With support from the California Arts Council, Long Beach Symphony will present 76 2nd and 3rd grade interactive Instrumental Ensemble performances at the 54 Elementary schools sites of the Long Beach Unified School District as well as the 6 Los Angeles USD school sites located in neighboring Wilmington. Ensembles assemblies comprise the gateway music education programs that prepare students to attend Symphony Youth Concerts in 4th and 5th Grades. Together, the Elementary Ensembles and Youth Concerts constitute sequential, standards-based music education for 27,000 enrolled public school elementary students. Two annual (fall and spring) Family Concerts are the third component of the Symphony’s Elementary-focused experiential music education programs. Students admission is free to attend the concert and participate in the companion Arts Festival that takes place at the Terrace Theater and Plaza.
The Symphony produces five Classical concerts and five Pops concerts annually that include time-honored masterworks, as well as new works that broaden the horizons of our audience. We also provide four free symphonic concert fieldtrips for 12,000 students and two matinee family concerts. Our 45+ year partnership with the Long Beach Unified School District allows us to deliver more than 150 education events each year, as well as comprehensive classroom lesson plans that incorporate common core curriculum standards. These lesson plans can be accessed online. Our Elementary Ensembles and Youth Concerts programs meet the California Standards for Visual and Performing Arts. These free programs serve 27,000 K-12 students and teachers annually. In 2018, the Symphony launched a Sunday matinee Family Concert Series to address audience development and diversity. This concert is free for children under 18, with subsidized tickets available for adults from low-income households.