All posts tagged youth

Posted:
February 6, 2012
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Jungle Book Fun

This event occurs on one of the Muncie Children’s Museum’s Free Saturdays.
There is no cost to attend. 

Posted:
April 18, 2011
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The Work behind the Concert

Random pictures during rehearsal for the Young Peoples Concert
Seldom do people realize the commitment of the musicians. 
Most of these ladies and gentleman have already put in 
a full day of work at their day job.  
Some drive an hour each way to rehearsal, which tonight is over at 10 p.m.  
The concert tomorrow begins at 9:30 a.m. 
Aren’t they amazing?

Posted:
April 14, 2011
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Young Artist Competition Winner, Arthur Shou, keeps on winning!

The Muncie Symphony Orchestra plays an important role in offering young musicians competition and performance opportunities.  Arthur Shou is one of many talented pianist who competed in the 2010 Young Artist Competition. He won the Senior Division. Arthur has been recognized in Indiana and beyond as an aspiring, up and coming musician.  You may remember Arthur Shou’s wonderful performance at this season’s Fisher Shaffer Concert. Arthur won the piano division of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition this January.  

Arthur Shou



Saturday, the 16th of April, Arthur is performing Schumann’s  Piano Concerto with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra.  For TICKETS call 800.738.3727:   $40 Level 1, $34 Level 2, $20 Level 3, $15 Students


We are very fortunate to have a part in his early career and blessed to know Arthur and his family. Arthur is the older brother of Oliver Shou who won this MSO’s Junior Division Young Artist Competition in January. You will find Oliver’s bio in a previous post. Oliver is performing on the program for the MSO Young Peoples Concert April 19th. More on the YPC here.

Arthur Shou is 17 and a junior at Carmel High School in Indiana.  He started piano at the age of six with Dr. Keli Xu.  In 2007, he joined the Indiana University Young Pianists Program as a student of Dr. Karen Taylor of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In addition to his passion for the piano, he also studies cello with Mr. Ron Noles and is the principal cellist in the Carmel High School Symphony Orchestra
His gifts have earned him numerous awards and performances, including the recent performance with the Muncie Symphony Orchestra.  In recent years, he has won the 3rd place in 2009 Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Maurer Young Artists Concerto Competition and 1st place in 2010 Carmel Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and 2010 Muncie Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.  In the past, he participated and won numerous competitions, including 1st prizes in the Young Hoosier Pianist Competition (junior division) in 2005 and the 2nd in 2006 (senior division), 1st place in Music Teacher National Association State Round (junior division) in 2005, and Indiana Music Teacher Association in 2001 (Early Elementary, District), 2003 (Elementary, District, and State), 2005 (Middle School, District and State), and 2006 (High School Junior, District and State), and was a finalist in Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Maurer Young Artists Competition in 2004. He has attended the IU Summer Piano Academy four times, where he was selected to perform in master classes for Prof. Karen Shaw, Jonathan Bliss, and Andre Watts. Other highlights include performances at Ball State University, Goshen College, Anderson University, and the Indiana Historical Society.  


Break a leg Arthur!

Posted:
April 6, 2011
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Animals in Music

April 19th over 2000 mostly 4th and 5th grade students will fill Emens Auditorium for the Muncie Symphony Orchestra’s Young Peoples Concert. 
The theme is ANIMALS.

Carnival of the Animals composed by Camille Saint Saens in 1886 is among the selections on the program. You might enjoy a preview, but not all the animals will be heard at the Young Peoples Concert. The accompanying YouTube Videos are by Julian Rachlin & friends.  A free copy of the Score is available.  Ogden Nash wrote a series of poems based on the composition. Poems by American writer Ogden Nash


INTRODUCTION
Camille Saint-Saens
Was wracked with pains,
When people addressed him,
As Saint-Saens.
He held the human race to blame,
Because it could not pronounce his name,
So, he turned with metronome and fife,
To glorify other kinds of life,
Be quiet please – for here begins
His salute to feathers, fur and fins.
 THE LION
The lion is the king of beasts, 
And husband of the lioness.
Gazelles and things on which he feasts
Address him as your highoness.
There are those that admire that roar of his,
In the African jungles and velds,
But, I think that wherever the lion is,
I’d rather be somewhere else.
COCKS AND HENS
The rooster is a roistering hoodlum,
His battle cry is cock- a- doodleum.
Hands in pockets, cap over eye,
He whistles at pullets, passing by. 


