Orchestra Offers Kids Classical Music on a Lighter Note

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, variations on “Yankee Doodle,” and a rhythmically complex piece by 20th-century Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera may seem an unlikely mix for a classical concert.

But the performance by Ventura County’s New West Symphony played well Wednesday for an audience of 1,600 fascinated, if slightly antsy, third-graders at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center.

It’s all part of the Thousand Oaks-based symphony’s annual effort to bring live classical music to 10,000 schoolchildren across Ventura County. The program is aimed at students in third, fourth and fifth grades and the performance portion began Tuesday with concerts at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Beethoven’s great symphonic work is not often paired with such simple fare as “Yankee Doodle,” but conductor and musical director Boris Brott has a reason for throwing them together. It’s a perfect way to give children--many of whom have never been to an orchestral concert before--an introduction they can understand.

He uses sections of each piece to explain such musical elements as melody, harmony, counterpoint and rhythm, and also to introduce the instruments of the orchestra.

Brott, a protege of maestro Leonard Bernstein, models the series after a similar program he runs for 60,000 schoolchildren in his native Canada. He, in turn, modeled that on a popular television series, “Young People’s Concerts,” that Bernstein created three decades ago to teach American youngsters about music.

The 45-minute performances are hardly suited for an in-depth music lesson, Brott said. But by throwing out a few key musical ideas and having a little fun in the process, he hopes to spark young imaginations.

Or, at least, help kids decide classical music isn’t just for grown-ups.

“I want them to walk away saying, ‘That was cool,’ ” Brott said. “It’s one of the most important things we can do to make sure we have an audience in the future.”

The program was interactive, more like a rock concert than an evening at the symphony. Horn players, flutists, and violinists waived their instruments, encouraging youngsters to cheer for them, double bass players did hefty twirls in unison, and Brott came the closest a conductor will likely ever get to a stage dive, dancing up the aisles, prompting kids to clap.

“Sometimes I think adult concerts should be more like this,” Brott said afterward.

Wiggly yet attentive, the children talked little during the concert, all watching different musicians in turn, tapping their feet, swaying and smiling.

The concerts are meant to be the culmination of a music program started in the fall, with state-approved teaching materials passed out to classes scheduled to attend the concerts. But few of the teachers at Wednesday’s concert could describe much about the materials, a fact Brott lamented and said he has encountered for years, as schools displace the arts for core subjects.

Still, seeing an orchestra is an important experience for children, he said.

Musical children learn to think creatively as adults, Brott said. His mentor Bernstein understood that, he said.

At the end, the young audience applauded wildly, and many said they would like to come again.

Rebecca Sanders, 8, a student at Rose Avenue Elementary School in Oxnard, said she had been looking forward to seeing the horns because she had learned about them in school and would like to play one someday.

Her class wore evening wear, boys in ties and girls in long dresses, because their teacher, Connie Korenstein, suggested they dress for the occasion.

“They’re just so excited about this,’ Korenstein said. “They’ve all got real shoes on--no tennis shoes--and they combed their hair and they’re all spiffed up.”

Many of the children said they enjoyed the timpani, xylophone and other percussion solos the best, something principal percussionist Marie Matson said she hears frequently.

“It’s popular with the kids because it’s visual,” she said, adding that the orchestra musicians enjoy the annual education program as much as the students.

“It lets us be kids too,” she said.