Preludes Program

Preludes 2021-2022 Season

In-person and Virtual Events for Schools and Home School Groups

The professional members of the Charlottesville Symphony are ready to present this year's Preludes programs throughout the region. In order to keep students, faculty and symphony musicians safe, we will offer a mixture of in-person and virtual events for the 2021-2022 season. We are pleased to offer the following types of virtual programs for your students:

Preludes programs are offered in schools throughout each academic year, generally November through April, and are scheduled individually with area school music teachers, parent-teacher organizations, administrators and home-school groups.

Professional members of the Charlottesville Symphony offer in-school programs such as:

Individual and small group instrument demonstrations that introduce basic musical concepts or that tie into other subject areas, such as literature or science. Musicians often visit in pairs, offering the chance to compare and contrast instruments.
Masterclasses and coachings that cover specific performing techniques or focus on music that students are studying in their school programs.

Preludes visits are intended as interactive presentations that suit the needs of individual music teachers and school programs, not as concert-like performances. Also, the types of programs listed above are suggested as guidelines, but we are not limited to them. If you’d like us to offer another program for your students, please let us know and we’ll do our best to meet your needs!

The purpose of Preludes visits at the elementary school level is to assist school districts’ recruitment efforts for their band and orchestra programs through demonstrations that acquaint students with instruments from each orchestra family. At the middle and high school level our goal is to assist you in teaching your students by providing extra attention to the section(s) you feel would benefit from our help.

To request a visit, please click on the link below marked "Request a Preludes Visit", fill out the form and return it via email to Elizabeth Roberts, Director of Youth Education, education@cvillesymphony.org. Be sure to mention what you’d like us to cover when you fill out your form. We are happy to work with you to develop a program that will achieve the goals you establish for your students.

How many Preludes visits can we make to your school?

Elementary Schools
We offer each public and private school in Central Virginia two Preludes visits per academic year. There is no charge to your school for our first two events, but we do ask that you fund any additional events.

Middle Schools & High Schools
We offer two Preludes visits per program (two for band, two for orchestra) to each public and private school in Central Virginia region. There is no charge to your school for these events, but we do ask that you fund any additional events.

Home School Groups
We are pleased to offer one free Preludes visit for each home school group of at least 20 students.

What constitutes an In-person Visit?

An in-person visit is one musician working with your students for up to two consecutive hours. Two musicians visiting either together or separately are considered two visits.

What constitutes a Virtual Visit?

A virtual visit is one musician working with your students for up to two hours. Two musicians offering a virtual event together or separately are considered two virtual events. Virtual programs may be broken into one-hour segments (but no smaller). Therefore, two hours of virtual programs will count as one Preludes visit. The two hours do not have to be consecutive. Both halves of a visit must be presented by the same musician and be used at the same school.