PORT ANGELES — Sound Community Bank has made a $4,000 donation to Adventures in Music, the Port Angeles Symphony’s free program for students across the North Olympic Peninsula.
To add to this good news, Port Angeles Symphony supporter Shirley Anderson has contributed $2,500 to Adventures in Music (AIM), as a matching gift for the donation made last winter by 1st Security Bank.
“We’re so encouraged by the support AIM receives,” said Jonathan Pasternack, symphony conductor and music director.
The gifts go toward production of free AIM video programs for school children in Clallam and Jefferson counties, he said.
A new 23-minute production, created by AIM program director and educator Al Harris, features Pacific Lutheran University of Tacoma’s Camas Woodwind Quintet, performing together for the first time in a year.
The show is now available along with curricular materials for educators, whether they teach in public, private or homeschool settings.
To access the video and materials, go to portangelessymphony.org, use the Education menu and click on Adventures in Music.
To reach Harris, email adventuresinmusic4U@gmail.com.
In this video, the five players introduce their instruments, from the birdlike flute and piccolo to the so-called “clown of the orchestra,” the bassoon. The music ranges from short excerpts of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” highlighting the bassoon, and “Peter and the Wolf” on the flute, to John Philip Sousa’s “Hands across the Sea,” a showcase of the whole quintet.
The Camas video is the second one of this academic year, following the AIM short film titled “The String Family.” That show, featuring local musicians Tyrone Beatty, Jory Noble, Marina Rosenquist and Traci Winters Tyson, is also available to teachers at portangelessymphony.org via the Education link.
“We’re planning one more show for the end of the school year,” Pasternack added: a video all about percussion featuring multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Angie Tabor of Port Townsend.
The Port Angeles Symphony continues to fundraise for next season as well, he said. Whether AIM’s performances are delivered live, as in previous years, or in videos online, Harris and a variety of local musicians will create a new set of educational modules for the 2021-2022 school year.
For more about AIM and to support it and other Symphony programs, see the symphony website, email PASymphony@olypen.com or phone the office at 360-457-5579.
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Jefferson County senior reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3509 or durbanidelapaz@peninsuladaily news.com.