Studio3Music Blog

Archive for the ‘Symphony Concerts’ Category

Sep
2

A New Season of Shows

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Family, Symphony Concerts, Things We Love

At some point this summer, while the rest of you were thinking of suntans and beaches and nothing to do with school, Miss Allison, Miss Stacey, Michael, Chadd and I were knee deep in snow, sheep and the sea!

We’re totally tickled to be bringing you 4 concerts this year, including an all new holiday show.

All concerts sold out weeks in advance last season, so purchase your tickets early by clicking on the concert titles below. Season tickets (does not include the Holiday Show) for the 9:30 performances are here, and the 10:30 here.

Holiday Symphony Serenade

Saturday December 10, 2011 – 9:30 and 10:30

An ALL NEW show! It’s a delightful collection of your favorite holiday things all on one stage, including the 8 days of Hanukkah and a jazz trio! Come hear holiday music from all over the world, bounce, sing, play and move.

A Birthday Party For Mozart

Saturday January 21, 2012 – 9:30 and 10:30

Mozart is turning 4 years old, and you’re invited to his party! Come explore the delightful world of Mozart’s music, from his point of view. Watch what happens when he doesn’t get the musical present he really wanted. As always, we’ll have a singalong musical story and invite you to snuggle up to a lullaby.

A Little Barn Moo-sic

Saturday March 17, 2012, 9:30 and 10:30

Miss Allison, her musical friends, and the Story Fairy welcome you to the cacophony of the barnyard! It’s time to for some classical pastoral moosic. Sing a funny sheepish story, and meet a wise old owl. You’ll even hear instruments that sound like animals.

Swing Me Up and Swing Me Down

Saturday May 12, 2011 – 9:30 and 10:30

In this action-packed concert, we will be using music to teach the concepts of high and low. We’ll meet the members of the brass family, play high and low games, sing a terrific story about some ocean friends. With Mother’s Day just around the corner, we recommend bringing your favorite Mommy to the show!

-posted by the Story Fairy, who is wondering how she can turn a barnyard full of animals into a headpiece.

Tags: kindermusik, Miss Analiisa, music, preschoolers, Things to do, toddlers

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Feb
21

Counting monkeys. And cows.

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Child Development, Education, Symphony Concerts, Things to do

I love counting songs. (There are so many of them to love!) And they all seem to have something to do with animals. (I love songs about animals!). And they all seem to have rhyming words in them. (And I love songs with rhyming words, especially if there is opportunity to change the rhyming pairs. Never ending variation options gives you a song that it really fun to sing!)

“The Ants Go Marching” is a prime candidate for counting, rhyming and word switching. There is no rule that says the little one has to suck his thumb when the ants are marching one by one; he can eat a bun or lie in the sun, or hum a little hum.

And since Velcro shoes are all the rage these days for kids, the “little one” hardly ever ties his shoes any more. He is much more likely to shout out “Boo!”, or play a kazoo, or dance with Sue, or step in glue. The variations are endless, thus making the song new and interesting every time you sing it with your child.

In class recently we’ve been doing “Hickory Dickory Dock”. Although there is a sung version of this beloved nursery rhyme I’ve been focusing on the spoken word. (I have to make myself not sing everything in class… spoken word is just as valid as sung word , educationally speaking… but I do love to sing!) Traditionally there is only one verse to this rhyme-

Hickory Dickery Dock
The Mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
Down did he run
Hickory dickory dock!

Yes, I know I changed it. It should rhyme. Mother Goose was just having a bad day when she wrote this one, or the translator was mad at Mother Goose , or the original printing had a mistake in it. But we all know this is the way it should be, so this is how I teach it in class.

We also know clocks strike more than just one time a day, so there’s no reason why you can’t add verses. Since this little ditty is always done as a single stanza, your child will more than likely not have any pre-conceived ideas of what should happen on two, three… all the way up to twelve. That’s another benefit of this poem; it goes to twelve, versus all the traditional chants that stop at 10.

Ten is the logical place to stop, because counting songs and poems and chants are designed to teach math, and understanding that math is all about sets of tens is the first step to understanding.

Interestingly enough, most songs and chants that count down start at five, which is one hand and half a set of ten, so they are also very useful for teaching mathematical thinking, and for visualizing subtraction.

To subtract, the pointer finger on the other hand counts down the fingers on the working hand on your way down to zero. My very favorite “work your way down to zero” finger plays are about monkeys. I really like songs about monkeys. They’re silly, and almost everything about monkeys in finger plays is funny.