THE WILD DONKEY
Have ever you harked to the donkey wild,
Which scientists call the onager?
It sounds like the laugh of an idiot child,
Or a hepcat on a harmoniger,
But do not sneer at the donkey wild,
There is a method in his heehaw,
For with maidenly blush and accent mild
The donkey answers shee-haw. 
THE TORTOISE
Come crown my brow with leaves of myrtle, 

I know the tortoise is a turtle,
Come carve my name in stone immortal,
I know the turtoise is a tortle.
I know to my profound despair,
I bet on one to beat a hare,
I also know I’m now a pauper,
Because of its tortley, turtley, torper. 
 THE ELEPHANT
Elephants are useful friends, 
Equipped with handles at both ends,
They have a wrinkled moth proof hide,
Their teeth are upside down, outside,
If you think the elephant preposterous,
You’ve probably never seen a rhinosterous. 
KANGAROOS

The kangaroo can jump incredible, 
He has to jump because he is edible,
I could not eat a kangaroo,
But many fine Australians do,
Those with cookbooks as well as boomerangs,
Prefer him in tasty kangaroomeringues. 
THE AQUARIUM
Some fish are minnows, 
Some are whales,
People like dimples,
Fish like scales,
Some fish are slim,
And some are round,
They don’t get cold,
They don’t get drowned,
But every fishwife
Fears for her fish,
What we call mermaids
They call merfish.
MULES

In the world of mules
There are no rules.
(Laughing, In the world of mules
There are no rules) 
THE CUCKOO IN THE WILD
Cuckoos lead bohemian lives,
They fail as husbands and as wives,
Therefore, they cynically disparage
Everybody else’s marriage 


BIRDS




Puccini was Latin, and Wagner Teutonic,
And birds are incurably philharmonic,
Suburban yards and rural vistas
Are filled with avian Andrew Sisters.
The skylark sings a roundelay,
The crow sings “The Road to Mandalay,”
The nightingale sings a lullaby,
And the sea gull sings a gullaby.
That’s what shepherds listened to in Arcadia
Before somebody invented the radia.   

PIANISTS
Some claim that pianists are human,
Heh, and quote the case of Mr. Truman.
Saint Saens on the other hand,
Considered them a scurvy band,
A blight they are he said, and simian,
Instead of normal men and wimian. 

FOSSILS
At midnight in the museum hall,
The fossils gathered for a ball,
There were no drums or saxophones,
But just the clatter of their bones,
Rolling, rattling carefree circus,
Of mammoth polkas and mazurkas,
Pterodactyls and brontosauruses
Sang ghostly prehistoric choruses,
Amid the mastodonic wassail
I caught the eye of one small fossil,
“Cheer up sad world,” he said and winked,
“It’s kind of fun to be extinct.” 

THE SWAN




The swan can swim while sitting down,
For pure conceit he takes the crown,
He looks in the mirror over and ovea,
And claims to have never heard of Pavlova.

THE GRAND FINALE
Now we’ve reached the grand finale,
On an animalie, carnivalie,
Noises new to sea and land,
Issue from the skillful band,
All the strings contort their features,
Imitating crawly creatures,
All the brasses look like mumps
From blowing umpah, umpah, umps,
In outdoing Barnum and Bailey, and Ringling,
Saint Saens has done a miraculous thingling.


Another piece on the program is the Overture from Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II
 Die Fledermaus means The Flying Bat.



Can you imagine this 3 pound 6 foot bat? 
Good thing it eats fruits and seeds! 
Giant golden-crowned flying-fox Bat 



Giant golden-crowned flying-fox



Ballet of the unhatched Chickens by Mussorgsky (Pictures at an Exhibition)



When Mussorgsky wrote “Pictures at an Exhibition” in 1874 he was inspired by paintings and sketches by the painter Viktor Hartmann.  Hartmann drew 17 costume and set designs for the ballet Trilby, four of which are extant. This is the sketch that inspired Mussorgsky’s 
Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks.






