New Haven students in Yale music academy perform Thursday

NEW HAVEN — Students from the New Haven Public Schools enrolled in the Morse Summer Music Academy at Yale School of Music will give their final concert for the season on Thursday.


The free concert showcasing the 75 students enrolled in the intensive music program takes place at 4:15 p.m. in Sprague Hall, 470 College St.





See a slideshow from the Morse academy here.

The Morse Summer Music Academy offers students from grades 5 though 11 the opportunity to spend four weeks of total music immersion. The academy, which this year enrolled 50 percent more students than last year, is a kind of musical boot camp for New Haven students who have never had this kind of experience.

The students explore topics from hearing to conducting to urban music, receive private music lessons and participate in orchestral, chamber and jazz ensembles. Field trips to the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival — the summer home of the Yale School of Music — and the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments are included in the program. All of this is offered free of charge, thanks to a generous endowment established by Enid and Lester Morse.

The students form a diverse group, playing instruments from piano to percussion, strings to winds and brass. Michael Yaffe, associate dean of the Yale School of Music, promises that audiences “will be amazed at the quality of the students’ music-making.”

The 2012 Morse Fellows participating in the program were selected in the spring based on an application, essay and audition. In addition to being musically accomplished and earning at least a B average on their report card, Morse Fellows must display enthusiasm and a commitment to rigorous musical instruction.