Press Releases

Almost a half million public school students in North Carolina have learned math, science, geography and language with direct classroom experiences in the arts through the A+ Schools Program, celebrating its 20th anniversary this summer.

The N.C. Museum of History announces that travel grants will be available for North Carolina public schools this fall to help cover a portion of transportation costs to the museum in Raleigh. Your North Carolina school may qualify.

North Carolina middle and high school students, as well as their teachers, shined with award recognition in the National History Day (NHD) Contest, June 14-18, at the University of Maryland, College Park. A first place, second place, several special awards and other awards were among honors bestowed on students from the Tar Heel state.

In addition to the "Queen of Steam" locomotive, train rides on motor cars, and lessons on train safety, the Rail Days Festival at the N.C. Transportation Museum June 20 will feature exhibits and designs for trains of the future. Representatives from UNC-Charlotte will discuss technology that will consume less fuel and make for safer, more affordable transportation.

The North Carolina Symphony is pleased to announce that four talented young musicians have won top prizes in the 2015 Kathleen Price and Joseph M. Bryan Youth Concerto Competition, the state’s premier competition for young instrumentalists. The finals of this rigorous, two-round audition were held in Raleigh in May. Symphony Music Director Grant Llewellyn and Symphony Associate Conductor David Glover served as judges.

The North Carolina Symphony has named Anita Hynus as the winner of the prestigious 2015 Maxine Swalin Award for Outstanding Music Educator.  Hynus, a teacher for 34 years, has been with Wake County Public Schools for 16 years, and is the Orchestra Director at Martin GT Magnet Middle School, in Raleigh, N.C.

A partnership between the North Carolina Symphony (NCS) and the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) has received a prestigious Yale Distinguished Music Award. Symphony Education Director Sarah Gilpin and Martin Middle Magnet School orchestra director Anita Hynus will attend Yale’s fifth biennial Symposium on Music in Schools, which will take place June 4-7 in New Haven, Conn.  

A gift for the New Year will be presented to the CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center Jan. 20 at 2 p.m., in the form of a cannon carriage crafted by students at Lenoir Community College. The wooden carriage has been reconstructed based on original drawings and will be placed in the casemate, a fortified structure where the cannon would be located. It is part of the Civil War 150th anniversary commemoration administered by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.