FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 17, 2015  

CONTACT: Daisy Gonzalez-Diego
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
305-995-2060

M-DCPS ADMINISTRATOR HONORED WITH YALE SCHOOL OF MUSIC’S DISTINGUISHED MUSIC EDUCATOR AWARD

Partnership between M-DCPS & Florida Grand Opera is
one of 35 Yale is honoring

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) and the Florida Grand Opera (FGO) collaborative partnership program “Cultural Passport Through Opera” will be one of 35 partnerships being honored by the Yale School of Music at the 2015 Symposium on Music in Schools, June 4-7, 2015, in New Haven, Conn.

Bryan T. Petorak, District Supervisor for M-DCPS’ Performing Arts, and Cerise Sutton, Director of Education at FGO have been named recipients of the Yale Distinguished Music Educators Award.

Award winners are chosen by the Yale School of Music based on the artistic and philosophical values represented by programs for children that utilize the best music resources in the community while ensuring quality music curricula in a public school setting.

A highlighted program within FGO and M-DCPS’s partnership was “OPERA LAB: a laboratory of learning through opera.” This 10-month, in-school residency program applies the topics taught in traditional, academic subjects through a more creative medium. Throughout their demonstrations at several M-DCPS locations, Sutton and Kevin G. Mynatt, FGO’s Director of Production, stressed the importance of basic academic subjects—such as math, history, and art—as they pertain to building scenery and props for the stage.

The Symposium on Music in Schools is held once every two years at the Yale School of Music. It brings together distinguished music teachers and professional musicians from around the country. For four days in June, the partners convene to participate in a variety of workshops, discussions on pressing issues in the field of music education, and other events.

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