With no music teacher at the time due to budget constraints, the district was grateful the orchestra provided a teacher to give violin and cello lessons once a week to all third graders. In addition, the Orange County Philharmonic invites second, fifth, and sixth graders to a concert at the Orange County Performing Arts Center every year. I think the outside organizations are doing it to expose young people to the arts, to build their future audiences, mostly. With symphony orchestras across the nation finding it harder to attract audiences, many are turning to the schools to encourage young people to develop an interest in classical music. Orchestras bring bus loads of instruments to elementary campuses hoping to hook students into the performing arts by letting them handle old violins and clarinets.
Musicians give in-school coaching sessions to supplement band classes.
And professional dance companies perform in gyms and auditoriums, handing out study guides on the history of modern dance. The lack of qualified teachers also is a concern. Despite the growing interest in arts education, future teachers are not choosing the arts field, thus making qualified arts teachers scarce. It's a scary field to go into. The district already had a strong music program, with 11,000 of its 59,000 students enrolled in a middle or high school music program.