Education Award - The Russell Orchestra

With vision and generosity, Helen Ashworth initiated a unique community and education partnership in the arts for Russell, Kentucky in 2001. She approached the Russell Independent Schools system with a gift to be matched by the Board of Education to provide funding for a string orchestra program that would impact student learning and eventually benefit area communities in ways that could never have been predicted.

From conversations with other school districts, they had hoped to have 25 to 30 students to form the beginning Russell Orchestra. However, under the leadership of Jason Chapman as director, there were 154 student members from the fourth through twelfth grades in the initial year.

In the second school year, a third grade orchestra was added to the program, making it the only third grade curricular orchestra in the Kentucky public school system and the only ten-year long music program having the same teacher from third grade through high school graduation. The orchestra boasts a 96% retention rate from its original students and continues to take on new students at every grade level.

The orchestra’s first performances in nursing homes delivered a powerfully touching experience for both students and residents. The Russell Orchestra ensembles have since performed in local restaurants, churches, and businesses in the Russell and Ashland area, including the Paramount Arts Center.

Individual students have also taken their skills and performed at weddings, memorials and other church and social functions. With so many string players in the area, churches are beginning to create orchestras of their own.

As a further community outreach, an adult orchestra was formed to encourage adults to learn to play a string instrument. This orchestra has grown to include parents, teachers, administrators and community members.

The next phase of orchestral studies involved an opportunity to take part in master classes and perform at New York City’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in April 2005. Over 100 students participated in three-day intensive clinics with conductor Jerry Stiken of the New York City Opera Company and ‘rock’ cellist Brian Agar. This experience and the opportunity to perform at a world-renowned venue forever changed the way the students viewed themselves, their art and their world. Since that initial ‘big trip’, the orchestra has worked with such musical celebrities as fiddler Mark O’Connor and conductor David Commandy, and has performed numerous times in New York as well as Chicago and Boston. Plans are currently underway for a concert tour in London, England.

The Russell Orchestra, which now includes over 300 student members, has become a powerful influence in the lives of the students, their families, the school system and their communities. The Russell Orchestra is unique it stands as a national model, demonstrating the boundless possibilities for student achievement and community involvement through the arts.

Previous recipients: Henrietta Roush Scott, Hindman Settlement School, Lila Davis Bellando, Kentucky Educational Television, Norma E. Brown, Christian County Schools, Mildred Berkey, Hancock County Schools, Westport Middle School, Jean Green, Bige Towery, Jr., Ballard High School, Judy Sizemore, VSA arts of Kentucky, Dr. Diane Roketenetz/James E. Biggs Early Childhood Education Center, Daviess County Public Schools, Nancy Carpenter, Collaborative for Teaching & Learning, Diane Downs, Deborah M. Shannon, Vernell Bennett, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, and the Carnegie Visual, Performing Arts Center and Hazel Carver.