Special Concerts for MCPS 2nd Grade Students

National Philharmonic’s annual concerts in the Music Center at Strathmore for nearly 10,000 Montgomery County Public School second-graders are a smash hit with students, teachers, and the community. The unaffected joy of these young audiences is heart-melting for the musicians on stage, the teachers and parents and anyone else lucky enough to be in attendance.

At a recent performance kids clapped enthusiastically when Maestro Gajewski announced that everyone would sing "The Berry Picker's Song," which had been learned at school in preparation for the concert. When students sang, they sang with strong, beautiful voices. The entire hall of enraptured young people broke into spontaneous applause during the climax of a piece that featured a young winner of the National Philharmonic Concerto Competition. There were cheers for the percussion family, the brass family, the woodwind family, and then the string family as each was introduced during The Thrill of the Orchestra.  After the concerts National Philharmonic receives many e-mails and letters of appreciation.
 

Read Letters from Teachers
Read Fan Mail from 2nd Graders

Pictures: at the top, a picture of the National Philharmonic on stage drawn by a student in Miss Klaffka's class at Sequoyah Elementary; right, students perform movements they learned for "The Berry Picker's Song."