Phoenix Symphony Association

The Phoenix Symphony, founded in 1947 by a small group of musicians offering four concerts a year, has become Arizona’s largest performing arts non-profit organization and its only full-time, professional orchestra. Serving nearly 300,000 people annually, we offer a versatile, artistically rich and accessible programming presented by a 66-member orchestra, featuring a regular series of Classics, Pops, Chamber Orchestra, Family concerts plus special community concerts celebrating various holidays and area events. Year-round music education and community outreach programs provide students, teachers, families and individuals with access to professional musicians and world-class music. Our programs ensure an individual, regardless of means and background, is given equal opportunity to develop skills and grow through imaginative, high quality community-based music experiences.

K-12 Education Programs - As school districts continue to eliminate funding for music programs, Symphony programs are often the only music education experience K-12 students in Arizona encounter. In the 2013/2014 season we project our Education Outreach programs will serve over 49,000 K-12 students; many of whom are exposed to orchestral music for the first time in their lives. That’s 49,000 separate opportunities for growth, change, increased creativity and a better community. Imagine the impact that these opportunities have created over the organization’s 66 year history and how that impact multiplies rapidly over time.

• Symphony for the Schools provides a 45-minute daytime concert experience for K-12 grade students at Symphony Hall, offering a music-integration bridge to language arts, social studies and science.
• Classroom Concerts are 40-minute live concerts presented in the classroom by the Symphony’s String, Woodwind, Percussion or Brass ensembles.
• Mind Over Music is a groundbreaking initiative that supports STE[+a]M (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) instruction through the integration of music.
• One Nation is a music residency program with the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community engages students directly in the creative process through private/group instrumental lessons and performance coaching with Symphony musicians.

 

B-Sharp Music Wellness Initiative - collaborative partnerships with healthcare and homeless service providers sets the stage for a broad range of personal experiences within the seven elements of wellness: social/cultural, physical, environmental, occupational, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.

• B-Sharp Music Wellness - Homeless Shelters, to our knowledge the only one in the United States, is a partnership with Circle the City and the Lodestar Day Resource Center. Through connecting with music, and in some cases rediscovering lost talents, homeless individuals gain confidence, strength, self-esteem and experience joy which helps transcend the obstacles of poverty. Symphony musicians offer a concert repertoire that includes a brass quintet performing jazz standards; a string duo performing Mozart, Bach Inventions and an arrangement of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, percussion quartet showcasing the evolution of rhythm and drumming and jam sessions with hands-on engagement.
• B-Sharp for Alzheimer’s is for individuals with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias and their care partners, participating in an exclusive pre-concert chat about the Friday Coffee Concert’s music with a Symphony musician.
• Phoenix Symphony at Shea with Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center, Symphony chamber musicians perform a varied and engaging program in public areas of the hospital for patients, family members and hospital staff. The program repertoire uses music as a tool to help with the stress and anxiety of a medical diagnosis, thus embracing a holistic outlook for a patient to cope and heal.