1,800 students grades K-2 danced in the hallways of the Holland Tuesday.
Kids from Omaha Public Schools, Millard Public Schools, Westside Community Schools, and Bellevue Public Schools attended a concert to cap off the Omaha Performing Arts' Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers Program.
A morning and afternoon concert was lead by New York-based musician and educator Misty Tolle. Omaha-based performers performed songs students have been learning about all semester Billy McGuigan, Ananias "Markey" Montague and Danielle Cleveland, and Jill Anderson featuring dancers from Dowds Irish Dance Academy featured Rock, Irish, and Gospel music.
Musical Explorers is an annual music education program for grades K-2 produced by Omaha Performing Arts in partnership with Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute. The semester-long, curriculum based program focuses on 3 local musical ensembles, each representing a different musical style and cultural community. Musical Explorers focuses on basic music skills in the classroom as students learn songs from different cultures, reflect on their own communities, and develop listening and singing skills. The curriculum is designed to fit with National Core Arts Standards and Nebraska standards for music, language arts and social studies.
Last year was Omaha's pilot year for the program. Five hundred students from three schools participated. Today, that number was more than triple.
"There was so much excitement to it. It just, it was really extraordinary," Billy McGuigan said.
