By Euan Kerr

MPR News/90.1 FM

If you’d ever traveled with the Minnesota Orchestra on tour, you would have witnessed a scene like this: Two classical musicians sit down with a classroom of a few dozen students, most of them holding instruments.

“We want to say welcome. We have Miss Pam and Mister Richard. I believe they are going to play for us,” says the teacher.

Violinist Pamela Arnstein and violist Richard Marshall speak a bit, and then Marshall plays a little Bach. The students sit and soak it in.

This time, though, the musicians are not visiting Cuba or South Africa. The classroom is in Ascension Catholic School, in north Minneapolis. The visit is one of about a dozen events this week in schools, churches, community centers, and even a barbershop, all on the north side of Minneapolis.

It’s part of an effort that began almost three years ago with a quickly arranged Christmas concert.

Minnesota Orchestra general manager Beth Kellar-Long and MacPhail teaching artist L.A. Buckner have been working together since the orchestra played that concert at Shiloh Temple in north Minneapolis. The orchestra was bouncing back after the bruising 16-month labor lockout, and looking for ways to connect with the community.

After doing a series of smaller events, and having musicians visit schools and teach, the orchestra and the community advisory board decided to offer a weeklong residency under the orchestra’s Common Chords program.