Lansdowne storyteller, Philadelphia Orchestra present concerts for a novel audience
Four Philadelphia Orchestra musicians will perform for an audience very different from their usual audiences Saturday morning in Verizon Hall of the Kimmel Center. .
This time, the audience will range in age from 3-5 years, plus their parents or grandparents. .
The orchestra’s ‘Sound All Around’ series introduces music to young audiences. They’ll meet the musicians, get a closeup look at their instruments, and they’ll even hear a newly commissioned work created especially for this program.
Two concerts will be presented in the Academy of Music Ballroom Saturday at 10 a.m. and again at 11:15 a.m. and repeated Monday morning. The 45 minute programs will be highly entertaining and interactive.
Guiding it all will be Charlotte Blake Alston of Lansdowne, an award-winning storyteller who serves as host and narrator.
“I connect all the threads and help connect the children to the musicians,” said Alston, who’s been the host since ‘Sound All Around’ was launched in 1994.
Alston starts off with an opening welcome song, accompanied by pianist Hugh Sung. She greets parents and grandparents after welcoming the children.
“We have some grandparents who have been coming for ten years or more,” she said.
After the welcome, she’ll lead the audience in an interactive activity. Then, with appropriate fanfare, she’ll introduce the musicians.
“I’m almost like a circus barker,” Alston said.
Each previous concert in the Sound All Around series focused on just one instrument and one musician - from the string, woodwind, brass or percussion family. Since this is the final program in the series, it features all four musicians from the previous concerts and it’s called the Ensemble Concert because the musicians play piece together as an ensemble. .
The musicians are percussionist Don Luizzi, violist Kerri Ryan, contrabassoon player Holly Blake, trumpeter David Bilger and pianist Hugh Sung.
Each musician briefly demonstrates his or her instrument and host Alston asks them a few music-related questions. The musicians have chosen their questions in advance from a list she prepared. .
As each musician demonstrates the instrument, Alston encourages the young audience members to pretend they have their own instrument and play along, mimicking the musician.
Next comes what Alston calls the anecdote. In advance, this award-winning storyteller writes an anecdote involving music. Each musician has assigned lines as this brief story is narrated.
“They’ve also have thought in advance about how to enhance the anecdote musically,” said Alston. “They use their instruments to convey the story. Part of our goal is to demonstrate how music can convey emotions or actions.”
Next comes the highlight— the performance of a new work never heard before that involves all the instruments.
“The Orchestra commissioned a composer to craft a work especially for our youngest listeners,” said Alston. “It had to be under ten minutes, and written especially for this configuration of instruments.”
Composer Charles Murrell came up with a piece with narration titled “John Henry - His Hammer, His Ox, His Beloved Wife.”
“It’s not the actual story of John Henry because young children don’t have a reference for that,” said Alston, who consulted with Murrell in January.
“I wanted to give him some guidelines for this age group, their language development, their conceptual development. And we discussed how to keep it simple but not condescending,” said Alston, who taught pre-school, kindergarten and second grade.
Alston and the musicians had just one rehearsal before the concerts. Now, they are primed and ready to meet their very young audience members.
“For the first few years, there was no ensemble. We did four sets of concerts, with each one featuring a different musician,” she said. “Then I suggested that the musicians return to do a fifth set, and then came the idea of a commissioned work.” As host, Alston also includes a finale for each concert. “We end with an upbeat piece of music,” she said. And she encourages her young audience to pull out all the stops for this. “They can pretend to be the conductor or musician- or they can just wiggle their bodies. And they’re invited to stand up after sitting for 45 minutes.”
“Then I thank them for coming, and we give rounds of applause to all the musicians. And then I sing a goodbye song and that’s how the concert ends.”
The Lansdowne host is a natural for this role. Her connection with the Philadelphia Orchestra’s educational programs began when she was invited to craft a story for a family concert. These programs are for children ages 6 to 12. She eagerly accepted. “Music has always been part of my life,” said Alston, who did so well she was invited back the next year to be host and narrator for all the family concerts.
Then, when the ‘Sound All Around’ program was launched in 1994, Alston was the ideal candidate to be host. She still enjoys each concert.
“I’ve always had an affinity for children, and I love this opportunity to tap into their creative potential,” she said. “And this program definitely does that.”