Dan Rodricks: A youth movement at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

Air traffic controllers, managers of large restaurants and Safeway employees who keep things moving at the self-checkout station will probably think it’s no big deal. But, mere mortals who have little experience with customer traffic or event logistics will be impressed with what occurred last Thursday at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

At mid-morning, several yellow school buses pulled up in long lines along Cathedral Street. The doors opened. More than 2,000 school children, accompanied by teachers and parents, stepped out of the buses, marched across the sidewalk, entered the Meyerhoff and took seats for a concert at 10 am. The concert commenced at 10:05 am and ran for almost exactly one hour.

At 11:05 am, more than 2,000 students rose from their seats and departed the concert hall for the buses and their return to school.

Magically, within the next 15 minutes, another 1,000 students arrived and took their seats to hear the same selections of music.

That’s 2,000 out, then 1,000 in, a real youth movement. 

Two hours. 

Two concerts. 

Just a typical day when the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra provides a midweek concert for Baltimore-area school kids.

I happened to be on the scene for this because I was part of the program — narrator for one of the pieces the orchestra performed under the direction of Jonathon Heyward — but these undertakings occur a few times each year, part of the BSO’s commitment to treating children to classical music. 

Last December, I watched with awe and pride as student-dancers from the Baltimore School for the Arts performed excerpts of “The Nutcracker” with the BSO. I declared it the best hour of the waning year.

What struck me this time was Heyward and his connection with the kids. 

More than a decade had passed since a BSO music director conducted a weekday educational program. Heyward, the BSO’s youngest and first Black music director, apparently felt it important to do so.

It was the day before Halloween, so Heyward duded up in black tails, a large red cravat, black slacks and black high-tops. Calling himself “the ghost of Beethoven,” the Converse Conductor spoke to the children about Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique” and The Dead Composers Society in a way that showed real savvy for reading a room and relating to an audience.

Heyward, who turned 33 in July, just agreed to a three-year-extension of his contract as the BSO’s music director. The symphony reports that, since the announcement of Heyward’s appointment in 2022, ticketed attendance has risen 58%, with nearly 30,000 people experiencing a classical concert for the first time.

“A visibly broader and more diverse audience now fills the concert halls,” the BSO says, “reflecting Heyward’s commitment to programming that welcomes all Marylanders to enjoy the BSO experience.”

It might also reflect the BSO’s years of commitment to children, notably the weekday concerts.

There will be four performances of “The Nutcracker” again next month, followed by two more educational concerts: The Carnegie Hall Link-Up concert, focused on swing music, in February; and The Legend of the Northern Lights, in March. The latter will feature astronomer José Francisco Salgado and his photographs set to music.

Each concert comes with a curriculum guide for teachers.

The midweek education series happens through the support of the M&T Charitable Foundation, the Peggy & Yale Gordon Trust and the Maryland State Department of Education. Funding also comes from the Patricia & Mark K. Joseph Music Education Fund for City Schools, the Zanvyl & Isabelle Krieger Endowed Fund for Education and the Susan & Charles Shubin Endowment Fund.

The Joseph fund covers the cost of bus transportation from Title 1 schools — those with high percentages of children from low-income families — and the concerts likewise are free for kids from those schools. All others pay just $7.

In addition to the weekday educational concerts, the BSO’s similar family concerts are made free for city residents through the Sherman Family Foundation.

“We’re a very busy education department,” says Nana Vaughn, who succeeded Brian Prechtl as education adviser. “We also have four youth orchestras, side-by-sides [students sitting in with BSO musicians] with area schools, educational partnerships, Music Box concerts [for babies and toddlers] in our lobby and at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown.”

I mention the sponsors of these programs because their choice of a cause is important to the BSO, a cherished Baltimore cultural institution in great position, with Heyward as music director, to develop new audiences. 

But it’s not just about marketing. The weekday concerts expose children to a kind of music, performed live, that they might never otherwise experience.

I usually avoid personalizing my columns but today, just briefly, an exception to that rule:

When I was a kid in New England, not much older than some of those who got off the bus at the Meyerhoff last Thursday, an uncle treated me to a concert of the Boston Pops, with Arthur Fielder conducting. It would never have occurred to my parents to do that, nor did they have the money. But Uncle Artie took me to Symphony Hall and the whole experience was absolutely thrilling. The orchestra performed, among other selections, the “1812 Overture,” and I’ve been a fan of loud, long and big classical music all my life.

Dan Rodricks’ column appears once a week in the Fishbowl. He can be reached at djrodricks@gmail.com or via danrodricks.com