GIVE YOUR STUDENTS A GREAT INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL MUSIC!
“Members of the Loudoun Quartet know just how to get young children mesmerized in this interactive concert.”
-WETA
The Loudoun Quartet and Music Director Mark Allen McCoy have been performing in Loudoun County elementary schools since 2004. These leading musicians from the Loudoun Symphony have designed their in-school programs to directly target the hearts and minds of youngsters aged three through twelve. The interactive programs encourage children to hear and feel the music using all five senses, interpret music through movement, and identify the moods music evokes. The programs educate audience members about the characteristics and rules of writing and playing music and make connections to history, culture, and mathematics. The musicians share their love of their instruments and performance as well as their experience that hard work can make dreams come true.
The Loudoun Symphony and the Loudoun Quartet place a strong emphasis on developing relationships with future classical music audiences through outreach work in the school systems and public libraries, by offering performance ensembles for students, and by presenting family oriented orchestra concerts. They believe that the “up close and personal” nature of chamber music is one of the most effective ways of awakening an enthusiasm for classical music. The quartet has performed educational concerts in elementary schools, preschools, and performing arts centers throughout Loudoun County.
Mark Allen McCoy, Music Director and Conductor
Artistic leadership of the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra is provided by Music Director Mark Allen McCoy. Maestro McCoy holds degrees from the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City and the University of Illinois and furthered his conducting studies at Peabody Conservatory. He has won numerous honors and conducted major orchestras in venues around the world. While studying classical guitar in college, Maestro McCoy caught the conducting bug. He has been found conducting on the podium ever since.
Loudoun Quartet
The Loudoun Quartet, formed in 2002, consists of the unique combination of flute, violin, viola and cello. Craig Marlowe, Maryory Serrano, Amy Fredericks, and Maria Baylock, all members of the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra, are professional, conservatory-trained musicians dedicated to exploring works written especially for their distinct combination of instruments. Equally at home performing in a concert setting and as background music, the Loudoun Quartet performs an assortment of music ranging from Mozart to The Beatles. The quartet has performed recitals throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C.