By Madeline Wagoner

SALISBURY – Salisbury Symphony just wrapped up its annual elementary concert series with an opportunity to reach more Rowan students through a livestream.

During a five day week at the beginning of every school year, the group performs up to four concerts a day at 18 different schools. The performance was moved from August last year to February this year due to COVID restrictions. Education Director Elizabeth Cook convened with violist Carter Bradley, violinist Sarah Womack and cellist Gayle Masarie at a local Lowe’s Hardware parking lot to carpool their way through each day of concerts.

The symphony string trio livestreamed the performance at China Grove Elementary for Summit K-8 Virtual Academy on Feb. 4.

The strings concert is only one of many promotional shows presented by Salisbury Symphony to inspire elementary students to enjoy and explore the art of orchestral music in the Rowan-Salisbury Schools.

The symphony’s goal is to promote its after school strings program for children and families looking for music lessons. The opportunity offers beginner level violin, viola, and cello to individuals ages 8 and up.

“It was interesting, I didn’t know that an online concert was a thing before,” fourth grader Margot May said.

China Grove Elementary reached out to Summit’s music teacher Lori Gelormine about viewing the concert with her third and fourth grade students.

Gelorming said the show was not connected to what they were learning about in class, but this opportunity was too good to pass up.

“We always talk about how music may not be everyone’s favorite subject, but the role it may play in their life, they might not even notice,” Gelormine said. “It’s important to expose them to as many types of music as possible.”

The goal, for the symphony and the school, is to encourage curiosity and discovery for the students’ creative expression. The camera angle gave students a balanced perspective of the string trio so they could see the size of the three instruments used.

The trio played from a range of classical staples along with pop tunes such as “On the Sunny Side of the Street” and the folk piece “Arkansas Traveler.”

“Even as a teacher, what I enjoy most is seeing their faces light up when hearing the music,” Gerlomine said. “I do like exposing them to as much as possible, especially since we’re online.”

The students were encouraged to look into string instruments when wanting to pick up a musical hobby. As they get older they will have more chances to take music classes.

“The violin, viola and cello can be adapted to smaller students,” Cook said. “When they get to middle school and are a little older, they can choose whether to stick with their string instrument or try percussion.”

Learn more about the symphony’s education programs at salisburysymphony.org/learn/.