Young People's Concerts featuring the Hudson Valley Philharmonic

TALL TALES AND GREAT STORIES A musical exploration of how literature inspires great music. Grades 3 - 6 Our goal is to enrich the lives of children by exposing them to beautiful music. We hope you will join us for this original concert. The interactive concert and hands on residency activities will engage your students through creative exploration and active musical participation. Developing your students’ natural musical competence will ensure that they will become successful hearers, and awaken their interest in the many ways music plays out in school learning and life. The Young People’s Concert is interactive and uses a theme to introduce students to serious classical music. Hosted by actors Shawn Randall and Mindy Raymond, it features the Hudson Valley Philharmonic orchestra under the direction of Guest Conductor Marietta Cheng. The repertoire for TALL TALES AND GREAT STORIES will include Igor Stravinsky Infernal Ogre’s Dance(from the Firebird) Sergei Prokofiev The Love for Three Oranges Edvard Grieg In the Hall of the Mountain King Hector Berlioz Rakoczy March Dmitri Shostakovich Excerpts from Hamlet Gioacchino Rossini William Tell Overture Plus a solo performance by the winner of the Virtuoso in Progress Competition and a performance of a composition written by students who participated in the Classroom to Concert program.

This event is sponsored by Rondout Savings Bank, Wachovia, Target
and Bank of America. Made possible in part through the support of the Louis Greenspan Charitable Trust. Before attending the concert we strongly recommend participating in Classroom to Concert, a program designed to give your students the ultimate musical experience. “The teaching artist was fantastic with my students – I enjoyed working with her.”Stacy Kalbfus/Morse School Juilliard trained teaching artists work in classrooms to prepare students to successfully hear the marvelous pieces and thus feel the joy and revelation that makes people lifelong lovers of classical music. In the classroom, students are involved in musical activities that engage them in the artistic issues of each piece. Teaching artists will work with up to 50 students per session and up to 4 sessions per day. A study guide and CD will be provided to educators. “I found the guide and CD extremely helpful when preparing my students… I was able to modify activities to suit my class, while others fit perfectly!” Christine Kothe/Lagrange MS. Marietta Cheng begins her eighth year conducting the Young People’s Concerts. Fewer than 100 women in the US are employed as music directors and conductors of professional orchestras. Ms. Cheng headed the Corning Philharmonic for 10 years and now holds the baton over the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes. She is a full professor of music at Colgate University. Jessica Meyer is a member of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and a teaching artist with Lincoln Center Institute. She has conducted numerous residencies in public schools throughout New York City, New Jersey, Long Island and the Hudson Valley in order to prepare students for concerts they will experience at Lincoln Center and the Bardavon. A Morse Fellow at The Juilliard School, Jessica received training in the Arts and Education class led by Eric Booth and Ed Bilous. Jessica has both a Master of Music and a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School. Shawn Randall is an actor-poet-writer-producer. He competed in the 2003 National Poetry Slam with Team NYC URBANA of the Bowery Poetry Club in Chicago. He has had extensive experience in Off-Broadway theater including the acclaimed “Blue Man Group,” and performances at La Mama E.T.C. and BAM. His film appearances include “Slings and Arrows”, an independent that won Best Feature at the Avignon/NY Film Festival. On television, he has appeared with Ben Stiller in a sketch on the “Late Night Show With Conan O’Brien,” and as the principal in both the PBS Special “The Hating Pot,” and the USA Network’s “It Just Takes One.” Shawn has performed at the Bardavon in both the Young Playwrights Festival and last year’s Young People’s Concerts. Mindy Raymond comes to New York City via Texas where she received her B.S. in Communication and Performance at the University of Texas, Austin. She moved to New York to continue her education by attending the One Year Conservatory at Michael Howard Studios. The last three years have been packed full with film credits including “Finish”, “Murder FM”, and "Menage A Trois” which has been accepted into over 20 film festivals around the world and has won numerous awards. She also had guest roles on “The Sopranos” and “Law and Order: SVU”. Mindy is a member of the Stilted on Stage Improv troupe which performs at Caroline’s on Broadway and the New York City Comedy Club. Mindy has performed at the Bardavon in both the Young Playwrights Festival and last year’s Young People’s Concerts.