HOW TO GET CHILDREN INTERESTED IN CLASSICAL? JUSTIN BELL
M is for Music is a new interactive show performed with the ESO that is doing just that
Not everyone is enthused by classical music, or excited by the prospect of a night at the symphony. But an Edmonton-born actor is looking to introduce skeptical audiences to some of the best pieces in the genre with a new show performed alongside the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Shauna Johannesen is bringing her popular M is for Music to the Winspear Centre Saturday afternoon, performing alongside the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in a show designed to bring out the wonder and joy of classical music.
It's an interactive show for kids and young families, showing off the majesty and wonder in classical music, while teaching audiences about the orchestra and how classical music doesn't require some deep understanding to be enjoyed.
Johannesen takes on the role of Sarah T. Murdoch, an eight-yearold girl on a field trip to the symphony.
It would be an understatement to say she's not looking forward to the trip, where she believes M is more likely to stand for meh, not music. Where's the excitement? Where are the cool animals?
The audience is invited to join in her journey of discovery, learning about the musicians and the music while demystifying the experience of taking in a performance at the symphony.
“I think classical music sometimes, even for me, has a kind of remove to it. You think it might be for a certain kind of people or that you need to know a lot about it. I wanted to take that away a little bit,” says Johannesen. “Music is for everybody.”
It was a personal journey for the Vancouver-based writer and actor. While her husband is a jazz musician, Johannesen said she's never been a big fan of classical music. It was through M is for Music that she discovered the excitement and beauty of the genre.
She developed the show from a children's story she had written. Johannesen was presenting a short story at an arts event in Vancouver when a staff member from the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra approached her about bringing it to the stage.
Johannesen designed the show around three major themes: music as emotion, music as movement and movement as imagination. She debuted the show in January of 2020 with the VSO.
“Music that doesn't have lyrics has been a little bit more opaque for me,” says Johannesen. “I didn't know how to understand it in the same way. Getting to do this show was beautiful; I got to come to a new appreciation for it.”
M is for Music shows off a wide selection of pieces that would work with her show, pieces that audiences may recognize from other places or popular culture. That includes Rossini's William Tell Overture, Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, the main theme from Star Wars and even a classical rendition of Baby Shark.
They are fun and accessible pieces in the symphonic repertoire, but also pieces that are recognizable from popular culture. Audiences at M is for Music get to hear the full piece and experience it being performed live by professional musicians.
“At one point in the show, my character Sarah says it's almost like how every instrument has their own voice and they make a choir. When I get to be on stage, I get to hear the individual sounds. I am struck anew every time by the beauty of people coming together to make one thing,” says Johannesen.
The onstage performance is only one part of the overall M is for Music experience. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will also have activities set up in the lobby before the performance where families can decorate the cover of their own magical music book, relax with story time or even participate in a sing-along.
Johannesen now lives in Vancouver where she works as a writer and actor, including as Maureen McGill in the Netflix series The Babysitters Club. She also writes and acts in theatre. But this performance is a homecoming, as she grew up in Edmonton and still has a large family in town.
With five siblings and 20 cousins, there's a huge hometown contingent out to see her perform with the symphony, which she calls an honour and a privilege every time she's done it.
“When I'm on stage with those musicians, I have to pinch myself,” says Johannesen. “There's a lot of very young classical musicians. A lot of them are parents. There's a desire from them too to share their music and their love of music with people.”