Educational

Looking for new and exciting ways to motivate your music students?

The world famous contemporary string ensemble Barrage has developed an integrated program to educate, motivate and inspire your string students. Barrage has brought their unique and high energy performance to many local, regional, national and international music education conferences. These include the MENC Conferences, NYSSMA Winter Conference, Texas Music Educators Association Conference, Ohio Music Educators Conference, International Workshops and recently at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.

The educational program consists of:

Unique arrangements of Barrage Music for your classes – String Orchestra Arrangements, Small Ensemble and Solo pieces

Workshops at your school with one of the Artistic Directors of Barrage

School concerts for all students performed by the Barrage ensemble

A very special “Evening with Barrage” featuring a 2 hour Barrage performance including a special joint performance with your string ensemble.

Barrage has over 10 years of history with exciting programs in schools across America and has been feted by teachers and students alike.

We are currently completing our touring schedule for the fall of 2008 / Spring of 2009—email us at office2009@barrage.org for more information and to enquire how Barrage can come to your school!

WHAT DIRECTORS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE WORKSHOP AND PERFORMANCE

All of you were so gracious with your time and especially your energy! Setting up, then rehearsing for 2 hours, then an unbelievable performance…it’s something these students will always remember. You and the entire cast displayed sheer pleasure every moment working with the students and that made them feel special. Today I had to make a bunch of players go home – they were all hanging out after school playing “Barrage” tunes together. You bet we’ll host you again in a heartbeat!

Thanks so much and …see you next year!

Carol Doemel
Director of Orchestras
Lassiter High School
Marietta, GA

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The day was fantastic for our school and community as well. I think we really built some bridges for string music and highlighted the importance of string education. Thank you especially for all your talents and time. My principal was extremely supportive – I saw a different side of him that I’ve not seen before. I think he especially liked the session with our kids and their performance. He said “this is what it’s all about.” I found out later that he had even canceled a travel-team basketball practice that night so there wouldn’t be noise and additional traffic. Wow – I know he’s an avid sportsman. I understand he even kicked them out of the gym when they showed up anyway.

Deborah E. Tripp
String Orchestra Director
Spotsylvania County Schools, VA

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I cannot express how much your visit to our school meant to us. I have students who I have never seen truly smile a full out happy smile until your performance at our school. I have students with real personal problems of the sort no child should have to deal with, and I saw true happiness and joy radiating from their faces.

These are kids who are not going to be professional musicians, but they will never forget the time they spent with you and your performers. They will become patrons of the arts, and they will involve their children in music.

For those students considering careers as musicians, you have lit them on fire.

I also want to personally thank you for your sweet-natured attitude towards everything. Traveling on the road must be quite stressful, but you guys are old pros. Your go-with-the-flow attitude helped everything work out. Thanks for letting the drama students nail that fabric to the risers-it was a small thing, but they felt like they contributed to something very special!

I have received so many compliments and accolades on your behalf. You have a lot of new fans in Central Virginia!

Beth Almore
Director
The James River High School Orchestra
Midlothian, VA

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This was a terrific show – every tune was a delight. I just couldn’t stop smiling. It reminded me of the first time I saw Barrage – incredibly engaging and enticing and totally unique. Most amazing to me is the appeal factor is so broad – great virtuosity and tremendous accessibility.

Jed Fritzemeier
Orchestra Director
Chelsea High School
Chelsea, Michigan

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Words cannot express how thankful I am that you were able to perform for us. I have received emails from people all over town saying how impressed they were with Barrage’s performance. Many wrote saying that they have never seen a live performance before of that caliber. All of the orchestra students that were in attendance that evening were well motivated and star struck the next day in class. That made my job quite a bit easier!

Darcy Radcliffe
Director of Orchestras
Abilene and Cooper High Schools
Abilene, TX

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I wanted to write you to say thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! You and the entire cast and crew of Barrage fashioned a day Wichita and Wichita State University will not soon forget, and I feel compelled to write you to try to explain how you have positively affected music and music-making in Kansas for quite some time to come.

When we decided to bring Barrage to the Century II Convention Hall and combine it with a string improv day at WSU for Kansas secondary school kids we truly hoped we would create an educationally positive experience while raising scholarship funds for College of Fine Arts students. I am happy to say, what you helped us accomplish was better than we could have ever hoped for.

Your master class was something amazing. To watch over 500 high school and middle school string students from all over Kansas (as well as parts of Nebraska and Oklahoma) so engaged and energized that they were shouting, giving each other high fives, even doing “the wave” was, in their vernacular – awesome! But they weren’t just having a good time – they were learning the basics of improvisation and string technique. I was especially taken with your insertion of breathing exercises into the formulation of a phrase (I am a singer, after all). What impressed me the most was the message you sent to them loud and clear – “Anything worth doing well is worth doing joyfully!” Each and every one of them left your master class filled and fulfilled. Bravo!

Equally important was the role your cast played, serving as role models and inspiration to every student in the hall who has ever wondered if they were geeks for playing in the orchestra. I think my exact words to you were that it was “The Revenge of the Nerds!” It almost brought a tear to my eye to see eighth and ninth grade adolescent males discovering that playing the violin (or cello) could be “cool” – hence their unbridled joy.

That joy spilled over into your evening performance. They (the students) served as an enthusiastic catalyst for the entire audience. We were truly surprised to attract over 2,500 people to the performance, and each and every one of them was mesmerized by the musicianship, artistry, and spectacle that you and the cast presented to them. Your performance was a fitting finish to a perfect day!

I applaud you for what you have accomplished with this group of young musicians. All of you are excellent evangelists for what I see as one of the most important movements in the 21st century music—the emerging of disparate musical and cultural styles from around the globe to formulate hybrid musical idioms that speak to an ever-increasing body of savvy aficionados.

Rodney E. Miller
Dean, College of Fine Arts
Wichita State University