SCHOOL PROGRAMS
The Lexington Philharmonic seeks to support the mission and work of central Kentucky schools through arts-based learning experiences. When students (and people of all ages) make original art, not only do they recognize their artistic capacities and identity, they also see themselves as meaning makers, knowledge generators and agents of change.
LexPhil provides these programs:
Residency
Workshops
Programs can be offered either during the school day or afterschool. We work collaboratively to set the goals and objectives for our programs so that we can meet the needs of your students or organization.
OUR APPROACH
LexPhil provides and promotes quality arts programming that:
Creates inclusive spaces for inquiry and making
Develops communication skills in multiple modalities
Utilizes project-based and problem-solving learning to strengthen critical thinking capacity
Cultivates social-emotional skills
Deepens and expands awareness and knowledge of other subjects
LexPhil’s programs utilize a curricular framework of Universal Design for Learning, Culturally Responsive and Sustaining Pedagogy, Social and Emotional Learning, and Trauma-Informed Education to develop participant-centered experiences that examines and/or reflects participants’ cultures and identities.
SCHOOL RESIDENCIES
LexPhil’s School Residencies provide consistent and substantial arts programming that is co-designed with school partners. LexPhil teaching artists and staff, in collaboration with students and school staff, develop long-term projects with shared objectives and outcomes.
Residencies are multi-week arts-based learning initiatives that foster relationship building in addition to facilitating artmaking. Building strong and meaningful relationships promotes a sense of belonging and deeper learning through increased student engagement across structured weekly sessions. The importance of relationships, especially in our current moment of recovery and healing, cannot be overstated.
In order to be responsive to the needs of individual schools, LexPhil can offer programs of varying lengths, anywhere from 10 - 30 weeks. Other program lengths may be available upon request. Ideally, programs meet once a week for 1 to 2 hours and conclude with an event at the conclusion, where participants present their work and share reflections about the process to an audience of their peers, teachers, parents and family, or the public.
Through a Fayette Education Foundation Bright Ideas Grant, Tates Creek High School Orchestra collaborated with LexPhil Teaching Artist and Lexington Chair Cellist Ethan Young over the course of a semester culminating in chamber performances for the residents of Sayre Christian Village.
2024-2025 residencies
Spring 2025
Crawford Middle: Jeremy Wade
Meadowthorpe Elementary: Mary Elizabeth Henton
TCHS: Ethan Young and Mary Elizabeth Henton
Ashland Elementary: Jeremy Wade
Breckinridge Elementary: Dave Farris
Millcreek Elementary: Kylie Meadows
Fall 2024
Crawford Middle: Jeremy Wade
TCHS: Ethan Young
Millcreek Elementary: Kylie Meadows
The Lexington School: Mary Elizabeth Henton
At Breckinridge Elementary and Meadowthorpe Elementary, LexPhil brings hands-on music education with the ukulele – teaching students fundamental skills, creativity, and collaboration through interactive lessons and engaging performances.
WORKSHOPS
Through structured and facilitated artmaking, our workshops create space for participants to experiment, imagine, make mistakes, observe, and reflect. Participants come to see the process of inquiry, dreaming, and building as equally if not more valuable than solely an end product.
Potential topics for these project-based workshops include:
traditional and non-traditional approaches to composition
inquiry into history and purpose of notation
expanded thinking around what can be considered notation
various means for idea generation
mindfulness practices that deepen sonic awareness
individual and collective improvisation
incorporation of technology (digital audio workstations, notation software, synthesizers, amplification) into the creative process
Our in school and after school workshops are designed for students of all ages and abilities. Workshops can be geared towards students with or without formal music training. There are no prerequisite skills needed.
Although workshops can be one-day events, we suggest workshops are at least an hour long and have multiple sessions for optimal educational value to participants.
