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Musical sounds of nature filled the Show Low High School Auditorium on March 7 as the White Mountain Symphony Orchestra performed their annual Children’s Concert to nearly 1,600 fourth and fifth grade students from schools around the White Mountains, including 280 students and teachers from Snowflake, 155 from Taylor and 90 from Joseph City.
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As a special bonus, Emily Knight, a senior at Holbrook High School, filled in for the orchestra tuba player, Nate Adams, who also lives and teaches in Holbrook. Due to the parent-teacher conferences happening on the same date, Adams was unable to perform, but sent Knight in his place.
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Music Is In Nature was the theme this year, which gave the orchestra a chance to play music, as Conductor Ted Vives said, “with all sorts of cool nature sounds, like wasps, thunder, rain and birds.”’
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As the auditorium filled with the students and teachers, members of the orchestra brought their instruments down from the stage and began talking with students, answering questions, demonstrating how the instrument worked and in some cases, giving the students a chance to play the instrument under careful guidance.
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The performance opened with “The Wasp Overture and Suite” by Respighi. Vives encouraged the children to hear the buzzing of the wasps in the music. From there the orchestra performed “On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring” by Delius, in which a lone clarinet played the part of the bird, sending little cuckoo notes throughout the song.
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Vives told the kids to imagine being in the woods sitting under a tree and hearing our resident bird in the orchestra, saying “Cuckoo,” just like the cuckoo clock.
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But perhaps the best song was “Cloudburst” by Whitacre. Vives said that in his opinion this was one of the neatest pieces written in the last 20 years. “Whitacre is from Las Vegas, Nevada,” continued Vives, “And he wanted to capture the idea of a storm passing through the desert in his music.”
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Near the end of the song, Vives turned to the audience and motioned for the students to begin snapping their fingers, creating the sound of falling rain through the audience as the orchestra played the rumbling thunder and other sounds of the passing storm.
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Dallin Gardner, a fourth grade student from Snowflake, said his favorite part was the song about the wasps. “I liked the music and could almost see the wasps flying in the air.”
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The Orchestra has been putting on the free yearly musical event as a way to inspire and touch children with music.
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Anna McCleve, who plays the French horn and has been with the orchestra since 1981, said, “We have been doing it for about 15 years since 2003, helping the kids to be exposed to orchestral music and realizing how much music plays a part of their lives. This is sometimes the only exposure they have.”
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McCleve said she is always excited to see the impact of the program on children. “It was because of this program, that we had a student who wanted to learn an instrument and this year she will be soloing on the flute at the Concerto Concert on April 13.”
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The Music Is program is open to any student within the region who is at the fourth and fifth grade age levels.
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“We encourage everyone to participate including homeschool and private school students,” said McCleve. “Prior to the performance we send out music links and background information on the composers to the teachers so they can present it to their classes.”
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The next event by the White Mountain Symphony Orchestra will be the Concerto Concert at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 13, at the Show Low High School Auditorium. Tickets are $10 per adult and $5 per student.
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