Samuel Adler is a world famous composer...he's performed everywhere from Boston to Berlin. Now, he's visiting with these music students from Bethlehem High School.

" I'm here because the Empire State Youth Orchestra is performing a new piece which I wrote for them entitled "Bridge to Understanding", said composer Samuel Adler.

That bridge has some relevance to the piece and the performance.

" It's called that way because we're going overseas with it and I used Czech folk songs because we're going to Prague and an American folk song so it would be coordinating the two cultures," said Adler.

Mr. Adler will also be the official composer for the New Generation Music Festival which takes place this weekend. Many student musicians will participate in the festival, which is a positive sign when it comes to music education in our schools.

" Some kids can only express themselves through art instead of through mathematics or English, and we have taken out that possibility in many school systems and I'm very much afraid if that continues we're going to have a lack of art education in America, said Adler.

With the hope that music in the schools continue, teachers also know what students can get from someone who has lived a life of composing music.

" It was a chance for them to meet a living composer and get a honest assessment of what compositions are like and where it stood in the past..where music was 200 to 300 years ago versus today and it's a very optimistic approach from a composer who has lived most of the 20th century music, said orchestra teacher David Beck.

A way of getting in tune.