By Grace Heimsness

Austin Artworks Education and Marketing Coordinator

This Wednesday afternoon will see a crop of renowned Twin Cities artists performing Broadway hits from the likes of “Fiddler on the Roof” and “The Music Man” for 350 of the world’s toughest critics: middle schoolers.

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, slated to present its fourth run of the “Broadway Songbook” at the Paramount Theatre this Thursday, is a stranger to neither the kiddos nor to learning; each year the Ordway serves over 50,000 children and adults through its education programs. But the center has taken the show on the road this year, touring outstate towns throughout Minnesota in the interest of spreading love for music and musicals. And Ellis Middle School is on the map.

Maria Wilson, the director of the sixth, seventh and eighth-grade choirs, is looking forward to the Ordway’s outreach — which will include a Q&A session — noting it as a great opportunity for the kids to witness a practical application of music and to engage with a community of performers who have succeeded in making a living by it. Wilson cites the experience as valuable motivation for the students as well: “It shows the kids what music can do for them, where it can take them if they work hard.”

Each run of the “Broadway Songbook” series boasts an ensemble of reputable artists from the Twin Cities musical theater, jazz, and cabaret scenes and features a dynamic discussion on the life behind each song. While the Paramount performance at 7:30p.m. on Thursday will cost $15 in advance and $20 at the door, Ellis and I.J. Holton Intermediate School students will experience it for free at the Ellis Middle School Auditorium.

If that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.