coach music ensembles, or participate in rehearsals and concerts playing next to students in the full ensemble. Approximately 50 individual classrooms are visited throughout the year.

A significant activity of the education program is setting up school visits and master classes for guest soloists. During our 2007-2008 Season, two guest artists spent a total of four days sharing their talents in area schools.

The San Juan Symphony also provides two music tuition scholarships each year - one at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO for $1,800, and one at San Juan College in Farmington, NM for $500.

The San Juan Symphony performs two annual youth concerts, one concert for 6th graders in Durango, and one concert for 5th graders in Farmington. The Youth Concerts expose at least 1,500 students to the symphonic experience, and will be held September 15, 2008.

Our Family Concert on the evening of September 15, 2008 in Farmington offers an affordable opportunity for parents to attend a one-hour symphony concert with their children.  The symphony performs popular classical music and film scores.  The Family Concert includes a Decorated Violin Contest and Raffle for students ages 6-18.  Students submit template designs then the templates are judged by local professional artists.  Finalists are selected to decorate full-size violins. The violins are displayed at the Family Concert and the violins are raffled.  All proceeds benefit the SJS Education Outreach programs.

In addition, the education program also arranges an annual Side-By-Side concert where area school students are featured on stage with the symphony for a portion of the program. The Side-by-Side includes additional coachings and rehearsals with symphony musicians. This season’s Side-By-Side will take place at the November 22-23 concert featuring the music from the L'Arlésienne Suites by Bizet.

The San Juan Symphony also maintains a cooperative relationship with Fort Lewis College where both faculty and students are members of the orchestra.