SINFONIA GULF COAST SWELLS TO AN ORCHESTRA OF 2,500 MEMBERS FOR
SPECIAL INTERACTIVE STUDENT PERFORMANCE OF
‘THE ORCHESTRA SINGS’
LINK UP Performance Featured 2,500 Local Elementary School Students
Miramar Beach, FL (April 20, 2017) — On April 12 the Emerald Coast Convention Center in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. was transformed into an electrifying concert hall when Sinfonia Gulf Coast — the only fully professional non-profit orchestra on the Emerald Coast founded in 2005 by music and artistic director Demetrius Fuller — presented its 4th annual live LINK UP concert performance “The Orchestra Sings,” a national program it presented in partnership with New York’s Carnegie Hall Weill Institute of Music.
This year’s LINK UP program showcased the talents of 2,500 local 3rd-5th grade students performing on recorder, violin or singing. The concert was conducted by Sinfonia Gulf Coast Maestro Fuller. Sandy Day (Eglin Elementary), Kelly Gore (Longwood Elementary) and Shalyce Kilmetz (Edwins Elementary) were special guest star performers providing narration and vocals.
During the 2017–2018 season, the program will be implemented by more than 100 partner orchestras, serving over 400,000 students and teachers. These partnerships span the US from Alaska to Florida, and also have international reach, including organizations in Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Kenya and Japan.
This curriculum is geared towards 3rd-5th grade students, and in many cases, is the only music education that they receive during the school year. The theme of this year’s Link Up program was centered around melody, one of the universal elements of music. The students learned how composers and musicians create melodies, which can be sung or played on instruments. They got to see and hear first-hand during a lively interactive performance just how “the orchestra sings” when its musicians play melodies on their instruments.
In the audience for this private concert performance were representatives from St. Joe Community Foundation, Inc., which donated $35,000 toward the children’s music education program. Thanks to these funds along with proceeds from Sinfonia Gulf Coast’s Wine Women & Shoes winter fundraiser, and donations from Sole Sisters, an honorary membership committee of Wine Women & Shoes, LINK UP has steadily grown in to the Sinfonia’s largest education initiative.
“We are so honored to sponsor this incredible Sinfonia LINK UP initiative for the students in our community,” said Janet Greeno, Executive Director of the St. Joe Community Foundation. “For four years, the Foundation has made an investment in to this program and it has been great to see the growth and impact that it has on all of these students.”
Altogether, 3,120 students throughout Okaloosa and Walton Counties participated in Sinfonia Gulf Coast’s Link Up, 2,500 of which were in attendance, with recorders in hand, to perform from their seats when given their cue by Maestro Fuller to join the orchestra. But they didn’t stay in their seats, at this spirited performance they were up out of their chairs singing, dancing choreographed moves they have been practicing for weeks.
Demetria McNeese, a longtime Sinfonia Gulf Coast sponsor, whose Sole Sister membership entitled her attend as a special guest, said, “There was so much energy in the room. It was exciting to see Sinfonia Gulf Coast’s music education outreach happen right before our eyes and ears! It was such an uplifting experience, you could literally see the kids light up from within.”
For more information on Sinfonia Gulf Coast visit SinfoniaGulfCoast.org, call (850) 460-8800 or e-mail info@sinfoniagulfcoast.org
