Symphony Days
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
Richardson Symphony OrchestraThis initiative supports RISD music educators by introducing 3rd graders to live classical music.
$50
raised by 1 people
$10,000 goal
Imagine being eight years old and hearing a violin played just a few feet away from you. You get to ask the musician anything you want. You hear your favorite songs come to life. Maybe you even start wondering: Could I play one of those someday?
That’s the heart of our Symphony Days program.
Every year, the Richardson Symphony Orchestra brings Symphony Days to approximately 4,000 third-grade students across more than 30 Richardson ISD elementary schools—including 24 Title I schools. And we don’t just invite students to sit quietly and listen. We bring the orchestra to them.
Classroom Curriculum:
RISD music educators introduce students to the orchestra through a four-week classroom unit, with workbooks provided by the RSO. Students explore instrument families, learn the orchestral seating arrangements, and prepare to attend their first live orchestral concert.
Professional Musician Visits:
RSO musicians walk into classrooms carrying the very instruments students have been learning about. They get to see the instruments up close, hear the sounds they make, ask questions about the symphony, and experience live music at arm’s reach.
For many kids, it’s the first time they’ve ever met a professional musician.
Concert Experience:
The students fill the Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts for a concert designed especially for them.
Maestro Clay Couturiaux takes them on a musical journey through history—from Bach to John Williams—with a little help from costumes and wigs that always get a laugh from the crowd.
Students don’t just learn about music. They feel it.
And that experience stays with them for years.
Symphony Days helps prepare students for RISD’s middle school music programs, introduces them to instruments they may someday choose to play, and plants the seeds for a lifelong relationship with the arts.
But most importantly, it tells a child something powerful:
The concert hall is for you, too.
Help us keep opening that door.
Your North Texas Giving Day gift helps the Richardson Symphony Orchestra bring an unforgettable experience to thousands of local students—regardless of their school’s resources or their family’s ability to pay.
And help make a child’s first encounter with the orchestra a moment they never forget.