In 2023 the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra renewed their partnership with Carnegie Hall to bring the Link Up programme to Aotearoa. The APO is the only orchestra in Australasia to deliver the Link Up programme!
The Link Up programme uses resources provided by New York’s Carnegie Hall, which APO Connecting shares with teachers and schools to provide them with tools and a framework to teach music in a highly participatory programme. Students across Tāmaki Makaurau learn to sing and play a set of songs in the classroom with their teachers, before being visited by our APO-affiliated educator Billie Hart. Billie checks in on how the students are getting on, plays through the songs with them, and plays some fun musical games as well! The programme then culminates in an afternoon of music making alongside the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra at the Due Drop Events Centre. In order to make this event as accessible as possible, participating schools are provided with free bus transport as part of their registration.
Link Up is tailored to recorder players but we provide arrangements for any other instrumentalists who want to take part as well! In 2023, APO Connecting provided music arrangements for clarinet, trumpet, cello, horn, viola, and alto saxophone! In addition to sheet music we also provide the schools with Carnegie Hall’s teaching resources which include fun activities centred around the music, as well as additional information on the composers and techniques used in their pieces.
This year’s Link Up concert will take place on Wednesday 30 August and will be presented by none other than Suzy Cato! The programme includes such favourites as ‘Toreador’ from George Bizet’s opera Carmen and Johann Strauss II’s The Blue Danube.
We’d like to thank the Stout Trust, proudly managed by Perpetual Guardian, for their generous support of this event, without whom the delivery of the Link Up programme would not be possible.