Happy New Year’s Eve! 2012 was an amazing for AMP and our students. Here are our Top Ten Moments of 2012 below, in the order they happened:

1. Thanks to our friends at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, international cello soloist Johannes Moser, stopped by the Gilbert House to perform for our students and coach them too!

Photo by Lauren Thomas

2. Aisha Bowden and Dantes Rameau present Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu, founder of Venezuela’s El Sistema, with the AMP Medallion at Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Take A Stand  Symposium (January 2012).

Photo by Frank Di Polo

3. AMP Announces a $122,801 grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to launch the AMP Academy (March 2012). The first AMP Academy lesson took place earlier in December 2012.

AMP Violin/Viola Teaching Artist, Catherine Price, teaches the first ever AMP Academy private lesson to student Gabrielle Wilson. Photos by Aisha Bowden

4. Led by Jere Flint, conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra, AMP students from the Gilbert House and Coan Rec Center perform a rousing end-of-year concert at the Coan Rec Center in Edgewood (May 2012).

Photo by Anthony Westmoreland.

5. AMP Makes A Movie! Production company State Line Films brings a crew of ten to the Gilbert House to shoot AMP’s first ever promotional video. See the video here (July 2012)!

AMP Lead & Cello Teaching Artist leads AMP students during the filming of our promotional video.

6. AMP Launches Year Three at Gilbert House and South Bend. Double the space, double the kids and double the impact, all thanks to the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs (September 2012).

AMP Clarinet Teaching Artist, Bryan Crumpler, shows new students how to make a sound on the clarinet. Photo by Lauren Thomas.

7. AMP supporters raise over $21,000 to support the launch of AMPlify, our new all-choral program! Click here to see our campaign backers. Even Hip Hop artist Nas also tweeted about AMP in support of this campaign! AMPlify starts in 2013, stay tuned (October 2012)…

Screenshot of Nas’ Tweet!

8. AMP is once again featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a feature by veteran AJC writer Bo Emerson. Read the article here (November 2012).

9. AMP Lead & Flute Teaching Artist, Jessica Sherer, gives a brilliant TEDx Talk at TEDxCentennialParkWomen. Jessica then leads a group of AMP students in performance. Tears, smiles and a standing ovation follows. Brava Ms. Jessica (November 2012)! Video coming soon…

Jessica Sherer and AMP students following their performance at TEDxCentennialParkWomen.

10. Gilbert House-South Bend students perform their first concert together as a symphony orchestra. As the picture suggest, they did fabulous and they quite enjoyed themselves (December 2012)! Click here for more pictures.

2012 was a great year. We can’t wait to share what 2013 has in store and to see you at one of our many performances! Thank you to all our supporters, students, families and teaching artists.  Happy New Year!