Young listeners delighted by Symphony of the Redwoods

FORT BRAGG, CA >> Last Friday morning at the Cotton Auditorium in Fort Bragg, the Symphony of the Redwoods treated young students from Redwood and Dana Gray Elementary Schools to the famous symphonic fairy tale of “Peter and the Wolf.” Composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936, the halfhour classic brings the story to life with the voices of various instruments representing different characters in the story.

Guest Director Phillip Lenberg of the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra, along with twentysix members of the Symphony of the Redwoods, performed for two separate student groups. Also in the audience was Symphony of the Redwoods Executive Director Joanie Packard and Nicole H. Glentzer, the Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools. The children’s concert was funded by Barbara Faulkner, Steve Acker, and a GASP grant from the Mendocino County Office

of Education.

Up on stage playing the bassoon was Eva von Bahr, the President of the Board of Directors for the Symphony of the Redwoods. Tess Albin-Smith, a Fort Bragg City Council member, played the timpani drums. Her spouse, Doug Albin, graciously stepped in at the last minute to replace the narrator who had become ill.

“Peter and the Wolf” is probably the most widely known work by Prokofiev, considered one of the music giants of 20th-century composers. Instruments take the parts of the characters in the tale of a boy and the wolf he outwits with the help of a bird. The narration delivers just enough explanation of the action for young listeners to imagine the rest.

Before the performance, Director Lenberg introduced his audience to the sounds of the various instruments and whose characters each represented. The grades K-5 students soon caught the spirit of the plot, recognizing the bassoon as the grandfather, the flute as the bird, and the

French horn as the wolf. The unfortunate duck was played by the oboe, and the cat moved to the notes of the clarinet. Peter was represented by all the string instruments on stage.

Some youngsters became directors from their seats. Others swayed and bounced in rhythm with the musical passages. Still, others sat quietly, elbows on knees, chins in hands, mesmerized by the imaginary world unfolding from the instruments of skilled musicians. Many were initially startled by the surprisingly deep tones of the timpani drums representing hunters in the woods.

After the performance, Director Lenberg interacted with his young audience, drawing out their reactions to the various instruments they heard. The enthusiastic responses and loud clapping clearly expressed the students’ delight. For many, it was likely their first experience hearing orchestral instruments and experiencing the flow of classical music as all the instruments wove the story of Peter and the wolf to its end.

Joanie Packard, Executive Director of the Symphony of the Redwoods, said, “I think this is one of the most important things the symphony does, to reach out to children.” The Symphony is in its 40th year and is coming back from a pandemic hiatus that kept the musicians away from the schools for three years. The time has offered the nonprofit the opportunity to reorganize its administration and write grants for new funding.

The administration has been applying best practices to its finance and human resources management thanks to funding from the Community Foundation. Packard expressed her appreciation. “They’ve been very generous with us for years,” she said. Packard commented that grants from the state also helped keep them afloat during the pandemic shutdown. Packard noted that the symphony musicians don’t rely on their employee pay as a main source of income, and the loss of income was manageable.

Even in years when the symphony has a full season of performances, Packard said that “the cost of a ticket doesn’t come anywhere close to the cost to put on a symphony.” Fundraising and grants are necessary, but Packard said the symphony has the good fortune of legacy donations set aside for the nonprofit in donators’ wills.

All this allows the symphony to focus on insuring a high level of professionalism in their musicians. They are also able to bring in musicians from other places to perform with them. For example, the symphony’s Opus Group visited band classes at Fort Bragg Middle School and brought with them Brass Over Bridges, a Bay Area quartet who had performed the previous evening. The quartet spoke to the students, gave them coaching for their instruments, and sat in the students’ band sections for warmup. They spoke about their beginnings in music which all of them stated was in middle school. Packard recalled, “You could see this dawning on kids’ faces that these people make a living playing these instruments.”

Now visiting and performing for elementary students, Packard stressed the symphony’s commitment to bringing music to children. “This time,” she said, “we tried our best to get every K-5 student on the Mendocino coast involved.” She noted that at the Mendocino Elementary performance children came from locations farther away such as Comptche and Elk. Invitations were also sent out to all charter and private schools as well.

Symphony of the Redwoods first developed from a class at Mendocino College in 1983. Packard said there are ten original members still playing in the orchestra. “One of our orchestra members is a high schooler,” she said. She quickly related the story of three generations of women playing in the orchestra. The current high school student is the third generation.

Symphony of the Redwoods borrowed Conductor Phillip Lenberg of the Ukiah Orchestra for the children’s show. “We’re in the middle of a search for a conductor right now,” she said. The former conductor retired during the pandemic period.

The search committee has recently narrowed possibilities down to three candidates. “Each of them conducts a symphony,” said Packard. The second candidate will conduct in April.

To learn more about the Symphony of the Redwoods, which performs at the Cotton Auditorium in Fort Bragg, or to see performance schedules and ticket prices, go to symphonyoftheredwoods.org.