Phoenix Symphony educates MCC students about the power of music
Tristan Spencer
Mesa Legend
Education and Community Engagement Program (ECEP) of the Phoenix Symphony visited the MCC campus in an effort to raise musical awareness in the nearby community. Gabriel Kovach, Chris Wolf, and Emery Harvison came on campus to help educate the local community about music history. The three man played select classical music as a bass trio.
Not only did the visiting brass trio play a distinct choice in music of the ages, but also used this time on campus to answer questions from the audience. The Education and Community Engagement Program is a large umbrella constituting the humanitarian effort the Phoenix Symphony puts out year after year.
The program is divided into the K-12 school program, Health and Wellness Program, and the family concerts routinely played for the community. On a yearly basis the ECEP touches about 120,000 lives with their music. Kovach, the principal French Horn for the Phoenix Symphony, spoke about about the different types of work the Symphony is doing around in our community.
(Photos: Tania Ritko / Mesa Legend)
“So for us that includes going into elementary through high school with small ensembles like this and playing program, teaching people about music and sometimes about other stuff through music.” He further explained that, “[W]e do programs where we play in homeless shelters and hospitals. There’s some other more advanced
stuff, doing kind of pilot projects for musicians using their skills to teach stem curriculum in school” The main mission of the Phoenix Symphony to educate the public about the benefits of music. The Phoenix Symphony makes an effort to reach out to the local Native American reservation. Emery Harvison, the assistant Principal Trumpet stated, “We also go out to the Salt River Indian schools, the elementary and the high school and any kid that’s in the music program gets a free private lesson from a Phoenix Symphony member each week. We’re also out on the Indian community doing that”
The Phoenix Symphony has shown that the effort to aid the community can be worth more than any public recognition. Phoenix Symphony has taken steps in the right direction by educating its students to respect the arts. Now the responsibility falls on members of the community to follow the example the Phoenix Symphony has given.
