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The Pictures Project: A collaboration with Charlottesville City Schools |
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This 2025-2026 collaboration centered on Modest Mussorgsky’s iconic piano work, Pictures at an Exhibition. This initiative supports our mission to deepen students’ engagement with chamber music by giving young people a meaningful, creative way to experience the connection between music and visual art.
The Timeline
September 15, 2025: Pianist Andrew Armstrong introduced the district’s 4th graders to Mussorgsky’s vivid musical scenes through his expressive teaching and performance of the piece.
Over the course of the fall semester: CCS art and music teachers guided students through the history of the piece and the artwork that inspired it, ultimately inviting them to produce their own artworks in response to the music. Although the program is designed primarily for 4th graders, students from other grade levels also participated.
In the winter: Student artwork was selected to be displayed at the culmination event in the spring.
March 25, 2026: The collaboration culminated with two events. Andrew Armstrong returned to Charlottesville to present a private concert for the students during the school day, and a free event for the community in the evening - both events featured the Mussorgsky piece along with selections of the student's artwork projected on the screen while Andrew performed, as well as a display of selected student artwork in the lobby. The evening event also featured pianist John Novacek performing his some of his own rags as well as joining Andrew at the piano for Grieg's Norwegian Dances and a 4-hand arrangement of Gershwin's An American in Paris.
The Timeline
September 15, 2025: Pianist Andrew Armstrong introduced the district’s 4th graders to Mussorgsky’s vivid musical scenes through his expressive teaching and performance of the piece.
Over the course of the fall semester: CCS art and music teachers guided students through the history of the piece and the artwork that inspired it, ultimately inviting them to produce their own artworks in response to the music. Although the program is designed primarily for 4th graders, students from other grade levels also participated.
In the winter: Student artwork was selected to be displayed at the culmination event in the spring.
March 25, 2026: The collaboration culminated with two events. Andrew Armstrong returned to Charlottesville to present a private concert for the students during the school day, and a free event for the community in the evening - both events featured the Mussorgsky piece along with selections of the student's artwork projected on the screen while Andrew performed, as well as a display of selected student artwork in the lobby. The evening event also featured pianist John Novacek performing his some of his own rags as well as joining Andrew at the piano for Grieg's Norwegian Dances and a 4-hand arrangement of Gershwin's An American in Paris.