The Springfield Symphony Orchestra has established the In-School Ensemble Program, where instrument "families" visit fourth and fifth grade students in the city and county school districts. The first year of the program, 1996-97, introduced one family, the strings, through presentations by the Springfield Symphony String Quartet. From October through March, the ensemble presented 36 programs at 22 schools, reaching over 3,000 children, at no cost to the schools.

The SSSQ members are (in the photo, left to right) Phillip Magnuson, principal viola, John Smarelli, principal second violin, Xiao-Guang Zhu, concertmaster, and Xiao-Fan Zhang, principal cello.

Their program for 1996-97 was entitled "Getting in the Mood", and explored the ways great composers for the string quartet medium found ways to create, and to affect us with, moods in their music. Students were encouraged to ask questions and make comments, and some presentations were very lively indeed. Their program for 1997-98, "Music Is Like Studying School Subjects", relates quartet music to subjects that the students themselves study, such as history, grammar, mathematics, and science.

Xiao-Guang Zhu, who became Concertmaster in 1993, began his formal violin training at the age of seven with his father, the concertmaster of the Beijing Film Orchestra. In 1987, he received a fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival and was accepted as a student by Dorothy Delay, one of the foremost violin teachers of our time. Currently the Assistant Concertmaster of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Guang also serves as the conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Junior String Orchestra.

John Smarelli, currently Principal Second Violin and Assistant Conductor of the SSO, has been a member of the SSO since 1958, and served as Concertmaster for 20 years until his retirement from that position in 1993. John holds music degrees from Ohio University and the Cincinati Conservatory of Music. He has performed the the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Palace Theater Orchestra, and was a member of the Kenley Players Orchestra for 19 years.

Phillip Magnuson, Principal Viola, joined the SSO in 1986 and is a professor of music at the University of Dayton, serving as coordinator of theory and composition studies and instructor of viola. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University, a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he also studied viola and chamber music at the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Italy under a Nordhoff Scholarship. Phil has won composition awards from Duke University, the National Federation of Music Clubs, Broadcast Music Inc., the Cornish Institute, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Xiao-Fan Zhang, the newest member, joined the SSO in 1995 as Principal Cello. He also serves as Assistant Principal Cello of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, and performs with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He is currantly working on a Doctor of Musical Arts at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. His prior teachers have included Robert Jesselson, Lynn Harrell, and Yehuda Hanani.

The first year of the In-School Ensemble Program was funded by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information about the program, the Springfield Symphony String Quartet, or other Springfield Symphony Orchestra educational programs, please contact the SSO Office at (937) 325-8100.