Arts Intensive Gives Creative Control to Students
By Eric Dundon
The third grade students at Griffith Intermediate School sang, danced, play-fought, and even hee-hawed through a special performance on December 10, 2024. Just a few feet away, members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra accompanied the students for performances of The Bremen-Town Musicians, an original musical production the students created.
The performances were the fifth installment of the SLSO’s Arts Intensive program, a collaborative endeavor investing time and resources in one school over the course of several months to unlock students’ creativity through music.
A unique partnership with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (OTSL) and the E. Desmond Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Arts Intensives give students the freedom to express themselves through music, while receiving expert guidance from an OTSL Teaching Artists and exposure to SLSO musicians over eight to ten weeks.
For Suzanne Palmer, Griffith Intermediate music teacher, the long-term investment of the project in her students left a great impact.
“Students benefit from the arts in many ways. Music helps develop cognitive function and academic performance,” she said. “Our students were able to collaborate creatively to compose music, writing lyrics as well as arranging and acting out their story to their amazement and enjoyment.”
Since September, an OTSL teaching artist worked with the students on drafting the story and musical concepts for The Bremen-Town Musicians, inspired by a Brothers Grimm fairy tale with the same name. The students’ version of the story follows outcast animals who journey to Bremen-Town to become professional musicians.
Amy Greenhalgh—a violist, professor at Washington University, and frequent SLSO collaborator—orchestrated the students’ musical ideas for a quartet of SLSO musicians: violinist Nicolae Bica, Associate Principal Flutist Andrea Kaplan, Associate Principal Bassoonist Andrew Gott, and horn player Tod Bowermaster. Taking inspiration from Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, each instrument represented a different animal in the story: the bassoon portrayed a donkey, the horn played a dog, the flute represented a cat, and the violin depicted a rooster.
After weeks of rehearsals, Griffith Intermediate’s entire third grade united for two performances, featuring several original songs, costumes, and set decorations provided by the school community.
“We are honored to be part of this transformative project, where children take the stage as creators, performers, and storytellers,” said Jessica Ingraham, the SLSO Senior Director of Education. “Experiencing their opera come to life showcases the incredible power of arts education—fostering creativity, confidence, and collaboration in young minds. These performances are a testament to the potential unlocked when students are empowered to express their voices through music and storytelling, reminding us why projects like this are so vital to the SLSO’s mission.”
Arts Intensives date to fall 2021. Since then, collaborations have taken place in several schools: Sumner High School (St. Louis Public Schools), Normandy Schools Collaborative, Jennings Jr. High and Jennings High School, Grand Center Arts Academy, and now Griffith Intermediate (Ferguson-Florissant School District). The program is by invitation and fits into the SLSO’s educational mission to inspire students to get involved, and stay involved, in music.
Eric Dundon is the SLSO’s Public Relations Director.
