SDSO’s Dakota String Quartet to perform in Huron schools

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HURON — The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra’s Dakota String Quartet will visit Huron on Wednesday and Thursday for interactive educational performances for students from preschool to high school, with an additional show for nursing home residents.
The 30-45 minute Classroom Connections concerts, sponsored by First Premier Bank/Premier Bankcard and the South Dakota Arts Council, bring members of the Dakota String Quartet and Dakota Wind Quintet to classrooms across South Dakota for interactive age-appropriate programs. Elementary-aged students are introduced to the instruments, learn basic musical concepts and listen to short musical excerpts performed by the ensembles.
Middle school and high school students have the opportunity for instrument coaching, sectional work or higher level performances by ensemble members.
“The idea is to bring live music where the students live,” says SDSO Concertmaster and violinist Doosook Kim.

Kim says SDSO’s Classroom Connections program gives the ensemble the opportunity to expose younger kids to classical music and answer questions form older students about specific techniques and what it’s like to play in a professional ensemble. She says the quartet also gets to help school music instructors by reinforcing fundamentals being taught in school orchestra and band.
The Huron sessions begin Wednesday, Oct. 18, with an 8:45 a.m. performance at Huron High School for the high school orchestra and a 10 a.m. performance for preschoolers at the Huron Public Library.
The quartet will then give two afternoon performances at Huron Middle School, beginning at 2:10 p.m. for the sixth-grade orchestra, and at 2:45 p.m. for the seventh-grade orchestra.
On Thursday, Oct. 19, the quartet will perform at 9:30 a.m. at Sunquest Healthcare Center before heading to Buchanan Elementary School for a 1:40 p.m. show for kindergarteners and at 2:25 p.m. show for first graders.
Some of the works to be performed were written by students from Rapid City and Pine Ridge and students and adults from the Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe and the Sisseton community. The compositions were borne out of the Lakota Music Project/Dakota Music Project, a long-term collaborative program in partnership between SDSO and the Native American community that seeks to build tangible bridges by finding points of common interest and experience in music.
To create their compositions, the participants teamed up with Chickasaw Composer-in-Residence Jerod Impichcaachaaha’ Tate and professional musicians from the SDSO’s Dakota Wind Quintet and Dakota String Quartet. The Music Composition Academies engage students in creative expression through music with daily composition lessons and activities emphasizing cultural understanding and finding human commonalities.