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 Back Arrow 3.png Kennedy Center Education Learning Guides Index

M2 = (Math x Music)

Jan. 31 - Feb. 3, 2025

Event Information

  • Genre

    Performances for Young Audiences

Four National Symphony Orchestra musicians sit and stand in front of a mint green background on which there are fun shapes and numbers with cartoon eyes. The musicians each wear a black top and different shades of dark blue jeans, and they each hold a string instrument and its bow.
NSO Music FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

M2 = (Math x Music) featuring the Last Stand Quartet of the NSO

It all adds up—listen and learn how music and math are connected.

The Last Stand Quartet performs a lively program linking the ways in which math is present in all music-making, creating music to move to and engage with on a deeper level. Add together four National Symphony Orchestra musicians—violinists Joel Fuller and Derek Powell, violist Mahoko Eguchi, and cellist Rachel Young—and this ensemble will show audiences how math times music equals fun!

January 31 & February 3, 2025

Family Theater, recommended for grades K-5

Estimated duration is approximately 45 minutes.

Are you a parent, caregiver, or adult looking for a listing of available public performances and times (February 1-2)? Find out more on the public show page!

Learning guide content for this event will be available approximately two weeks before the first performance.

Share your feedback!

We’re thrilled that you’ve joined us for a performance this season! We would like to hear from your students and you about the experience. After the performance, follow these steps to share feedback:

  1. Share the survey link with your students for them to complete .
  2. Complete .
  3. If you’re a parent or caregiver, .

Each survey will take approximately five minutes to complete. The results will be used to inform future Kennedy Center Education program planning. Thank you in advance for sharing your valuable perspective!

Related Resources

Media Kids’ Classical Countdown

Looking to bolster your knowledge of classical music or simply trying to broaden your knowledge of music in general? Whatever your reason, here’s a different kind of musical hit list—our choices for the top 10 works in Western classical music for kids and their parents.

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Media Connections: Math & Music

Math and music might seem like an odd couple. But when we take a closer look, they have more in common than you might think.

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Lesson Creating AB Patterns

In this K-2 lesson, students will construct patterns using visual arts designs and math manipulatives. They will identify patterns existing in the natural and man-made world, art, math, and science.

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  • Grades K-2

Lesson Melodies and Math

In this 3-5 lesson, students will explore non-traditional music instruments and review basic music theory. Students will learn 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures, then compose original melodies. They will rehearse and perform their compositions on a non-traditional instrument for an audience.

  • Grades 3-5
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Lesson Composing and Clapping Rhythms

In this 3-5 lesson, students will clap rhythm sequences and compose an eight-measure composition. Students will explore rhythm concepts, including the names and symbols associated with music notation. They will also compare rhythmic sequences to math concepts.

  • Grades 3-5
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Media Instrument Spotter’s Guide

You might see some of these instruments when you come to the Kennedy Center, watch a performance by your school band, or at any other concert you attend! Click the slides to learn more about some of the most frequently spotted instruments in each family.

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Collection Math

Explore how math and art go hand in hand through a study of Aesop’s fables, Tibetan art practices, and music composition.

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Collection Classical Music

Meet great composers, explore the vast musical world of the orchestra, study the science behind the instruments, and discover how classical music is anything but boring.

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Kennedy Center Education 
Building the Future
of Arts Education

Professional development for educators. Summer intensives for young artists. Teaching artist guided activities. Performances for young audiences. Classroom lesson plans. Arts-focused digital media.

Kennedy Center Education offers a wide array of resources and experiences that inspire, excite, and empower students and young artists, plus the tools and connections to help educators incorporate the arts into classrooms of all types.

Our current teaching and learning priorities include:

Digital Resources Library

A robust collection of articles, videos, and podcasts that allow students of all ages to explore and learn about the arts online.

Three young people smiling and looking at a laptop computer screen

Current Topics in Arts Integration

Current approaches to arts integration in the classroom, inclusion, rigor, and adopting an arts integration approach at the school and district level.

A group of teens performing the musical, "In the Heights."

An asynchronous online course that invites educators and administrators to think about our students’ disabilities as social and cultural identities that enrich our classrooms and communities.

A boy with short brown hair wearing a hearing aid and glasses with a light blue wrist band and black t-shirt is drawing on a piece of paper with a pen he is holding in his left hand.

Kennedy Center Education

 

The Vice President of Education is generously endowed by the

A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation.

Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

The content of these programs may have been developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education but does not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education. You should not assume endorsement by the federal government.