The Metropolitan Opera Outreach Program: Application for Music Educators Matthew M Jones Public schools face budget cuts yearly and the music department is a common name when administration is looking at what to make cuts in. Regardless of the financial status of the music department, music educators are always searching for ways to improve their programs and to expose students to new musical experiences. Creating extra, upper level experiences is what music educators do to keep their higher achieving students progressing. The Metropolitan Opera and The Metropolitan Opera Guild provide exceptional educational and community outreach programs to any school that is interested and that possesses the financial resources. As a music educator …show more content…
According to the guild’s website, the Great Depression had taken it’s toll on the company and with help from board member, actress and philanthropist, Eleanor Robson Belmont, the Opera Guild was set up as a way to gain support from opera goers all around the world and individual memberships were offered as a fundraising plan. Within the first year the guild had 2000 members and had begun it’s close relationship with the Met for many years to come. A year later, the guild hired Mary Ellis Peltz to edit a newsletter that would continue publication as Opera News. It was not until the 1970s, when public schools starting facing budget issues that resulted in the loss of music educators, that the Guild starting providing teacher training and in-school artist residencies. It was thirty five years later from the first of the program that education became part of the Guild. To this day multiple educational programs are offered. During the 2012-2013 school year, more than 13,190 students and 466 teachers from 162 schools engaged in opera-based programs with the …show more content…
The four standards are: 1. Creating, Performing and Participating in the Arts, 2. Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources, 3. Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art, and 4. Understanding the Cultural Dimensions and Contributions of the Arts. Standard one and two recognized through the Met programs, “Students Compose Opera” and “Urban Voices.” Both of these programs are creating music through composing or singing and recognizing the resources available through participation within the program. Standard three and four can be supported with the Met programs, “Access Opera” that gives students the opportunity of experiencing a live performance while studying, relating to, and analyzing the work in age appropriate