Several middle schools in Onondaga County will have the opportunity to learn science and math through music starting this school year.

Symphoria, a local orchestra in Syracuse, has created an innovative music program called the Sound of Nature, which will educate students about the environment and climate of Central New York through interactive nature-inspired music, according to a recent press release from the Central New York Community Foundation.

Symphoria is the orchestra of Musical Associates of Central New York, a non-profit organization made up of nearly 50 members of the former Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, according to the orchestra’s website. By the end of its first year, Symphoria had acquired approximately 1,300 season subscribers and more than 34,000 in overall attendance.

“The orchestra will teach students in a classroom setting through music as an interdisciplinary educational experience linking other core subjects,” said Catherine Underhill, the managing director of the orchestra.

The Sound of Nature is an expansion of a pilot program that Symphoria launched in 2013 in the LaFayette and Liverpool school districts, according to the release.

In addition to classroom activities, the Sound of Nature will also show a video produced by State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry faculty members to help explain to students the science connected to the nature-themed music featured in the video, according to an Aug. 27 Syracuse New Times article. Symphoria will use music as part of a diverse teaching method that relates to science, math and environmental issues, the article added.

The group has displayed interest in nature and environmental issues through previous performances, according to the article. At one performance, Symphoria used visual projections showing various scenes of nature while playing melodies that sounded like rain and thunderstorms. Through a piece by Beethoven, they brought about awareness to local environmental concerns and the role the audience plays in them, mentioned the article.

John Eberle, vice president of grants and community initiatives at the CNY Community Foundation, said the foundation awarded $18,000 to Symphoria to bring this innovative program to local middle schools. This is the Community Foundation’s first grant to Symphoria to act as CNY’s new source for orchestral music and education, he added. Students in the West Genesee, Chittenango and Fabius-Pompey districts will experience this program, and a fourth district is yet to be decided, Eberle said.

“Symphoria’s program made a lot of sense to us because of the great opportunity it provides for young people,” he said.

Eberle said the grant for Symphoria falls within the range of an average education grant. The CNY Community Foundation looks for program development and the context of grant requests to decide which programs should be funded and how much money they should receive. They hold three competitive grant rounds each year, and the board agreed that Symphoria qualified for the grant. Eberle said that Symphoria received the amount they requested.

“We’ve funded similar educational programs but this is the first time we’ve funded Symphoria,” added Eberle. “Adding the arts in education have been proven to improve learning and is an essential component to it.”

Eberle thinks the challenge of the program, like most other programs, will be sustaining their work.

“We don’t support ongoing operations, we support new and expanding programs. The organizations figure out how they are going to sustain their own programs,” he said.

Correction: In the Sept. 3 article “Sound of music: Syracuse orchestra to teach science, math through music to area middle schools” the credit on the illustration was misstated. The illustration was by Sophia Openshaw, contributing illustrator, not by Tony Chao, art director. The Daily Orange regrets this error.

Published on September 3, 2014 at 12:01 am