The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra announced Thursday that it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts for a $25,000 Grants for Arts Projects award.

This grant will support 2025 Young People’s Concerts for students in the Ohio Valley and Washington, Pennsylvania.

The NEA will award 1,135 Grants for Arts Projects awards totaling more than $37 million as part of its second round of fiscal year 2024 grants.

“Projects like the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts exemplify the creativity and care with which communities are telling their stories, creating connection, and responding to challenges and opportunities in their communities — all through the arts,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson.

This project will introduce students to music for orchestra written in America that connects with cultures from around the world. Students will explore music by Leonard Bernstein from “West Side Story,” Clarice Assad’s “Haddad” that includes jazz, rock and roll, and Appalachian fiddling, two spirituals that inspired compositions by Florence Price and Antonin Dvorak, Michael Thomas Foumai’s legend of Maui that is also a character in the film “Moana,” and Lin Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” telling the story of America’s founding fathers.

“We view our Young People’s Concerts as an essential part of the WSO’s mission to serve our community through music,” said WSO Executive Director Sonja Thoms. “With this grant from the NEA, we will be able to reach more students through innovative, educational, and accessible programming of live orchestral music. We are grateful not only for the financial support from the NEA, but the encouragement and enthusiasm they have for the WSO connecting with the students in the Ohio Valley.”