San Francisco Classical Voice

Wednesday's (11/18) Chicago Tribune reports that Chicago School Board officials will "spend $250,000 this year to revive orchestras at seven high schools" in the area. "Just 20 years ago, the system had about 25 ensembles but now it has just 'three or four well-functioning orchestras,' said School Board President Gery Chico, who announced the plan after receiving complaints from parents about the tired condition of school instruments." This year the board spent $500,000 on music programs for all grades.

In Tuesday's (11/10) Cleveland Plain Dealer, Donald Rosenberg reports a concert given by the Cleveland Orchestra last week for 11,500 area schoolchildren. Rosenberg notes, "The Cleveland Orchestra, in fact, was something of a byproduct of an education program devised by Adella Prentiss Hughes and the city's Board of Education," on December 11, 1918. The orchestra has given educational concerts for schoolchildren ever since, writes Rosenberg: "Many concertgoers who have been longtime Severance [Hall] subscribers credit their youthful attendance at educational programs for their abiding love of classical music and the Cleveland Orchestra."