Larry Granger, music director, leads the Santa Cruz County Symphony Tuesday in the Mello Center at the annual Youth Concert.

Local fourth- and fifth-graders went to a symphony concert Tuesday and left talking about movies and dancing.

And that’s just the way the Santa Cruz County Symphony wanted it.

“It was great, the kids seemed to love it,” said Mark Huber, executive director of the symphony, talking about Tuesday’s back-to-back performances at the Mello Center. The concerts combined the Santa Cruz County Symphony and Santa Cruz County Youth Symphony, appearing before a total of 4,000 students in Watsonville and Santa Cruz. The concerts were previews of family concerts scheduled for March 1 and 2.

John Orzel, music teacher at Aromas School, performed in the symphony, a fact not lost on his students.

Jessica Driver, a fourth-grader at Aromas School, couldn’t wait to hear “Mr. Orzel,” the teacher who taught her how to play trumpet.

Noting it was her first symphony concert, Driver said she couldn’t wait for the baton to drop.

“I expect to hear a lot of music because I’m sure they’re very talented,” Driver said, rattling off the names of instruments like a trained conductor. “Violins, maybe trumpet, I saw some bass violins, some cellos and a harp over here, I’ve never heard a harp. I’m sure there are going to be flutes and clarinets.”

Rodrigo Amezcua, fourth-grader at Aromas School, said he was excited about the performance at the Mello Center.

“I think it’s going to be great. I know how it is to play instruments,” Amezcua said, explaining that he plays trombone at school.

Adam Metzger, fourth-grader at Aromas School, said, “I expect a lot of different sounds from different instruments like the violin, flute and cello and other nice and interesting instruments. I play two, I play the violin and the baritone.”

Jarret DeAmaral, who said he plays saxophone in the Aromas School band, might have been attending one of the symphony’s upcoming classical concerts.

“They could play some Beethoven or Bach,” he predicted, although those composers weren’t on the program.

Many of the kids related to the music.

Hands shot in the air when Larry Granger, music director for the symphony, asked kids in the audience if they had heard of Jack Sparrow. He was talking, of course, about the lead character in “Pirates of the Caribbean,” a popular action movie. The movie’s score served as the youth concert finalé, and it was included as a way to draw kids into symphonic music.

“They hear symphonies all the time in shows and movies, but to hear it live is really completely different,” said composer Stephen Snyder, on hand to perform a premiere piece, “Vuela: An Américas Symphony.”

“You can really feel it through your whole body and to see all those excellent musicians, those first-class musicians play it, I think it’s an amazing experience,” Snyder said.

“I was glad my students were able to come here,” said Alianza teacher Ken Konviser. “For many of them it was the first time. Many of them were wondering what it’s about, it’s opened some new windows for some of them and reinforced a musical background some other kids have. I’m sure we’ll enjoy talking about it when we get back to class.”

Students at the concert confirmed that movie scores and the performance of ZunZun — the combination of Snyder and his wife, Gwynne Snyder Cropsey — made the biggest impression.

Hannah Selden, a fifth-grader from Alianza Charter School, a bilingual immersion school in Pajaro Valley Unified School District, summed up what she learned: “There are a lot of pieces from action movies that are done by symphonies.”

Asked about her favorite part of the program, she said, “The story of the bird.” She was referring to ZunZun’s world premiere of “Vuela,” a combination of music, bilingual narration and dance. Snyder and Cropsey, with partner Stephen Tosh, wrote and adapted their symphony of zesty, Latin music for the youth and family concerts.

Prancing around the auditorium, Snyder mimicked an Amazonian bird on its migratory journey to the United States. He urged audience members to dance along during the performance. Teacher Karen Wigren was one of several adults to be pulled into the aisle by Snyder and encouraged to dance.

Alianza fifth-grader Genaro Osuna said the highlight of the concert for him was “when the guy was flapping his hands and dancing. He was dancing with my teacher, Miss Wigren.”

“The piece is written so the audience is a part of it, by the end you see most of the audience get the chance to do something and be a part of it. Movement is encouraged,” Cropsey said.

Prior to the youth concerts, docents and musicians visited classrooms to acquaint students with concert protocol, instruments in the symphony and basics about the symphonic music. All schools in Santa Cruz County were contacted, Huber said, and those who responded first were given preference for reserved seating at the youth concerts. Organizers, however, made a point of rotating in schools that had been unable to attend in previous years due to overcapacity, Huber said.

Fourth and fifth grades were targeted because those students typically are at the age when they will decide whether or not to pick up a musical instrument, Huber said.

The combined symphony will perform its family concerts Saturday, March 1, at the Mello Center and Sunday, March 2, at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium. Both family concerts are at 2 p.m. Tickets range from $10 to $12.

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For information, call 420-5260 or visit www.santacruz

symphony.org.

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*Photos by Tarmo Hannula*

(Published in 2/27/08 edition)

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