School Outreach Programs

The WFSO is Committed to Providing Music Education and Programs for Community Enrichment.

Young People’s Concert

The Young People’s Concert supports the mission of the WFSO by working collaboratively with educators to provide a live concert experience to area 5th graders in a real concert hall setting. The concert is held at Memorial Auditorium and takes place during the regular school day. The WFSO also provides a unique curriculum companion to the Young People’s Concert designed to enhance the overall concert experience. To find out more, please view our Young People’s Concert page.

Artist in Residence

The WFSO’s Artist-in-Residence serves as an instructional coach in the WFISD school orchestra program, a critical lever in improving student achievement. The role of our coach is to build teacher capacity and help build the highest quality of student musicians.

Muse Program

The MUSE Program provides complimentary concert tickets for local middle school and high school orchestra and band students for all WFSO classical performances. The goal of the program is to recognize local band and orchestra students and help to inspire them to pursue a future in music. Students and their chaperones are offered complimentary tickets to classical concerts throughout the season.

Kids Corner

  • DSO Kids

    Community Education for kids by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

  • SFS Kids

    San Francisco Symphony Kids Edition, supporting music education at home.

Music in Our Schools

Music In Our Schools

We offer educational programs and activities designed to give school-aged children a greater understanding of the importance of music in our lives. By connecting music with visual arts, history, and literature, our educational programs enrich classroom lessons and introduce students to the excitement of live performance.

Why Does Music Education Matter?

Music Educaiton

(Source: Learning, Arts and the Brain)

Quick Facts

Thousands of scientific and academic studies have shown that music education improves academic achievement, builds communication skills, fosters creativity, develops teamwork, and increases engagement in school.

Students who studied music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT than students with no arts participation. Students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math.

(Source: The College Entrance Examination Board).

Musicians have structurally and functionally different brains compared with non-musicians. In particular, the areas of the brain used to process music are larger or more active in musicians. Even just starting to learn a musical instrument changes the neurophysiology of the brain.

(Source: Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute)

Students who report consistent, high-level involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12.

(Source: Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning)

Music training improves scores in spatial-temporal reasoning used in higher levels of science and math.

(Source: Keeping Mozart in Mind)

Students in high-quality school music programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the school or school district.

(Source: Journal of Research in Music Education)

Playing an instrument helps youngsters better process speech in noisy classrooms and more accurately interpret the nuances of language that are conveyed by subtle changes in the human voice.

(Source: Physiology and Communication Sciences at Northwestern University)