Encourage kids to explore the wonderful and exciting boundary-free relationships between music, science, math and technology.

The Raleigh Symphony offers inter-disciplinary music and science workshops to WCPSS elementary school classes, grades 3-5.

The world is changing at a fast pace: automation, artificial intelligence and globalization mean that now more than ever, the next generation needs to be imaginative, adaptable and adept at recognizing and solving problems. To kids, the world is their oyster, and it’s an inter-disciplinary world ripe for exploration and learning. Our Science and Symphony program fosters and encourages the kind of mental flexibility and curiosity that children will need to compete and flourish as their lives unfold.

Students engage in fun hands-on activities and experiments which reveal the amazing connections between music and biology, acoustics, physics and math. On day one, the students get to build, design and play their own banjos which they craft from ordinary household items and supplies which are provided.

Using Cornell University’s Raven recording and editing software, they have fun recording, graphing, analyzing and experimenting with animal sounds as well as those they create themselves. They will enjoy live musical performances, plus try out and learn about the ways in which many different musical instruments work.

Students conduct many scientific experiments including making objects jump with sound waves, testing musical bottles and wine glasses, and amplifying and distorting bizarre sounds. After creating and rehearsing songs together, they end the week by performing with many instruments, most especially their hand-crafted banjos, which they can keep.