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By MARQUES G. HARPER mharper@leader.net
Sunday, March 16, 2003 Page: 1F
r The names Eminem, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake and B2K may dominate
music charts, music-video channels and the CD and MP3 players of young people.
But their hefty allegiances in the local market might begin to dip later
this week when about 6,000 students from Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wayne
counties get the chance to stray from today’s popular ear-candy and take in a
different tune as part of the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic’s
decades-old Young People’s Concerts series.
The Philharmonic will perform four educational concerts similar to its
evening pops programs. Two daytime shows are set for Wednesday at the F.M.
Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, while the other two are planned for the Scranton
Cultural Center on Thursday.
The student concerts, under the title “Footloose with the Philharmonic”
and geared for third- through sixth-graders, will take a listening ear on a
global tour of sounds by examining music including the polka, Mexican hat
dance, tango, waltz and the twist.
“I think the kids are going to be absolutely fascinated that an orchestra
can do this,” said maestro Clyde Mitchell, music director of the
Philharmonic. “There’s nothing like the actual experience. It’s so different
from hearing something on a radio or a stereo.”
“It gives them an idea of what an orchestra is,” said Pat Tigue, director
of finance and the Young People’s Concerts coordinator. “Classical music
verses what they listen to, I guess. It opens up their world of music.”
And the concerts serve another purpose: helping the philharmonic grab
future patrons and members while they are still young and developing their
tastes and interests, Tigue said.
To prepare the students for the concerts, the philharmonic delivered CDs
and guide books to 60 area schools. The music on the CDs, which also includes
commentary from Mitchell, was made so teachers can plan lessons involving the
songs, composers and instruments.
Instead of hearing the electronic beeps and gleeps of today’s tunes, the
students from public, private and home-schools will spend 50 minutes in the
Kirby or the Cultural Center getting introduced to live trumpets, tubas,
French horns and violins, among other instruments.
In addition, they will hear snippets of popular songs and styles from
countries of the world including the United States, Mexico, Trinidad, Spain,
France, Italy, Austria, Russia, Canada and Israel. And they also will get to
hear songs from the 20th century such as “The Twist,” the popular Chubby
Checker dance tune, and “Under the Sea,” from the hit Disney movie, “The
Little Mermaid.”
For several numbers, the Ballet Theater of Scranton will join the
Philharmonic on stage and perform to the music, Tigue said.
As for Mitchell, he said he plans to create an ambience by mixing the
songs, some of which were adapted or written specifically for these concerts,
and his jovial concert demeanor.
“I know the importance of it,” Mitchell said. “The pressure is one that
I relish and that I gratefully accept.”
Having grown up in Orlando, Fla., and hearing the Florida symphony for the
first time as a boy, Mitchell said, “I knew I wanted to experience what those
people on the stage were experiencing.
“I can trace back my musical experience and my musical career to that
moment,” he added. “Our goal is not to create a whole bunch of new music
professionals.”
Instead, he said, the goal is simply to expand the musical tastes of young
people and establish friends of the Philharmonic.
“When they’re exposed to that at the concert hall,” Mitchell said, “they
become fans of music for life.”
There are a handful of tickets remaining for noon performances of the
Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts on Wednesday
(at the Kirby Center) and Thursday (at the Scranton Cultural Center). If you
would like to take your child or student, call the Philharmonic at 457-8301.
General admission is $4, and discounted tickets are available for students in
the federal free and reduced lunch programs.
Marques G. Harper, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7324.