MUSIC

AFA's two middle school string orchestras will overwhelm you with beautiful music in their performance of works by composers such as J.S. Bach, Modest Mussourgsky, and Edward Elgar at the American Festival for the Arts: Middle School Orchestra Concert. Arrive early to get a good seat! Penelope Meitz and Cathy Fishburn, Conductors.

Founded in 1993 by Houston composer and arts advocate J. Todd Frazier, American Festival for the Arts (AFA) provides high quality, community-based music education programs and performance opportunities designed primarily for youth and, through its concert series and outreach, seeks to broaden the audience for both American works and the Classical music repertory.

Held in Houston, Texas, since 1995, the AFA Summer Music Conservatory has been acclaimed as an outstanding opportunity for musicians from throughout Southeast Texas to work with a nationally known faculty of composers, conductors, performers and educators. Hosted by Houston ISD’s Pershing Middle School and featuring programs in orchestra, chamber music, choir, vocal studies, jazz, piano and composition, the Summer Music Conservatory auditions and enrolls more than three hundred 4th through 12th grade students representing over one hundred schools throughout Southeast Texas each year. The AFA Summer Concert Series presents as many as twenty free concerts each summer throughout the Bayou City.

Launching in 2010, the AFA Academy and Houston Girls Chorus are year-round music education and performance programs for instrumentalists and vocalists of all ages. The Academy offers instruction in choral music, chamber music and music theory from Houston’s finest professional musicians and educators - many of whom come to AFA through collaborations with AFA’s arts partners, including Houston Grand Opera HGOco, Da Camera of Houston Young Artist Program, and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. Academy classes take place after school or on weekends and culminate in concert performances by both students and faculty at the end of each session.

The AFA Scholarship Enrichment Fund provides students with both need-based and merit tuition assistance as well as transportation support to ensure that students have access to all of AFA’s programs regardless of their socio-economic background. In 2009, almost two-thirds of all AFA students received assistance. AFA is dedicated to the belief that financial hardship should never be a barrier to enriching a child’s life through music.