The Boston Public Library/Boston Schools Collaborative Creative Writing and Design Program 2006

A Symphony for Our City

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The Boston Public Library Foundation is pleased to announce the fourteenth annual Collaborative Creative Writing and Design Program. Created in 1993 by BPLF Board Member Diddy Cullinane, the Collaborative Schools Program invites Boston ’s K-12 public, private and parochial school students to create art or write about a specific theme.

The theme of the 2006 program is A Symphony for Our City. It was selected in collaboration with the Boston Symphony Orchestra who is celebrating its 125^th anniversary this year. To enter, please create a piece of writing or artwork and submit it to your local branch library.

In May, a panel of judges will choose the winning entries to be printed in a book and distributed to all selected students, schools, and Boston Public Library branches. In addition, ten pieces of artwork will be displayed on billboards throughout Boston , courtesy of Clear Channel Outdoor. The winners and their families will also be honored at a special awards ceremony at Symphony Hall with Mayor Thomas M. Menino.

Enclosed please find the program guidelines, branch library listings and more information about the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Please make additional copies where needed. Students may also receive copies of these guidelines at their local Boston Public Library branch or online at www.bpl.org.  

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 617.247.8980 or e-mail me at bplf@bplf.com.

Sincerely,

Melanie J. Damsker
Manager of Special Events and Programs
Boston Public Library Foundation                                                                                               

Printer Friendly Copies of all Symphony for Our City documents
Program Guidelines
Reading Lists by Grade
Student Information Tag template
Information about the Boston Symphony Orchestra

The Boston Public Library/Boston Schools Collaborative Creative Writing and Design Program 2006

A Symphony for Our City

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It is the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s 125^th birthday!! How does a symphony celebrate its birthday? You can help us imagine. The theme of this year’s program will be “A Symphony for Our City,” and the following is a suggested list of possible approaches to the subject, whether in words or pictures:  

1. In 1881, a businessman named Henry Lee Higginson was responsible for creating the first Boston Symphony Orchestra. How do you think Boston looked in the late 19^th century? What were the big differences in the city between then and now?

2. Did you know that the Boston Symphony Hall is one of the greatest concert halls in the world and was designed by the same architects who designed The Boston Public Library’s McKim Building ? If you were designing a concert hall, what would it look like?

3. A Symphony is made up of the composer, the conductor, the musicians, and the instruments. Is there one of these parts that you would like to investigate and learn about?  

4. One thing that makes Symphony Hall so special is the acoustics, or the wonderful way that things sound. What does it sound like when you sing or play music outside versus inside?

5. Have you ever attended or seen on TV the Boston Pops 4^th of July concert? Describe it.

6. Why is some music termed “classical”? Which of the following music have you ever heard? What is your favorite piece of music and why do you like it? What kind of images or feelings can music inspire?
• Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker
• Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture
• Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony
• Bernstein’s West Side Story
• John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever (played by Boston Pops)

7. The Boston Symphony Orchestra supports 3 types of musical presentations: The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, and the Tanglewood Music Festival in the Berkshires. Do some research at your library about these and describe in writing or drawing what you see and feel about one of them.  

8. Select one of the following names (or add your own) and tell us why he/she is remembered:

• Founder - Henry Lee Higginson
  

• Composers - Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Leonard Bernstein, John Harbison, Arnold Schoenberg, Aaron Copeland. George Gershwin, John Williams, Tan Dun, William Levi Dawson, Scott Joplin, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Duke Wellington
  

•     Conductors - Serge Koussevitzky, Arthur Fiedler, John Williams, Keith Lockhart, Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Seiji Ozawa, James Levine or others
  

•        Musicians - Yo-Yo Ma, Wynton Marsalis, Pablo Casals, Isaac Stern, Itsak Perlman, Marian Anderson, Aretha Franklin, Roland Hayes, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Jessye Norman, Leontyne Price

9. Think about your family musical traditions and what they mean to you. Can you draw or write about your family enjoying music together?

10. What image would best represent this 125^th Anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra?

 

  The Boston Public Library/Boston Schools Collaborative
 Creative Writing and Design Program 2006

 Symphony for Our City

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