As a matter of fact, I like counting songs and games about monkeys so much that our spring concert at the Symphony is entitled “Count Yourself Silly”. There will be monkeys; they will be jumping on the bed, teasing Mr. Crocodile, and irritating the Story Fairy. And since monkeys live in the jungle, that’s where we’re headed, on a boat full of bouncy pirates who like to count and rhyme.

We are focusing on pitched percussion and our arranger, Ian, is very excited. I lost track of the number of instruments he wanted. He finally said, “Most of these are small, I’m sure we can get them all on the stage”. I’ll let you all know if there will be room for us after I see his list.

And Miss Rachel, our very talented illustrator, is eagerly sketching out a new set of monkeys for the story. For those of you have been lucky enough to attend the “Put Your Left Paw In” summer camp you will be familiar with her first set of adorable monkeys from “Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree” . She is creating new, cute monkeys right now for our story. And cows… she is drawing lots and lots of cows.

“COWS….? Why cows?” You might ask….

You’ll have to buy a ticket or ten of them, please, and come see…. I’m not going to give away all the secrets!!

-posted by Miss Allison, who will tell you more about rhyming words and how important they are later. In the meantime, just keep counting and rhyming.

Tags: learning, math, Miss Allison, Things to do

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Oct
13

Self-identity. Who am I?

Posted in Child Development, Imagine That, Our Time, parenting, Symphony Concerts, Village

Our first Symphony Serenade Concert this year falls on Halloween, so you can imagine what the Seattle Symphony wanted our subject matter to be! In the process of writing the script, I got to thinking. What is it about Halloween that kids like so much?

I honestly don’t think it’s the candy (though that’s what may first come to children’s minds!) I think the pleasure of Halloween is linked to the emotional developmental milestones that young children are working through in the first 5 years of life. It is emotional maturation (specifically, the development of self-identity) that drives a child’s growth in all other areas.

The process that children go through to build self-identity is often difficult for the grownups to understand. Most of us don’t remember this part of our own development, which happened between 18 months and 5 years. We may remember events and people ( I remember a snowstorm when I was barely two and my great grandmother who died when I was four). But I don’t recall a lot about the process of becoming who I am. So when our children begin this journey, it may be a mysterious process for us.

We all love the endearing part of the process that happens at about 18 months. There is lots of peek-a-boo and hide and seek games. Your child comes when you call their name; usually at a run and straight into your open arms. They call you “mommy” and they are fully aware now that it is your name. By this point, you can play the “where’s your nose, where’s mommy’s nose” game, and they know the difference between you and them.

Then there’s the irritating side. They fall on the floor in the middle of the grocery store and wail like a banshee because you won’t let them climb up the cereal display. They smack the child who lives next door and snatch away a toy, and then lay on the floor and wail like a banshee when you take it away and give it back to the other child. Who, by the way, won’t play with it anyway because she’s also lying on the floor wailing like a banshee. And they wail like a banshee when you leave them with grandma to go to a movie with your spouse. And this is the grandma who lives 3 doors down and sees the child everyday of their life, not the one who lives far away and came for a visit once when they were a newborn.

Both the irritating and the endearing parts of this process are normal. As a child begins to separate their identity from their mother (somewhere between 16 and 18 months) they bound away from her like a joey escaping the pouch (that’s the screaming like a banshee part) only to bound right back in again and make your heart swell in your chest with emotions that are truly beyond words. (That’s the endearing part.)

A child beginning to discover WHO they are is only the first half of the journey to individualism. This part of the process takes a little less than two years to be completed. During this period a child acquires language and learns to express himself. Wailing like a banshee still occurs every now and again, but it is less often. Children move from parallel play to cooperative play, and begin to make real friends. They potty train and become more and more independent. They are growing up.

By assisting them out of the pouch and helping them back in, we provide a safe and nurturing environment for this process to happen.

But this is only one half of the journey. The second half of the journey is about the world of imagination; the world where costumes are a part of everyday life, where invisible friends come to dinner, and fears stalk the bedroom after dark.

Our concert theme in October is all about self identity, and how children go about becoming individuals. We will address the first half of this adventure through peek-a-boo play and hide and seek. By identifying a child by his or her name we can help them to separate from us, and grow into strong individuals. (And if we do it in a song, it’s just more fun!)

We will also explore the importance of costumes, and the nature of fear, and some of the things that help children cope with those fears. Unfortunately for us grownups, these fears are neither rational or reasonable, and certainly not logical! But having the tools to help our children deal with these upsets makes parenting much easier.

There is a musical focus as well, of course. A perfect choice (if I do say so myself) for the spookiest night of the year: music in major and minor tonalities. There will be some new instruments to meet – and a couple of familiar ones as well.

