Teacher Materials

2023-2024 IN SCHOOL SYMPHONY CONCERTS

FULL ORCHESTRA CONCERT: “THIS IS AN ORCHESTRA!”

Come discover the many sounds an orchestra creates! Compare and contrast how different music can sound when it is written by composers from different time periods and countries. While listening to pieces from Peru, Germany, England, Japan, and Czechia, we explore musical elements such as melody, harmony, timbre, dynamics, and tempo that are created by the 20 different instruments that make up an orchestra. 

Concert Program

Click on the names of the composers to access brief biographies. Click on the names of the musical works to listen to recordings of the music.

• Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3, Op.55 “Eroica” Movement 1       
• Jimmy Lopez Bellido: Techno from Fiesta!
• Joe Hisaishi: Princess Mononoke: The Legend of Ashitaka
• Joe Hisaishi: Howl’s Moving Castle: Merry Go Round of Life
• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: Ballade in A minor, Op. 33    
• Antonin Dvořák: Largo from Symphony No. 9 in E Minor
• Antonin Dvořák: Allegro con fuoco from Symphony No. 9

Corresponding Teacher Materials

Learn more about the elements of music through musical excerpts from the concert program in this 20-minute PowerPoint Presentation. It is designed to be “hands-free” in that as soon as you begin the presentation, it should be narrated and advance itself. Sit back and learn with your students!

CHAMBER ORCHESTRA CONCERT: “IMPRESSIONS”

The Oxford Dictionary defines impression as “an idea, feeling, or opinion about something or someone, especially one formed without conscious thought or on the basis of little evidence.” Do you already have an impression about the Utah Symphony and the music they perform? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Listen to the Utah Symphony play for your school and see what impressions are left with you when you hear them perform the music of several different composers from around the world.

Concert Program

Click on the names of the composers to access brief biographies. Click on the titles of the musical works to listen to recordings of the music.

• Dmitri Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony, Movement 2
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A little night music, Movement 1 and Movement 4
• Clarice Assad: Impressions: Fusion: Danca Brasileira and Precision: Perpetual Motion
• Joanna Marsh: In Winter’s House (arr. Azkoul)
• Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings, Movement 4
• Errollyn Wallen: Photography Movement 1

Corresponding Teacher Materials

Learn more about what a chamber orchestra is with the following presentation. Click on links to hear what each string instrument sounds like and learn about some of the musicians in the Utah Symphony that play these instruments.

Music Core Curriculum Connections

The Utah Symphony’s In School Symphony Concerts provide students with the opportunity to respond to quality musical works and quality performances as well as studying the musical influences that come from living in different countries and at different times.

Attending the concert and assessing it afterwards allows students to experience elements of Standards 1-4 in the Respond Strand of the Secondary Instrumental Music Core Curriculum:

1. Respond to a musical performance by identifying the musical elements within a piece and in a given context, discus their effect on both listener and performers, and exhibit appropriate performance demeanor and audience concert etiquette.
2. Consider, with guidance, how the use of musical elements helps predict the composer’s possible intent.
3. Identify and describe, with guidance, the musical and structural elements that contribute to a quality musical work.
4. Identify and describe, with guidance, the technical and musical skills evident in a quality performance.