Arts Watch: BVSO ready to play for Brazos Valley youth
The Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra's Children's Concert is unique, educational and exclusively for fourth- and fifth-graders in the Brazos Valley.
About 3,500 will gather in two morning sessions Monday -- 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. -- at Rudder Auditorium to listen to music that's probably not on their iPods.
"I think live performances are far superior to recordings," said BVSO board president Christine Larsen. "In a live performance, the music is not only an auditory experience but also visual. You can watch the sound being produced."
The program is specifically molded for the young audience by BVSO music director Marcelo Bussiki and the Friends Association of the Symphony Orchestra. Over less than an hour, the children will hear Daniel Dorff's Variations on Take the Orchestra Out to the Ballgame, narrated by KBTX general manager Mike Wright; George Gershwin's Concerto in F, with Brazos Valley Youth Concerto Competition winner Franco Bettati on piano; Leroy Anderson's Plink, Plank, Plunk with a student conductor; and Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf with the Brazos Valley Performing Arts ballet, also narrated by Wright.
The Friends Association of the Symphony Orchestra has created an original 35-page preparation packet for the concert, a primer on classical music appreciation that parents can view and print by visiting www.bvso.org and clicking on "This Season's Preparation Packet."
"The world premiere of the full-orchestra version of Take the Orchestra Out to the Ballgame by Daniel Dorff allows children to easily follow a familiar tune as it is treated in a variety of styles," said Children's Concert chairwoman Jane Van Valkenburg. "Students will understand that there is often more than one right way to perform a piece. While Anderson's Plink, Plank, Plunk is an engaging demonstration of pizzicato technique, its steady, driving beat allows all children to practice keeping time, and two lucky students [will get] to lead the entire orchestra!
"Prokofiev wrote the music of Peter and the Wolf to tell a very specific story. That story is narrated and is played by a variety of instruments. To have the story also danced by the Brazos Valley Performing Arts ballet dancers adds a visual dimension to the auditory experience. To have the story danced by students about the age of the students in the audience sends the message that art is for everyone."
The follow-up to the concert includes opportunities for students to enter art and essay contests.
"The art and essay contest helps to reinforce the listening experience of the live performance," Larsen said. "The children are able to put into words or art what they experienced at the concert."
New York with Brazos Valley TROUPE
Want to join Brazos Valley TROUPE on its annual summer trip to New York? If you're interested, think you might be or just want to know more, attend Monday's 8 p.m. meeting at TROUPE's studio at 3705 E. 29th Street in Bryan. The cost and proposed schedule for the July 21-29 trip will be explained (artistic director M.A. Sterling says one Broadway show definitely on the schedule is Nice Work if You Can Get It, starring Matthew Broderick).
The cost will include all transportation (air and ground), eight nights lodging in a Manhattan hotel with daily breakfast and pre-show meals at some of New York's most popular restaurants and tickets to at least seven Broadway shows. In addition, the trip will include a Sunday gospel brunch with the Harlem Gospel Choir at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill and a Manhattan dinner cruise.
Peter Manuel visiting Texas A&M
The Texas A&M Department of Performance Studies' five-year initiative, RAMPS (Rothrock Agenda for Music and Performance Studies), is bringing Peter Manuel of John Jay College and the City University of New York Graduate Center to Texas A&M.
Manuel -- who has written extensively on popular and traditional music of India, the Caribbean and Spain, among other places -- will give a free presentation called "Music and Activism After the End of History" at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Melbern G. Glasscock Library.
"A scholar of Indian and Caribbean musics, Manuel has made enormously significant contributions to the study of both popular and traditional music," said A&M professor and associate department head Harris Berger. "He achieved wide praise for his 1993 book, Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India, a groundbreaking study of the impact of cassette technology on music and politics in South Asia, but his work extends far beyond these topics. He is the author of the first survey of popular music around the world, and his work on Caribbean popular music, ideas of authorship and ownership in music and the global circulation of musical styles has influenced a generation of researchers."
Save the Date
* Sunday: The Theatre Company presents Two by Two, fundraising show, 2 p.m. (779-1302, www.theatrecompany.com)
* Monday: Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra presents its Children's Concert, 9:30 and 11 a.m., Rudder Auditorium (696-6100, www.bvso.org).
* Tuesday: Community Chamber Concerts presents Vinca String Quartet, 7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church (823-8073, www.communitychamberconcerts.org).
* Feb. 1: MSC OPAS presents Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Moulin Rouge, The Ballet, 7:30 p.m., Rudder Auditorium (845-1234, www.mscopas.org).
* Feb. 2-5: Brazos Valley TROUPE presents Shake It Up (846-4903, www.bvtroupe.com).
* Feb. 2-18: StageCenter presents Last of the Red Hot Lovers (823-4297, www.stagecenter.info).
* Feb. 9-26: Brenham Unity Theatre presents Billy Bishop Goes to War (830-8358, www.unitybrenham.org).
* All month: George Bush Presidential Library and Museum presents Headed to the White House (691-4000, bushlibrary.tamu.edu).
* All month: Children's Museum of the Brazos Valley in downtown Bryan offer various programs, including Monday Madness, from 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. (779-5437, www.cmbv.org)
* Tom Turbiville is The Eagle's arts columnist. He's also sports director for WTAW-1620 AM. Email him at tom.turbiville@theeagle.com.