So, come back next week and I’ll talk about the second stage of the developmental process of building identity, and give you some more teasers about the show.

Tickets are available now here – so get them while you can!

-posted by Miss Allison, who is looking forward to seeing you at the symphony on October 31st!

Tags: parenting, preschoolers, pretend play, toddlers

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Apr
8

What is it about Mister Rogers? Part 2 – He Focused on the Things That Really Mattered

Posted in Bits and Pieces, Symphony Concerts

Teacher Aaron still loves Mister Rogers, just like me. Both of us cried when he died.

I haven’t watched Mister Rogers in years, but I remember watching his show when my little brother was young. Of course, I watched him with my god-daughters and my nieces and nephews and then with my own boys.

He spoke to my children, not at them or around them or through them. He spoke about things that were important and things that were silly and things that mattered. He showed them places, like the caves where mushrooms are grown, that they could have never seen without him. He was kind, and honest, and all the things I hope my children will be when they grow up.

He was just as wonderful off-screen. The following is an excerpt written by Tom Junod from Esquire magazine’s coverage of the Emmy awards in 1997 when Fred Rogers received a lifetime achievement award:

“Mister Rogers went onstage to accept the award — and there, in front of all the soap opera stars and talk show sinceratrons, in front of all the jutting man-tanned jaws and jutting saltwater bosoms, he made his small bow and said into the microphone,’All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence.’

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, ‘I’ll watch the time.’ There was, at first, a small whoop from the crowd, a giddy, strangled hiccup of laughter, as people realized that he wasn’t kidding, that Mister Rogers was not some convenient eunuch, but rather a man, an authority figure who actually expected them to do what he asked. And so they did. One second, two seconds, seven seconds — and now the jaws clenched, and the bosoms heaved, and the mascara ran, and the tears fell upon the beglittered gathering like rain leaking down a crystal chandelier. And Mister Rogers finally looked up from his watch and said softly ‘May God be with you,’ to all his vanquished children.”

How can Barney or Tinky Winky compete with that?

My goal for our concerts with the Seattle Symphony is to be like Mister Rogers for musical education. So, don’t look for me to wear a silly costume or big heads or clown suits, or canned music. You’ll just find authentic, real people teaching children about music and life in general. Just like Mister Rogers.

-posted by Miss Allison who might wear a cardigan for the next show on May 9.
Seattle Symphony Concerts

Tags: Miss Allison

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Feb
25

High and Low, Here Comes the Show!

Posted in Symphony Concerts, Things to do

symphony-serenade PHEW! I have spent the last several days plugging away at the script for the upcoming Symphony Serenade Concert at the Seattle Symphony. Actually, I started processing this concert in my head right after the last show, “Sing Me A Story” in December. Seriously, before we had even cleared the loading dock door I was planning and processing out loud to Michael, poor man. I’m a noisy kind of wife for an introverted man.

As we drove to Denver for Christmas, I wrote song lyrics with Analiisa in the car. That was really hard since there is limited cell phone reception in Montana. I concocted verses for the song we’ll sing in the story while on the beach in Mexico. I sang ditties to my nieces, and hummed my way through airports and customs. It’s been rather busy in my head. Miss Stacey and Michael have answered dozens of questions and given me invaluable input. And for several weeks now, I’ve been communicating with the arranger, the artist, and the puppeteer. (Yes, you saw that correctly, puppets! I won’t say more, just go buy tickets.)

So I guess the only pre-rehearsal thing left to do was wrest the material out of my head, into my computer, and then onto paper. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I’m thrilled with the results and can hardly wait to share it all with you. So here are some teasers:

This concert features a well known local brass quintet called Washington Brass Ensemble. They are renowned musicians, and quite a treat for us!

Our educational concept, in addition to the instruments in the brass family, is high and low.

We will sing some favorite Kindermusik songs: Above the Sea, Hop Up My Baby and Little Boy Blue, plus others…

There will be tickling.

Michael will be silly and he’ll sing.

Chadd will play the piano, Miss Stacey and I will sing. We promise to be silly, too. (We’re hoping to get Chadd to be silly.)

And last but not least-

The Story Fairy is coming back! She has very specific ideas about what makes a story work, and she is not letting anyone leave until a proper story has been told, complete with pictures and singing.

So there you have it. Now all we need is you. Buy your tickets. Please buy them now. Buy them soon. Buy lots of tickets. Take your friends. Take grandma (she’s in the hello song, you know).

-posted by Miss Allison, who will miss you if you’re not there, so buy tickets…