On Monday, Oct. 30, hundreds of students from Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan and Emmet counties experienced “Mussorgsky in Miniature: Pictures at an Exhibition – A Masterpiece in Narrative Style.”
The program was the first of the 2023-24 school year for Great Lakes Center for the Arts’ Next Gen, which provides educational experiences in the performing arts through school matinees. Next Gen has reached more than 18,000 students in the region since 2018.
Monday’s program was a collaboration between Classical IPR, the Traverse Symphony Orchestra and Great Lakes Center for the Arts.
“Mussorgsky in Miniature is the second event in a new style of collaborative programming for Next Gen,” says Rachel Sytsma-Reed, Next Gen Director. “Regional arts organizations are coming together to create original, arts-based, educational programming that underscores our connections in Northern Michigan, helps build a stronger community network between the arts and education, and enables innovative thinking about how to best educate through the performing arts for the schools we are honored to serve.”
The program combined music, storytelling and visual art to give students a multidisciplinary experience of “Pictures at an Exhibition,” a piece composed by Modest Mussorgsky in 1874 and based on works by architect and painter Viktor Hartmann.
Musicians from the Traverse Symphony Orchestra performed “Pictures at an Exhibition” on stage with images of Hartmann’s visual art that inspired Mussorgsky projected behind them.
IPR’s Kate Botello narrated the event, discussing themes such as musical composition, art, self-expression, empathy and historical context.
Classical IPR created two Classical Sprouts podcast episodes about “Pictures at an Exhibition” that were distributed to educators in the region ahead of Monday’s program for curriculum enhancement.
Additionally, this week’s theme on IPR’s daily Kids Commute radio show is “Pictures at an Exhibition.”
Students who enjoyed the Next Gen presentation at the Great Lakes Center for the Arts are encouraged to tune in and learn even more about the music and art they experienced.
“We’re so thrilled that IPR’s Kate Botello and the Traverse Symphony Orchestra musicians could present classical music to hundreds of kids here in Northern Michigan through this collaboration,” said Amanda Sewell, Music Director at Interlochen Public Radio. “We hope it sparks their interest and encourages them to listen even more.”
For more images and video from Monday’s event, follow Classical IPR on Instagram.
Nearly 300 local public, private and homeschool students in grades 3-8 attended Monday’s program in Bay Harbor.
The program was made possible in part by a grant from Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Angela Aleo, Alexandra Herryman, Kassia Pepich, Rachel Sytsma-Reed, Emily Duncan Wilson and CJ Winnell provided additional support.