The Ann Arbor Chronicle | Ann Arbor schools

Huron High Musicians Meet a Master

Arnold Steinhardt of the Guarneri String Quartet received a bouquet from Emily Hsiao, a Huron High School student whose email invitation led to his spending two hours working with the school's student musicians on Monday.

He’d performed on stage at Rackham Auditorium the previous night, but on Monday afternoon Arnold Steinhardt sat quietly in the audience, this time at Huron High School, listening to the school’s symphony orchestra rehearse Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Opus 78.

“Sounds great!” he said when the last note fell silent – and then he asked to hear more.

For two hours, Steinhardt – lead violinist for the renowned Guarneri String Quartet – shared his insights, gave advice and even played a bit on a violin borrowed from one of the students. It was an up-close exchange that came about simply because one of his fans in the orchestra asked him to come. [Full Story]

Calling All Speakers of Mandingo

Given the new Ann Arbor Public Schools initiative to start teaching Spanish in its elementary schools, The Chronicle was intrigued by a recent AAPS classified ad looking for ESL tutors.

Classified ad run by Ann Arbor Public Schools

Even more intriguing was the kind of language preferences the system sought for bilingual tutors – Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Arabic are all fairly predictable, but less so are Dutch, Hebrew, Portuguese, Turkish and Mandingo.

Mandingo? We had to call. [Full Story]