THE Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s Noteworthy Outreach Education Program of educational symphonic concerts is free to all students across Canberra, but is having a big impact in special schools, where concerts are held and students get the chance to play instruments themselves.

CSO education manager Wendy Lorenz, is an experienced performer and educator and takes musicians into four Canberra special schools, visiting each twice a year.

“Some of the students respond wonderfully to music. It seems to get through where other things don’t,” she says.

“It’s that universal language. It seems to reach people.”

Mary Pitt is a teacher and a parent at Black Mountain School.

“This program is important to me on two fronts. One is that my son gets to enjoy things that I enjoy and also I get to see how many lives this program can touch,” she says.

“We don’t want to deny these students the wonderful opportunities that mainstream students have.

“Because of the difficulties a lot of our students have with noise sensitivity or crowds or the types of things that go along with their special needs, we find it difficult to take them out to large venues and places where we feel they may intrude upon some of the performances for the artists.

“We find for our students that they are in the comfort of their own environment and it opens another door, which is important to their post-school life.”

Funding for the Noteworthy Outreach program comes from the Macquarie Group Foundation and the ACT Government.

Caption … musician Rachel Allen plays the clarinet for students Emily Turner and Jaimie Brown. Photo by Silas Brown