A day 2,400 musical students will likely never forget

Recently, it was my privilege to attend an outstanding local performance featuring instrumental music, singing and movement.

I am sorry you were unable to get a ticket, but both the performance I attended and the second one were sold out.

To get your ticket for next year, you just need to be a third-, fourth- or fifth-grader participating in Modesto Symphony Orchestra’s Link Up – a program developed by Carnegie Hall’s Weills Music Institute.

The performance is the culmination of a 12-week classroom curriculum that teaches fundamental musical concepts, exposes students to a symphony orchestra and a concert hall and encourages their creativity.

Here’s a glimpse of the performance I attended. First, it’s not easy to get more than 1,200 students and teachers into their seats in a timely fashion. But the staff and volunteers at the Gallo Center for the Arts pulled it off, not once but twice on a rainy performance day.

That’s right, more than 2,400 students! Think of the loud and enthusiastic young voices that greeted me as I entered Mary Stuart Rogers Theatre.

The students were the program warmup as they shouted out answers to an interactive preshow program on music trivia and provided an ear-splitting program countdown.

The music magic began with Ryan Murray conducting the Modesto Symphony and Youth Orchestra and two hosts leading the students. Thirteen musical pieces were featured during the 50-minute concert. The students sang and played their recorders to the “Blue Danube” and delighted in the high kicks of Central West Ballet Company dancers doing the “Can-Can.”

As the host sang “Toreador” from the opera “Carmen,” students eagerly joined in on the refrain. Then they moved in their seats and on their feet to “Away I Fly.” The finale for each show featured the 1,200 students belting out “Cidade Maravilhosa” in Portuguese.

I can only imagine that if I, at age 66, can still remember a kindergarten visit to a dairy, then these youngsters will long remember the day they played, sang and moved with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra.

The per-student cost to schools is minimal, $8 per person which includes the recorder, workbook and performance (or $5 per student if the school already has recorders). This year, 30 schools from Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin counties participated. Funds for the final program, bus transportation scholarships and in some cases for students at certain schools were provided by Bill and Carolyn Ahlem, the Diane S. Lent & Gordon Lent Family, the Boyett Petroleum Make Dreams Real Endowment Fund, Teichert Foundation and the Abigail Colby Floyd Memorial Fund.

Modesto Symphony Orchestra is pleased to provide quality education programs, which includes the Modesto Symphony Youth Orchestra (two divisions), Instrument Petting Zoo, Symphony Storytime, Master Classes and student rush tickets to many of our concerts. Visit modestosymphony.org for information on MSO educational programs and upcoming concerts.

This story was originally published March 21, 2016 at 7:05 PM with the headline "A day 2,400 musical students will likely never forget."