The fertile soil of youth yields a wealth of cultural riches and the toil of Mobile’s cultivation has earned notice. The League of American Orchestras recently awarded the Mobile Symphony Orchestra a Bank of America Award for Excellence in Orchestra Education and the bestowment puts the group in lofty company as only two orchestras nationwide received the honor this year. The MSO’s "Preludes" program serving 7,000 first- through fifth-grade students in 10 area elementary schools garnered one accolade, while the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Elementary School Partners Program earned the other. Descriptions of the award define it as "honoring excellence in programs in which orchestras partner with elementary schools to provide music education programs for underserved children." A grant from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation awards each of the orchestras $7,500. "Numerous studies validate the important role arts education plays in a child’s academic and professional success," Arts and Culture Executive of Bank of America Rena M. DeSisto said via a released statement. Sarah Wright, Education Director of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra is understandably elated. "We are thrilled," Wright said. "We know our programs are great and it’s just nice to have someone else agree with us. The symphony’s education programs are very much a part of their mission in the greater Gulf Coast community. There are just too few opportunities for children to pursue musical talents that they have innate gifts for." She has specific examples. "There is one student who is a poster child for what we want," Wright said. "She was a Westlawn Elementary student who started on the violin six years ago. She ended up going to Dunbar (Performing Arts School) and started studying with a string teacher there who was supplied as part of our program. She’s now in the Youth Orchestra and will tell you that it has given her friends, self-confidence and a whole new world." The director feels the opportunity also reaches out beyond the specifically gifted. "It helps all children who by association or recognition of music seem to find an interest or spark of creativity that seems to help them in all areas of their education," Wright said. "I conducted a poll of our youth orchestra grads where 16 out of 21 responded and we looked at their ACT (college entrance exam) scores," Wright illustrated. "The national average is 21.2 and the average of our kids was 28. The highest we had was a perfect score so I started to knock out the highest and lowest to get a more median result, but when I looked at the lowest score, the young man who had that one said that had it not been for his involvement in the program, he wouldn’t have gone to college at all. It changed his life completely. And it does that with all of them, it changes their life course as a result because so many of them are going in other directions before they get involved." The impact seems to resonate where it is needed most. "A lot of people assume these are kids who were coming from higher income backgrounds in private schools but they’re not," Wright said, "they’re just regular public school students." Students in the participating schools range from 9 to 88 percent minority, and the percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch ranges from 11 to 92 percent. The program continues to give beyond the secondary level. "The combined scholarship funds for our last two youth symphony classes have been $1.3 million," Wright said. Preludes was begin in 1999 in three elementary schools and now provides weekly classes for 1,400 students through grade five, in-school performances by a string quartet for 5,000 elementary students, Young People’s Concerts attended by 500 students annually in grades K through eight and opens Mobile Symphony attendance to students with a family member in tow. "It’s great to win an award," Wright said, "but concerts remind me the real reward is seeing the smile on the children’s faces as they play an instrument or attend one of our performances. You realize that great music just might become a part of their life forever." The honors continue to pour in for the program as Orland Thomas, conductor of the Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra, was recently inducted into the inaugural class of the Alabama Music Educators Association’s Hall of Fame. Pat Stegall, AMEA President-Elect described Thomas’ attributes as his "excellence in teaching, contribution to music education, exemplary service, professional resume and academic integrity." "We’ve known for a long time how fortunate we are to have a musician as exceptional and dedicated as Orland Thomas working with the Mobile Symphony Youth Orchestra," Wright said. "It’s wonderful to see him receiving the recognition he deserves." Thomas is joined in the Hall of Fame by Dr. Lacey Powell who served on the Board of Directors of Symphony Concerts of Mobile, the predecessor of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra. "The theme underscoring our music education programs is ‘Changing Lives Through Music’ and no two men have changed more lives for the better than Maestro Thomas and Dr. Powell," Mobile Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Stephen Hedrick said. With little hesitation, the money granted from the Bank of America award will go toward greater harvests. "We feel like our programs are making a difference in the lives of young people throughout the community," Wright said. "We plan to expand them in partnering with more schools."