Rob Kapilow: classical’s determined Sam-I-am

Composer and conductor Rob Kapilow has a kindred spirit: the irrepressible promoter of that titular culinary dish in Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham.” Kapilow’s mission is giving people a taste of classical music.

The Seuss book “is a parable about prejudice,” Kapilow says. “It represents all those things that we’re sure we’re not going to like before we try them. It’s the perfect metaphor for classical music in America.”

In the lively “What Makes It Great?” programs, akin to Leonard Bernstein’s lauded “Young People’s Concerts,” Kapilow delves into a single work to reveal its layers of meaning. His latest program at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts on Wednesday explores Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto” with the help of the Riverside County Philharmonic and clarinet soloist Deborah Avery.

“We just take stuff apart,” Kapilow says. “I’m asking questions, there’s tapping, clapping, singing. The idea is to get the audience to have a real relationship with the music -- what makes it tick, get to know the musicians, break down barriers. Make people feel like they really can get it.”

Classical music should not be scary, he says, “but so many things surrounding it are almost designed to intimidate. The sense that it’s hoity-toity -- you have to dress up, know when to clap -- is, in a weird way, foreign to the music itself.”

Based at Lincoln Center, Kapilow began his musical mission because, as a conductor, “all I wanted to do was turn around and say, ‘Did you hear that? Isn’t that a beautiful chord?’ But if you did that, they would cart you away.”

Kapilow returns to Cerritos Center on April 23 with his “FamilyMusik” program, “Green Eggs & Hamadeus.”

-- Lynne Heffley