This program has extremely limited availability and requires 90 day advance scheduling.

Program Description
“Peers in Action”
High level student performers from the Callisto Chamber Music Academy join Artistic Director Stefan Hersh in a 45 minute performance designed to demonstrate for students that great music is accessible for their age group. Peer modeling serves as a source of inspiration to students who witness the skill and artistic passion of their contemporaries. The Callisto Chamber Music Academy young musicians gain by performance opportunity and participation in community service.

Stefan Hersh leads the presentation and directs school students through a line of inquiry about what music is and what it can be. The Callisto Academy musicians perform together with Hersh and in solo, demonstrating both their individual skill and the range of possibilities for their individual instruments as well as their ensemble and teamwork acumen. The program shows the correlation between the size of the instruments and the range in which they are heard and explains how string instruments work. A brief history of string instruments is included in the presentation. A Question and Answer session at the end of the performance allows students to hear from the Callisto Academy musicians first hand about how they are committed to music and how their lives are changed by that commitment.

The program is constructed in a modular format which allows the presentation to be “customized” in mid-stream to tailor the audience experience to the age group and setting for the performance.

The assembled students for each presentation can be from any grade level, but the ideal audience should comprise no more than two to three adjacent grade levels.

Concepts:
Music is Song; Music is Dance; Music is Language; Music is Fun ; Music can be used to express any emotion. Smaller=Higher, Larger=Lower. Sound as vibration in waves. Acoustic amplification.

List of terms:

* Violin
* Viola
* Cello
* Solo
* Duo
* string trio
* rosin
* bow
* string
* rhythm
* melody
* harmony
* pianissimo/piano
* fortissimo/forte
* pizzicato
* motive
* sound wave

Musical excerpts:

Beethoven…….. Serenade Op 8, Trio in G Major
Bach…………… Partita (E major), 1st and 3rd Suites
Kodaly…………. Duo
Bach……………Suites for 'cello (or viola)

GUIDELINES FOR FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION

Q: How many are in a string trio?
A: 3

Q: The musical word “pianissimo” means?
A: very soft

Q: The musical word “fortissimo” means?
A: very loud

Q: The word “pizzicato” stands for?
A: plucking the strings

Q: What is the string instrument that is larger than a violin and smaller than a cello?
A: viola

Q: Is a larger instrument likely to be higher or lower?
A: Lower

Q: Higher pitches are produced by longer or shorter sound waves?
A: Shorter

Q: Do you have to be old in order to be a good musician?
A: no

Q: Do you need to practice in order to be a good musician?
A: yes, just as you need to study or practice other things in order to achieve a certain level of excellence

GUIDELINES FOR STUDENT FEEDBACK
ENCOURAGE YOUR STUDENTS TO WRITE TO US
USING ONE OF THESE BEGINNINGS

After today's program, I have a different impression of string instruments and music because…

People play and listen to music because…

The sound of the viola is different from the violin and the cello because…

After today’s program, I may want to play an instrument because…