Photo Trish Allehoff and Matthew J. Chancellor photo courtesy of Trish Allehoff 

Cascade School of Music was recently awarded a $500 grant from Pacific Power Foundation in support of the school’s Awesome After-School Orchestra program, originally founded by the Central Oregon Symphony Association as a way to bolster enrollment in middle school orchestra programs, which at the time were in danger of being cut.

Today the Awesome After-School Orchestra (AASO) is administered by Cascade School of Music. The public school string programs are much stronger and Bend has grown an outstanding community Youth Orchestra program as well. The AASO program enrolls students in grades three through five from all schools and offers two years of beginning instruction on violin, viola, cello and bass.

Graduates of the Awesome After-School Orchestra may go on to advanced orchestra in middle school or into the community-based Junior Symphony. The Awesome After-School Orchestra meets at Lava Ridge Elementary school for the 2016-17 school year and the Advanced AASO at Cascade School of Music. Tuition Assistance is available.

Grant monies received from Pacific Power Foundation will help to provide tuition assistance and instrument rental subsidies for the Awesome After-School Orchestra.