YACM hosts Treats ’N Tunes
Vacaville music conservatory has unveiled its new garden venue
Due to COVID-19, the California Department of Public Health is strongly discouraging trick- ortreating on Halloween. But children can enjoy a safe and fun Halloween experience this year at the Young Artists Conservatory of Music’s Treats ‘ N Tunes event at YACM’s brand new Tarrega Event Garden at 500 Davis St. in Vacaville.
Kids ages 4-11 can don their Halloween costumes and have their parents bring them downtown to YACM for a music-filled Halloween celebration on October 31. There are two time slots — Morning Madness at 11 a.m. and Adventure Afternoon at 1 p.m. — each 90 minutes filled with interactive, safe fun, including the String Maze, Monster Mallets, Candy Corn Keyboards and Drum Drive.
Due to COVID, each session will host a limited number of families and slots are filling up fast. To sign up, go to www.youngartistsconservatory.org/treats-ntunes-halloween-garden.
The event is free, and each child will receive popcorn and candy.
If Halloween masks don’t cover the child’s nose and mouth, YACM will provide COVID disposable masks. The music activities are self- guided, though YACM students and staff will be on hand to demonstrate the music stations and help children try them out. The event will observe sanitizing protocols. Every instrument will be sprayed and wiped down with disinfectant after each use.
Treats ‘ N Tunes is using the name for the downtown concert that YACM has performed for the last 12 years for the Vacaville Downtown Stroll.
“We just want kids to be able to come out on Halloween, do something in their costumes and be inspired with music,” said Wanda Cook, founding director of YACM. “Little ones, music gets them going, so we want them to be able to access our community, raise awareness, make sure everybody knows we’re here and that we’re offering COV ID - compliant lessons. We’re safe and it’s important for kids to have something to do where they’re not in front of a screen all day long.”
The non-profit music education and performing arts organization is in its 16th season and has been at its current location since 2007.
YACM closed dow n in- person instruction in March due to the coronavirus but re- opened for those who wanted handson lessons on July 6. The
school’s Youth Theatre program transitioned from musicals to small-group speech arts and storytelling programs, while the orchestra changed over to quartets, all for COVID safety.
Students can begin taking lessons at YACM at age five, but adults are also welcome.
This Sunday, YACM will host its Fall Garden Recital in its new venue from
2 — 3:30 p.m. Although the event is primarily for 25 students and their families, the public may also attend. Masks must be worn by all, but the performers will remove their masks to play or sing on stage. Attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs and to observe social distancing protocols.
The YACM Board of Directors volunteered to help make the new gar
den a reality. Board President Kevin Phillips designed the garden, and YACM hired a landscaper to complete the project. It opened for the school’s use on Sept. 21.
“This way we’ll be outdoors and we’ll be a community again,” said Cook of this Sunday’s recital. “We’ll be artistic and we’ll be able to help kids and our new families see the power of what their kids have learned in the past few months and feel some sense of identity with the conservatory and with their community. That’s what the performing arts does. It brings us together and gives us a cultural identity.”
In addition to private music lessons, YACM has acting classes for elementary school children and teens. Its Solano Youth Theater is working on drama, acting and storytelling because it cannot do events due to COVID. The school recently completed three adult pop-in improvisation and comedy classes.
For coronavirus safety, private music lessons are held individually in separate rooms with windows open. YACM constantly sanitizes and uses UV- C air purifiers. There is also an open-air veranda upstairs for outside voice lessons.
“What has impacted the arts is that we can’t rent a theater or concert hall,” said Cook. “So for us the garden with a stage and a nice lawn space and patio space for everybody was the most important thing that we could do.”
Cook said that she and the school want to raise awareness of the value of engagement in the arts for the developing child.
“It’s not just turning on Netflix and everybody watches the same thing or everybody goes to a chain restaurant,” said Cook. “We and our performing arts make our culture and our unique community.”
For more information, visit www.youngartistsconservatory.org.