Wheeling Symphony Orchestra receives $25K grant that will benefit 4,000 students

WHEELING, W.Va. (WTRF) — The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra has received a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

It will support this coming year’s Young People’s Concerts.

Symphony officials say it’s a highly competitive national grant with the criteria of artistic quality.

They say their Young People’s Concerts began in the 1960s, and they remain an essential part of the symphony’s mission.

We, in our 95th season, really believe that music education is what we need to be doing. We’ve been doing it for so long. And this grant makes a huge difference so that we are able to get to four different days of concerts with about four thousand students.”

Gail Looney, WSO Foundations & Gov’t Relations Director

They’ll perform the Young People’s Concerts next April at Wheeling Park and John Marshall high schools as well as schools in Washington, Pennsylvania.

They’ll perform two concerts per day for a total of eight concerts to audiences of elementary school students.

The program they’ll present, called “Crossing Cultures,” was developed by Wheeling Symphony Director John Devlin.

It showcases music written in America that connects with cultures around the world.

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