Link Up
New York City’s Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute created the Link Up program as part of a project to encourage students ranging from 3rd to 5th grade to participate in music education by teaming up with local symphonies. 

These students are given the opportunity to join the orchestra in this highly participatory program, in which they learn to sing and play an instrument in their school classroom and then come perform with a professional orchestra from their seats at a culminating concert. Every March, over 2,400 4th graders from throughout Southeast Idaho who have spent the year learning to play recorders and sing melodies join the Idaho State-Civic Symphony in a culminating side-by-side performance at the Stephens Performing Arts Center.  The ISCS participates in Link Up to further its goals of encouraging interest in music education, appreciation, and performance.
This year students and the symphony will perform the Orchestra Sings curriculum, which includes the following musical selections: Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy, Joseph Brackett’s Simple Gifts, and Igor Stravinski’s Firebird Suite.

Link Up: The Orchestra Sings
Melody is one of the universal elements of music. Composers and musicians create melodies, which can be sung or played on instruments. The orchestra sings when its musicians play melodies on their instruments. Through the Link Up repertoire, hands-on activities, and a culminating interactive performance with a professional orchestra, we will discover how the orchestra sings.

Support for Link Up is provided by the Idaho Commission on the Arts through the Arts Education Annual Projects grant program.