National Symphony Orchestra Post-Residency Activities

In spring 2007, Kansas hosted the National Symphony Orchestra, based at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., for a series of concerts and community activities throughout the state in its American Residency: Kansas program. As a follow-up to the residency, the NSO continues its Kansas relationships with three exciting programs.

NSO’s 2007 Summer Music Institute

This annual program for young musicians takes place at the Kennedy Center. Scholarships were given to five Kansas students: Jessica Borth (Olathe), Phillip Marten (Wichita), Sydney Menees (Overland Park), Annelise Ohse (Topeka), and Stephanie Roberts (Winfield) were selected by the Kansas Music Educators Association, co-coordinated by the Kansas Arts Commission, and the National Symphony Orchestra.

2007 Teacher Fellowship

This annual fellowship gives one teacher from the Residency state the unique opportunity to participate in an individually designed program to further his professional development in Washington, D.C.  There the fellow works with musicians from the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra Education Program in a curriculum selected to match the teacher’s goals.

Russ Pieken, orchestra teacher at Olathe East High School, has received the 2007 Kennedy Center Teacher Fellowship. This program gives one teacher from Kansas an opportunity to work with musicians from the Kennedy Center and the NSO’s education program in a personally designed summer curriculum.

2007 Chamber Commission

Katherine Murdock, professor at Wichita State University and director of the WSU Contemporary Music Festival, was selected to receive a grant to write a chamber composition for performance by National Symphony Orchestra musicians at the Kennedy Center.

 Professor Murdock was recommended by a panel consisting of the music director of the Topeka Symphony, John Wesley Strickler, Kansas-native and Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Steven Stucky and renowned composer Robert Aldridge.