The Obamas’ classical soirée

In November Anastasia Tsioulcas experienced the President's arts outreach ideas at the White House

President Obama greets young musicians at the White House (credit: Rick McKay/White House photo office)

Sharon Isbin and Joshua Bell perform (credit: Rick McKay/White House photo office)

Classical music has long had a place in various White House administrations. Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Casals were invited by the Kennedys; Van Cliburn has performed for every American president from Harry Truman to George W Bush. But on November 4, it felt entirely as if a new era for the performing arts had arrived in Washington, DC, when President and Mrs Obama hosted more than 150 middle and high school players from all over the US, as well as master artists, at the White House for an official afternoon and evening dedicated to classical music.

The late morning was given over to workshops and masterclasses (not open to the press) given by four professional musicians. Violinist Joshua Bell, guitarist Sharon Isbin, cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Awadagin Pratt all performed and taught student workshops. In the early afternoon in the State Dining Room, Mrs Obama hosted the annual Coming Up Taller Awards, which since 1998 has presented prizes to outstanding after-school arts and humanities programmes across the country.

Afterwards, she and the press corps zipped down the White House’s pristine hall to the East Room to hear some of the students, along with their four professional mentors, show off what they had learnt. In the evening, the President joined the festivities for a culminating concert.

Mrs Obama’s words for the educators at the afternoon ceremony reflected some of the realities of our time. “What you do isn’t easy,” she said, “and we know that, particularly right now during these days of a lot of belt-tightening. Many of you have been putting in probably longer hours and later nights just to keep things together and sometimes paying out of your own pockets to keep everything going. But I also know the difference that you’re making in the lives of young people all across this country and around the world.” She and the other speakers from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities presenting the awards stressed the direct impact that arts education makes on overall school achievement. One impressive example cited at the event was the Latino Arts Strings Program in Milwaukee, a 2008 award-winner, where the typical reading GPA (grade point average) among fifth-grade participants rose from 2.81 to 3.45 over two years.