DESCRIPTION:
"Beethoven and Prometheus: A Hero's Journey" was presented to students from the Cleveland Metropolitan School District on September 22, 2017 and will be presented on November 8-10 at Severance Hall and Lakeland Community College.

During the spring of 2017, Orchestra musicians and staff immersed themselves at Cleveland School of the Arts working with students and teachers to explore a unique intersection of mythology and music. The Prometheus Project for Students was inspired by Welser-Möst’s “The Prometheus Project,” a major focal point of the Orchestra’s 100th Season, which will examine Beethoven’s music through the metaphor of Prometheus, a daring Greek Titan who defied Zeus to bestow on humanity the gift of fire.

Through an interdisciplinary curriculum co-developed by The Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland School of the Arts, and Fifth House Ensemble (a Chicago-based leader in arts-integration and audience engagement), CSA students engaged deeply with the stories, challenges, and accomplishments of Beethoven and Prometheus, and the way they served the greater good. Utilizing artistic mediums (Visual and Performing Arts), engaging core curriculum (English/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies), and using American scholar Joseph Campbell’s classic “Hero’s Journey” framework, students were challenged to create work that connected these themes to personal narratives, illuminating stories of their personal heroes and the ways in which they envision using their own gifts to shape their future world.