Trilby was first performed at the Bolshoi in 1871, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Julius Gerber, both celebrities in their day. The plot was loosely based on a short story by the French author Charles Nodier titled “Trilby, or the Elf of the Argyle”, published in 1822 (there is no relation to DuMaurier’s ballet Trilby, which appeared in 1895). Petipa moved the setting from Scotland to Switzerland, and made other substantive changes as well. The title was changed to “Trilby, the Demon of the Hearth”. The ballet featured children from the Russian Imperial Ballet School dressed variously as birds, butterflies and, as in this sketch, chicks still in their eggs. source


You will just have to see this piano playing cat for yourself.

The Catcerto by Mindaugas Piecaitis

The Young Peoples Concert is free and open to the public. If you would like to attend, please call the MSO office for more information.  765-285-5531

Posted:
March 15, 2011
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Talent of the Ages

Season Ticket holders discovered tickets to two additional performances in their packet this year for the first time: Young Peoples Concert (Rescheduled for April 19) and the MSO Young Artist Competition. Those who took advantage of Young Artist Competition had the pleasure of hearing very talented and dedicated young people compete on January 15, 2011.

Young musicians competed in two divisions: junior (middle school students) and senior (high school students).  They came from all over the State of Indiana and performed on piano, cello, violin, flute, marimba, or clarinet. All the students received  a Certificate of Participation.

Junior Division Winner ~ Oliver Shou

Oliver Shou, 14, is in the 8th grade in Carmel Middle School. He was born in Huston, Texas and has three brothers, Arthur (who won the senior division 2010), Edward and Phillip.  Oliver loved listening to classical music as a baby and began studying piano at the age of five with Dr. Keli Xu.  Over the hears, he has worked hard to prepare himself for a future music career.  His passion for music and piano has grown fast in the last two years.  Beginning 2007 he attends Piano Academy, Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University as a student of Dr. Karen Taylor.  He was the winner of the Hoosier Auditions at district and state levels (IMTA Piano Competition, Middle School level) in 2010.  Recently, he won honorable mention in Murray State University/Paducah Symphony Orchestra piano concerto competition.  In the past, Oliver competed in the Early Elementary and Elementary levels in the IMTA Piano Competition, Indiana State Fair Piano Competition, and the Wold Piano competition in Cincinnati, and won various awards.  Throughout the years he has performed various recitals, including at Wabash College, Indiana Historical Society, Indiana State Fair, and Conner Prairie.  In addition to playing piano, Oliver also studies viola with Mrs. Kathy Hershberger and is a principal violist in the Carmel Middle School Symphony Orchestra.  In his free time, Oliver is passionate about Lego blocks.  He enjoys building castles, ships, cars, robots, and helicopters.  He likes to hang out with his brothers and play basketball, football, and swim.  He wishes to become a musician and an engineer.

Oliver Shou will be performing on the program of the Young People’s Concert on April 19th, 2011. The concert is in Emens Auditorium at 9:30 a.m.  Please call the MSO office (765-285-5531) to reserve a seat.

Senior Division Winner ~ Louisa Steup

Louisa Steup, 15,  lives in West Lafayette, Indiana.  At the age of three, she began playing piano and currently studies with Luke Norell at Indiana University in Bloomington.  She is won the St. Clout Symphony Concerto Competition (MN) in 2008 and the Young Artist Piano Camp Chamber Music Competition in 2009.  She also was a performer at the YAPC Honors recital in 2009 and 2010.  Also in 2010 Louisa was a finalist in the YAPC Concerto Competition.  She was a finalist at the Schubert Club Competition (MN) in 2008 and 2010.  Louisa was the winner of the Indiana tate MTNA competition in November 2009.  She was runner-up at the Division Competition, held in Wisconsin, in 2010.  Louisa enjoys fencing and drawing in her spare time.   Louisa will perform at a future date. The MSO facebook Events  page will be updated as soon as the performance is scheduled.

The Young Artist Competition is an annual January event. If you are interested in competing, please call the MSO office at 765-285-5531 for more information.

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