FAMILY OUTING
THE FIFTH ANNUAL HEIGHTS KIDS’ DAY OF MUSIC LETS CHILDREN EXPLORE INSTRUMENTS AND MORE.
Children take center stage at Kids’ Day of Music.
Families can bring their own drum, or borrow one, to become part of the first community drum circle to take place at Heights Kids’ Day of Music. The fifth annual event returns to Love Park in the Heights on Saturday.
Throughout the day in the Joy of Drumming tent — a new element at this year’s fest thanks to a grant from Houston Arts Alliance — members of Joy of Djembe Drumming and music students from the Arabic Immersion Magnet School, located in the Heights, will each perform.
The two groups use different styles of drums, and guests can try their hand at the instruments.
At 1 p.m., the musicians, along with families in attendance, will form a 15-minute drum circle, so guests can experience “how people can come together without even knowing each other to make music,” event founder Christi Gell says.
Gell, a Heights resident, mom of two and lifelong pianist and flutist, created her grass-roots, volunteerdriven music festival in 2015 as a place where kids can rock out with their parents to local bands in a safe environment.
New moms and dads sometimes feel compelled to switch their music taste to “kid music,” Gell says, “but I would argue that all music is kid friendly.”
The Heights is fitting for the event, which drew 3,200 people last year, because of its history “of being a little funky and artistic,” she says.
Returning to the main stage as the headliners are three “particularly well-loved” musical acts from past years, Gell says — Tom’s Fun Band, Yelba’s Latin Fire and ThunderSOUL Orchestra.
The festival is committed to showcasing only talent with Houston roots, Gell says. ThunderSOUL Orchestra, which she promises will deliver “a lot of funk and soul,” was the subject of the 2010 documentary narrated by Jamie Foxx, “Thunder Soul,” about alumni from Houston’s Kashmere High School Stage Band.
Houston Grand Opera, Ars Lyrica, an Irish dance troupe, students from the musical and theater program at Harvard Elementary in the Heights, and other local arts groups also will perform.
Pop-up performances
Opera in the Heights will again host its Singing Station, where it’ll show off its range of voices and ask guests to try singing with instruction. Members also will perform short operettas.
From there, families can try their skills at the Instrument Petting Zoo, which in past years has featured trombones, clarinets, saxophones,
flutes, trumpets, and percussion and string instruments.
Gell hopes the range of musical genres will “open the minds and ears of Houstonians.” As arts education gets cut from school curriculum, she says, the hands-on experiences might inspire a child to pursue learning an instrument — or remind a parent of his or her love of playing music.
At a new area this year called Just Add Beats, local musician Andrew Karnavas will showcase curriculum he’s developed that teaches kids about sound design and recording. Kids can borrow a
microphone and walk around the festival recording sounds. Back at the tent, they’ll use headphones and laptops to layer those sounds on top of musical tracks.
The recordings will build off each other throughout the event.
Little hands, big talent
Tom’s Fun Band was the opening act at the first Heights Kids’ Day of Music and will return this year to perform crowd favorites such as “Macaroni and Cheese” and “I’m Just a Turtle.”
Tom Wilbeck, who has played in bands since his youth, started the group after becoming a father. By day, he’s a child and adolescent therapist who sometimes uses music in his private practice.
He calls the Heights Kids’ Day of Music unique because it blends live music with exposure to the arts.
“A child’s brain is a blank slate open to all experiences,” he says. “Any auditory or tactile experience will make an impact for the rest of their lives.”
“As a community, if we would like the arts as part of our children’s reality, we have to put them in contact with the arts.”