Siegel Trust Enriching Art & Music, fondly known as the STEAM Fund at the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan (CFOS), is committed to supporting musical, artistic and educational opportunities in communities and schools in Sullivan County and beyond.

As part of that mission, students from Liberty, Sullivan West and Rockland Central school districts recently had the opportunity to experience classical music up close through the STEAM Fund’s Youth and Visiting Artist Outreach Program.

The event featured violinist and composer Andrew Waggoner and cellist Caroline Stinson of Weekend of Chamber Music, who brought a mix of performance, discussion and hands-on creativity to the school assembly.

Waggoner and Stinson performed together, presenting works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn, and Morton Feldman giving students the chance to hear chamber music performed live. Each piece showcased a different musical style and era, highlighting the range and emotional depth of classical music.

But the program went beyond performance.

Throughout the session, Waggoner and Stinson encouraged students to think about how music is created and how musicians communicate through sound. The artists introduced the concept of improvisation—making music spontaneously—while guiding students through exercises designed to help them understand rhythm, melody and musical interaction.

Waggoner explained that one of the most important parts of improvisation is listening closely to others.

“There are no mistakes in improvisation,” Waggoner told the students. “The only mistake you can make is not listen to your partner and not respond generously to what they have played.”

Using simple exercises, the musicians demonstrated how music can grow from just a few ideas. Students experimented with long sustained tones, short bursts of sound, and rhythmic patterns, learning how different musical elements work together to form a piece of music.

The workshop also introduced students to the idea of call and response, a musical conversation in which one musician plays a phrase and another responds with a variation. The concept appears in many forms of music around the world.

As students participated, the room filled with an energetic mix of sounds—percussion beats, instrumental phrases, and even vocal elements. The exercises encouraged creativity while reinforcing the importance of collaboration and awareness within a musical group.

Waggoner described improvisation as similar to a conversation. Instead of repeating the same phrase exactly, musicians react to one another, building ideas together and shaping the music as they go.

By the end of the session, students were no longer just listeners but active participants, experimenting with their own sounds and discovering how music can be created in the moment.

Programs like the STEAM Fund’s outreach initiative aim to connect students with professional artists while introducing them to new forms of artistic expression.

“Our goal is to bring artists directly into schools so students can experience the creative process up close,” said Gary Siegel of the STEAM Fund. “When students see and hear musicians perform live and then get to try it themselves, it can spark curiosity and creativity that lasts far beyond the assembly.” 

For many of the students in attendance, the experience offered a new perspective on classical music—not just as something written on a page, but as a living, collaborative art form.