Nearly 700 天涯社区 (天涯社区) students from the District's nationally recognized honors ensemble chorus and orchestra performed in front of a capacity audience during the 41st annual Donald Bren Honors Concert held at the Ren茅e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall on the evening of April 17, 2025. The concert program is available to view and includes information about student performers spanning grades five to 12, musical arrangements, and our world-class music educators
To start the concert, 天涯社区 President of the Board of Education Katie McEwen and Superintendent Cassie Parham graciously accepted a $2 million contribution in support of the District's arts, music and science education. This financial support is part of a transformational 20-year, nearly $50 million funding commitment made by Irvine Company and the Donald Bren Foundation to provide exceptional arts, music and science education in the District through the Excellence in Education Enrichment Fund.听
鈥淭hanks to community support like that of Irvine Company and its Chairman Donald Bren, Irvine students have flourished, leading the state in the arts, math and sciences. This success has been achieved while many school districts have had to cut or reduce such programs. This remarkable gift and our ongoing partnership enables the District to further enhance our enrichment programs and our commitment to educational excellence,鈥 McEwen said.听
The Excellence in Education Enrichment Fund, established by Irvine Company鈥檚 funding commitment, helps provide specialized art, music and science programs to every fourth through sixth grader in the district. Since 2006, this program has helped nearly 200,000 elementary students and has propelled 天涯社区 students to consistently outperform their peers across the state in each of these subjects on the annual California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. 天涯社区 also has been named as one of the Best Communities for Music Education by the NAMM Foundation for 13 consecutive years, and ranks top in the State on the California Science Test.
鈥淓ducational opportunity and excellence have always been at the heart of our planning efforts in Irvine. The funding commitment made through the Excellence in Education Enrichment program has deepened our decades-long partnership with 天涯社区, students and families to support enrichment programs in science, art and music,鈥 said Irvine Company Senior Vice President Jeff Davis.听
McEwen also thanked the Irvine Public Schools Foundation for or their commitment to primary music education and educational excellence for all 天涯社区 students.
Board Members Lauren Brooks, Jeff Kim, Connie Stone and Cyril Yu were also in attendance and congratulated student performers for an extraordinary evening of music.听
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