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Offerings Made Rhythm Factory Improvise! Ensemble Performances Instrumental Lessons Open Rehearsals Composer Residencies Calendar of Workshops Partner Schools Teaching Artists & Staff Cool Links From the Director home	Music Factory Programs & Curricula Music Factory offers several classroom-based workshops, each features a leading composer-performer-teacher, with a focused interactive curricula. Residency workshops range from 2 - 12 weekly sessions. Open Rehearsals and special in-school performances are also offered. Made Rhythm Factory Improvise! Ensemble Performances Open Rehearsals MADE Music in Action Designed by Everyone is a workshop that results in the production of an album whose contents are the creation & composition of students. MADE is designed for students in an afterschool setting that have not had exposure to musical training, but whose artistic intuition, innate musicality, and personality propel the creations forward when coupled with the teachings of Chris Marianetti. Production, Performance, Time, Harmony, Space, Writing, & Engineering are seven roles designated to various groups of students allowing the process of composition and album creation to flow in an organized manner and actually make possible the idea of Music Desgined by Everyone.   Exploring Music Technology: Rhythm Factory Emphasizing rhythm tracks, students learn fundamentals of the creative process, by creating their own composition. 5 weekly sessions. Teaching Artist: Randy Woolf Rhythm Factory is a series of five workshops with composer Randy Woolf in which students learn fundamentals of rhythm, improvisation, and the creative process, creating their own musical composition that is performed by a professional string quartet at the culmination of the workshops. Mr. Woolf is an award-winning composer who uses rhythm tracks, sampling and other techniques that grow out of the contemporary pop and hip-hop fields, making this one of ACO's most popular educational programs. ACO is pleased to announce that for 2007-2008 participating high schools are Fort Hamilton High School in brookyln and High School for Newcomers in Long Island City, Queens. In Rhythm Factory, students learn: fundamentals of rhythm and meter in the context of hip-hop style patterns current music technology (virtual drum machine and sampler) improvisation and compositional decision-making performance practice of today’s professional musicians This year's schedule (each workshop is one-two class periods long): Teacher training session Workshop 1: rhythm, meter, drum machine; homework: create “beats” Workshop 2: review student beats, add layers, introduce sampling; homework: create new “beats” Workshop 3: review student work, sample students’ voices/sounds Workshop 4: student improvisation on sampler keyboard Workshop 5: performance workshop with Sirius String Quartet, combining student “beats,” students’ recorded keyboard improvisations, and live string quartet performance Evaluation meeting with teachers Participating teachers will be expected to give complementary lessons on rhythmic notation and playing, and on rhythms associated with styles of music like hip-hop, rock, funk, country/Western, etc. Rhythm Factory is ideal for general music classes and beginning ensembles. Up to two schools will be able to participate this year, with up to three classes per school scheduled into a continuous two- to three-hour block. Improvise! Fresh creative forces in music work with students on composing through improvisational skills and techniques. Each composer comes in for 2 visits. Teaching Artists:  Ken Thompson, sax & clarinet, Uri Caine, piano, Ryan Keberle, trombone   Ensemble Performances Members of American Composers Orchestra, as well as guest artists and ensembles perform concerts featuring music by contemporary American composers in assembly-style, interactive performance settings. Performances can stand alone, or serve as an adjunct or supplement to ACO workshops or related classroom work. Emphasis is placed on educating students about basic musical concepts and sources, and about creative choices made by, and conceptual methods employed by the composers and performers. Works selected for performance often illustrate broader aspects of American culture. Instrumental Lessons Through Music Factory, ACO offers weekly beginning instrument lessons with a focus on fundamental technique and improvisation in areas of string, band, and percussion. Students are encouraged to perform in their own works; these lessons compliment year-long ACO workshops and residencies.Instrumental teachers include graduates of the Juilliard, Manhattan and Mannes Schools of Music. Open Rehearsals Schools are invited to sign up classes to attend dress rehearsals of American Composers Orchestra’s at Carnegie Hall and other venues. Participating teachers will receive a Study Guide with background information to share with classes, and a CD of music to be heard. At Carnegie Hall just prior to the rehearsal, Paola Prestini will give an orientation and brief introduction to the music and the rehearsal process. At the break or conclusion of the rehearsal, the conductor, composer, and/or soloist may speak briefly with classes in the hall. Each rehearsal is three hours long. Classes must arrive a half-hour before the start time. They may elect to leave at the break, approximately 75-90 minutes into the rehearsal, or to stay for the entire session. Open Rehearsals are offered to both general music classes and musical ensembles, and may also be available to other classes like English or social students, as space permits. There is a limit of 150 attendees, and must be scheduled in advance. There is no charge for school groups to attend open rehearsals. To schedule an open rehearsal, please contact: John Altieri Director of Education 212-977-8495, x263 john@americancomposers.org