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First Season of DSO’s Classroom Edition Webcast Reaches 100,000 Students — Your Community Supported Orchestra in Action

This spring, the DSO’s educational expansion of its free HD webcast series, Live from Orchestra Hall: Classroom Edition, reached a record audience of nearly 60,000 students in Orchestra Hall and throughout 415 schools in Detroit and nationwide, bringing viewership for the debut season to over 100,000 students.

After launching in November 2014, Classroom Edition returned May 14 with “Musical Tales” to teach students the many ways music can be used to tell a story. The DSO was joined onstage by host Damon Gupton, DSO Assistant Conductor Michelle Merrill, dancers from the Ballet Americana Company, and baritone Michael Miller to perform selections from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, John Williams’ Children’s Suite from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and more.

After viewing the webcast from their auditorium, students at Detroit Public School Cooke Elementary said they liked learning “how music can tell a story in many different ways,” and “about all kinds of music and the history of different instruments.” After the performance, one student said, “Music helps me to feel peaceful.”

In the fall, nearly 70 Detroit schools tuned in to Classroom Edition’s debut, including all of Detroit Public Schools’ K--8 classes, many of whom would not otherwise be able to see the performance because of transportation issues. An additional 172 schools throughout the country also participated.

Classroom Edition builds on the legacy of the DSO’s popular Educational Concert Series (ECS), which for years has exposed area youth to orchestral performances, in both historic Orchestra Hall and the community. Now, with the development of this groundbreaking educational tool, select ECS performances each season will be adapted to provide an engaging classroom experience, complete with an interactive lesson plan archive aligned with national music education curriculum standards. Current educational resources can be viewed along with an encore of the webcast at dso.org/classroom.

Thanks to your support and the support of the Mandell and Madeleine Berman Foundation, more than 100,000 students experience live classical music this year. The DSO could fill Orchestra Hall 50 times with that many students!