Community
Feeling the music
Visually impaired youth get personal with orchestra
Greenville Symphony Orchestra will kick off its concert season Saturday in a fashion unlike any in its 81-year history.
The musicians will be sharing their talents and their instruments with visually impaired young people.
Keystone Kids of Keystone Blind Association will attend an afternoon rehearsal, get a feel for the instruments and then have special seating for the evening concert in William A. Passavant Center at Thiel College.
GSO President Judy Eckler said the students will be allowed to handle the instruments under the supervision of orchestra members, who will demonstrate how they are played.
“The students will get one-on-one sessions with the musicians,” she said. “They will get to get an idea of what the instruments are like.”
Faith Ann Miller, GSO treasurer, said conductor Michael Gelfand will do a short session on conducting and musical careers, and snacks will be provided by Jamestown Lions Club.
“As far as we know, no other orchestra has done this with the visually impaired,” she said.
Mrs. Eckler and Jonathan Fister, president and CEO of Keystone Blind, said the idea originated from a grant-writing seminar at Community Library of the Shenango Valley in Sharon, where staff members from both organizations met and talked.
“Our guy got in a conversation with a gal representing the symphony, and they started talking about the things we’ve done within each organization,” Fister said. “We’ve taken our children to Disney World, we’ve had a trip to Niagara Falls, and they started talking about how the sensory experience was really important to blind children, and that drifted into an invitation to bring the kids to the symphony.
“The initial offer was to just bring the kids to a concert,” he said. “It gradually grew into a more complex experience. We wanted to give them the opportunity to touch the instruments, learn the sounds each instrument makes, learn the layout of the symphony, sit in on a rehearsal, and then later in the evening, on the performance. We wanted to show them how all of these instruments combined to make the sound the symphony makes.”
The afternoon experience is intended to enhance the young people’s enjoyment of the evening performance.
Fister said that unlike sighted concert-goers, the blind can enjoy the sound, but not the visual aspects of the performance, such as seeing that orchestra members sit in the shape of a horseshoe.
The Keystone Kids hail from Mercer and the five surrounding counties served by Sharon-based Keystone Blind.
- Community
-
-
Actors visit Camelot
The magic and mysticism that abounds in the King Arthur legend has been just as prevalent in the life of a woman who has written a three-part play chronicling the history of Camelot’s famed ruler.
Youngstown native Carol Weakland said she’s been working for 12 years on the play that premiered last weekend: “The Arthurian Trilogy Part One, Arthur and Merlin: The Making of a King.” She was never able to assemble a cast to play the demanding roles or “whittle down” the lengthy script into a compact but complete show. But this year, everything came together.
-
Annual senior fair is Friday in Sharon
State Rep. Mark Longietti will hold his fourth annual free Senior and Health Education Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at the Sharon American Legion, 1395 E. State St., Sharon.
The fair will feature farmers market coupons, free health screenings, about 50 vendors, door prizes and free information and services.
For more information, call 724-981-4655. -
Dolata carves time for local fest
Walter Dolata shows and sells his wood carvings at arts festivals — sometimes large ones — in New York, Maryland and Ohio.
But he always makes time for the arts festival in his back yard: the Hermitage Arts Festival, which runs this weekend at Rodney White Olympic Park.
“I like it,” said Dolata, who lives in Hermitage. “It’s a local festival. It’s a nice little festival.”
-
Farmers market vouchers for seniors available
Mercer County Area Agency on Aging Inc. is again offering the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program to eligible Mercer County Seniors.
This program is made possible through the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Food Distribution.
The purpose of this program is to encourage older adults to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables produced by local growers.
Eligible seniors can pick up vouchers at locations in Greenville, Grove City, Mercer, Sandy Lake/Stoneboro and the Shenango Valley . -
Victorian Weekend begins Friday evening
Step back into a gentler era during the 22nd annual Victorian Weekend Festival, planned for Friday through Sunday on the historic Mercer County Courthouse Square.
The weekend begins with “A Victorian Concert” by the Mercer Community Band at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the bandstand on the east side of the county courthouse; the warmup concert starts at 6.
-
Girl Scouting gold goes to RHS grad
Lorrie Lehman, daughter of Dave and Rosemary Lehman of Reynolds and sister of Tommy, was recently awarded the Girl Scout Gold Award from Girl Scouts of Western Pennsylvania.
The Gold Award recognizes leadership, hard work and service to the community and for exemplifying the ideals of the Girl Scout Promise and Law. Only five percent of Girl Scouts nationwide earn this recognition annually.
-
Public invited to annual Farm Safety Day
Our annual Mercer County Farm Safety Day will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Leslie N. Firth Learning Center, home of Mercer County Cooperative Extension, and the adjacent 4-H Park, 483 N. Perry Highway, 1 1/2 miles north of Mercer in Coolspring Township.
Our staff, along with event sponsor, the Agricultural Health and Rural Safety Advisory Committee, invite you and your family to attend and actively participate in a full day of safety demonstrations and open dialog on an issue which affects us all. Our goals are to make rural residents more conscience of common hazards, risky behaviors, and cultural traditions which often contribute to farm and rural accidents.
-
Urban League offers outdoor movie series
It’s been decades since movies have been shown on a big screen in Farrell.
The Shenango Valley Urban League is changing that this summer, with its “Films in the Square” series, to be held Friday nights at Veterans Square.
-
Fourth of July activities
There's no lack of Independence Day celebrations planned in the area.
-
League levels the playing field
It might not look like a traditional baseball game at first glance, that is, the baseball game one would see in the Brookfield Community Park on summer Sundays.
Some of the players are in wheelchairs, others use walkers and canes and most are mentally challenged, but they all come out every week for the same reason: the chance to play baseball, and it’s an opportunity they might not otherwise have.
It’s called the Challengers League, a baseball league for the mentally and physically challenged. - More Community Headlines
-
Actors visit Camelot
