January 25, 2024
By Jordanna Matlock, Community Engagement Manager
The Phoenix Symphony (TPS) is collaborating with Grand Canyon University (GCU) for our Beethoven’s Fifth: Struggle to Triumph field trip for students across the valley at Symphony Hall. This field trip is being presented next to sold-out audiences on February 6, 2024. Learn more about this Spring Field Trip HERE.
Jordanna Matlock, TPS’s Community Engagement Manager, and Michael Kary, Professor of Theatre at GCU, wrote this program, bringing life to Beethoven’s well-known Fifth Symphony through simple teaching and storytelling.
This interactive field trip will teach students about the famous “riff heard ‘round the world” from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony as well as his hearing loss and how he expressed himself through music and composition. Attendees will watch and hear TPS musicians play parts of the work live while learning about Beethoven’s struggles and how he overcame them. This field trip will also allow students the opportunity to learn a sentence in American Sign Language and will encourage them to get up and move to the music by dancing in the aisles of Symphony Hall!
This field trip would not have been possible without the help of Kary’s acting experience. Kary is an Alumni of Grand Canyon University and holds an M.F.A. from the University of San Diego Old Globe Professional Actor Training Program. The students will watch as Kary and Matlock teach about Beethoven’s life with assistance from GCU students Jacob Currie and Anna Mettes and Associate Conductor of The Phoenix Symphony, Alex Amsel.
Jacob Currie, a Theatre and Drama major with a minor in Dance at Grand Canyon University, will play the role of Ludwig van Beethoven and his best friend, Franz Oliva, will be played by Anna Mettes, a recent graduate from Grand Canyon University with a B.A. in Theatre and Drama.
Kary has previously worked with The Phoenix Symphony to energize and teach students about the music of Aaron Copland; watch HERE.
