COMMUNITY


Community Connections


On a cold Wednesday in early December, a group of senior citizen residents pours into a recreation room at Massachusetts General Hospital to take their seats and get ready for live performances of their favorite songs and show-tunes.


Across town, at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, a patient listens to the soft chords of harp music as she arrives for her chemotherapy treatment.


Nearby, at the YMCA on Huntington, a marimbist performs to the delight of young children in an after-school program.


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eek after week, Boston Conservatory students are taking their talents and passions outside the Conservatory’s walls, bringing the performing arts to those who need it most—the physically challenged, the disabled, the displaced and the disadvantaged. For an hour or more, these individuals escape into the world of music, dance and theater, where they experience renewal and delight.


“We bring the arts to those who can’t come to us,” says Kim Haack, Director of Student and Community Programs at the Conservatory. “We are committed to sharing the exceptional talent of our students with audiences who are unable to attend traditional performances.”


These non-traditional outreach performances are the heart of The Boston Conservatory’s community service program, “Conservatory Connections.” The program is composed of student groups and individuals who travel throughout the community to perform at schools, hospitals, senior centers and shelters. Performers run the gamut from a singing and dancing musical theater troupe (The Boston Conservatory Cabaret) to opera singers (The Troubadours) to chamber musicians.


“What differentiates Conservatory Connections from community programs offered by other area colleges is the broad range and high quality of our performances,” says Haack. “With nationally- renowned training programs in music, dance and


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