(SYSO photo: Musician mentors student as they prepare to perform together onstage)
Southwest Seattle Super String Saturday is back again this year – a great day for enjoying the work of outstanding young musicians and inspiring kids who might want to follow in their footsteps. WSB is proud to be a media sponsor again this year. Here are the details:

On Saturday January 25 from 10 am- 1 pm, a free community event, Southwest Seattle Super String Saturday at Chief Sealth International High School at 2600 SW Thistle Street, kicks off with an inspiring performance by one of America’s premier youth orchestras, the Seattle Youth Symphony.

Following the performance, young violin, viola, cello and bass players from Southwest Seattle schools fill Chief Sealth IHS with the sound of their hard work and dedication. This event celebrates the elementary and middle school string players who are receiving coaching by professional musicians hired by the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras.

The free public performance by Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra features Serge Prokofiev’s powerful ballet score for Romeo and Juliet – a work that has become one of the most revered orchestral scores composed for dance. The mini-concert continues with Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to the Der Freischutz, a Romantic-era opera inspired by German folk music.

After the public concert, violin, viola, cello and bass students from Southwest elementary schools (Concord, Roxhill, Sanislo, Arbor Heights, West Seattle, and Highland Park) and Denny International Middle School participate in an array of activities including instrument technique clinics led by top-level Youth Symphony musicians and SYSO coaches and learning how to play in a chamber music ensemble. Then the excitement builds as the string students join the Youth Symphony musicians on stage and are mentored by their high school-aged musical counterparts. All the musicians play “side-by-side” in this large orchestral setting, with the younger students inspired by the level of performance demonstrated by their older peers.

This is an event for the entire family and includes an “instrument petting zoo” organized by the West Seattle Community Orchestras introducing younger children to string instruments, and SYSO coaches and school music teachers on hand to discuss how parents can support their child’s musical learnng. Refreshments and resources are also available.

This event showcases Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras’ Southwest Seattle String Project, an initiative that provides professional musician “coaches” to work alongside public school music teachers and lead small group and individualized instruction.

(SYSO photo: Double bass musician Todd Gowers coaches Denny IMS students)
This service is provided by SYSO at no cost to the schools or the families because SYSO is committed to enabling equitable access to arts education, especially in areas which historically have had lower participation rates in instrumental music due to economic barriers.

SYSO provides this program free to the Southwest Seattle public schools because of generous support from national and local funders. In fact, last month Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras was one of just twenty-three American orchestras selected by the League of American Orchestras to receive a 2013-14 Getty Education and Community Investment Grant specifically to fund SYSO’s school programs. To learn more about how to donate to SYSO’s school programs, contact info@syso.org.

West Seattle Blog and Classical KING-FM are Media Sponsors for this event. For information about the Southwest Seattle Super String Saturday event, please contact Kathleen Allen, Director of Education, Communications and Partnerships at Kathleen@syso.org.

Here’s our coverage of last year’s SWSSS event.