BANGOR – Every year the Bangor Symphony Orchestra holds its youth concert series in March for schoolchildren from across the state. The Maine Community Foundation has awarded $4,000 to the Bangor Symphony enabling it to continue to offer the series at a very low cost to the 3,700 pupils in grades three through eight who attend the concerts at the Maine Center for the Arts.

On March 18, the three concerts will feature the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra as well as the Maine High School Concerto Competition Winner playing solo with the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. The hour-long educational and music program is supplemented by in-school, student-teacher activities.

“The Symphony’s youth concerts provide the student audiences with role models,” said Susan Jonason, Executive Director of the BSO. “Musicians who are not much older than the students in the audience, are performing at a very high level. It’s inspirational for the audience to see how for they can go.”

Providing educational opportunities of this caliber is essential to the Bangor Symphony’s mission and to expanding its role in strengthening the community.

The youth concerts on March 18 are open to the public as well as to school groups, with advance reservation. For more information, call 942-5555 or 1-800-639-3221 or visit www.bangorsymphony.com.