The Discovery Orchestra
About The Discovery Orchestra
Transforming Listening, Enhancing Lives
We believe that listening to classical music and perceiving its many expressive aspects arouses compelling emotional responses deep within us. This engagement helps us to fully experience our own feelings, as well as to understand the feelings of others. Since 1996 Artistic Director George Marriner Maull and The Discovery Orchestra have helped people to be transformed by the power of classical music through our interactive Discovery Concerts©, public television and public radio programs, and online educational chat videos and podcasts.
The non-stop presence of electronically reproduced music in our society has sadly trained generations of people to merely hear music as ‘sonic wallpaper’, providing background accompaniment for virtually every activity in our daily lives. People have been conditioned to ignore music, rather than to be completely present with it. To address this, The Discovery Orchestra teaches the listening skills that help people to really connect with classical music. Founded in 1987 as the Philharmonic Orchestra of New Jersey, The Discovery Orchestra provides listening interactions for people of all ages, from novices to classical music enthusiasts. Beginning with our first Discovery Concert in 1996 and culminating with our mission and name change ten years later, all of our programs are now educational in nature.
Today The Discovery Orchestra presents Discovery Concertsã and Community Outreach Programs. Since 2003, the video programs we have created with our production partner Midnight Media Group, and distributed by American Public Television, have reached millions of viewers in New Jersey, nationally, and around the world. These include: Bach to the Futureã (Emmyã Nomination), Discover Beethoven's 5thã (Emmyã Nomination and three Telly Awards), Discover Vivaldi's Four Seasonsã (Emmyã Nomination and three Telly Awards), Fall in Love with Musicã (two Telly Awards) and Discover The Firebirdã (two Telly Awards). Our shows are now available on PBS Passport and Amazon Prime Video. They, along with our Discovery Orchestra Chat© videos on YouTube, are also streamed to classrooms and libraries around the United States by Films Media Group. Our public radio program, Inside Music, is broadcast on the second and fourth Saturdays every month at 7:30 pm ET on WWFM 89.1 The Classical Network in Princeton, and can be streamed worldwide at https://www.wwfm.org/.
The Discovery Orchestra receives support from individuals, foundations, businesses, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. It is a priority of The Discovery Orchestra to distribute free or discounted tickets to underserved constituents whenever possible. Please call us at 973-379-2200 and visit our website at https://discoveryorchestra.org/. There you will find many music listening resources for teachers, students and lifelong learners, including our Discovery Orchestra Chats, Notes from Under the Piano podcast/video series, Inside Music radio programs, Listening Guides and much more!
What a great idea to do this. It looks and sounds fantastic. I LOVED the music, the animated lettering and the design for Notes from Under the Piano…It takes a special gift to transform the written word into the spoken word…And the length is perfect, left me wanting more…