This is a production of SDPB.

Well thank you so much.

And welcome to the South Dakota Symphony's Young People's Concerts.

It is a delight to have you here.

My name is Doctor Peter.

Failure.

Yes, I'm a doctor of music.

I'm not able to help you if you're having a medical problem.

So in the event that you're not feeling well, you got to find a parent or a teacher.

But if you're here to get musical, I'm your guy.

Now we're going to play some incredible music for you this morning.

Today I have three important things that we want to explore with you.

And we're going to use really incredible music to do it.

Let's start with something important.

For some people, coming to a symphony concer can feel a little intimidating.

I mean, look around you.

This beautiful hall, all these musicians on stage with their fancy and expensive instruments and their fancy clothes.

It can feel like you have to know something special just to be here.

But I've got some news for you, and I want you to hear me clearly that you belong here.

Because this is all for you.

We got together last night, and we practiced just so that we could do this for you today.

The music is for you.

We're here for you.

This hall is here for you.

So I want you to make yourselves comfortable.

Okay.

Now, normally at the beginning of a traditional symphony concert, here's how things start.

Before the concert begins, the musicians already are on stage and they're warming up.

You might hear little snippets of music, or they're playing scales.

It can sound a little chaotic.

Then the lights come down and somebody very important walks on stage.

You know who this is?

The concertmaster.

This is Miss Kim.

Miss Doucette Kim comes out.

She's the leader of the orchestra, like the quarterback for a football team.

And so do comes out.

You'll applaud for her, and she'll take a bow.

Then she turns to her principal oboist, Mr.

Jeffrey Paul, and he plays just one note for the orchestra to tune their instruments.

They either lengthen or shorten the instrument, or they tighten the tension on the strings so that we can play in perfect harmony.

Now the concerts almost ready to begin.

But we're missing one more important person.

Who's that?

The conductor.

The conductor has got to come out.

That's right.

So the lights will go down further.

The conductor comes out, the orchestra stands up.

I bow on behalf of the orchestra and then we're ready to get going.

So what I'd like to do is practice this.

So let's review.

The audience arrives.

The orchestra is on stage.

They're warming up.

The concertmaster comes out after the lights go down, we get quiet.

We applaud the orchestra tunes.

The lights go down even further.

Now we get focused.

I come out, we applaud.

Take a bow and off we go into the music.

You ready to practice this?

Okay, let's give it a try.

Well, thank you so much.

What you just heard was the second movement from a suite of music by the French composer Georges Bizet from his opera Carmen.

In fact that's actually the second piece that you heard from Carmen.

That very first piece that we played when you arrived, the Toreador Song, and then this one, the Aragonese come from that opera, Carmen.

It's one of the most famous operas ever written.

Now, here's what I love about the movement that you just heard.

It opens the fina act of the opera, and the scene is set in Spain, outside of a bullfight arena.

The whole community has gathered.

It's festive and it's loud.

It's chaotic, but it's alive.

You hear hints of Spanish dance rhythms.

You hear music inspired by Romani folk traditions.

You hear joy and swagger and celebration.

You can almost imagine street vendors yelling out.

French fries!

Get through French fries.

Now how does B.C.

paint that scene?

He does it all with music and all with the orchestra.

Now the orchestra is just collection of musical families.

And there's four main ones.

Strings.

Would you please stand?

This is the string family, the largest section of the orchestra.

And just like a choir, they're organized by their range.

How high and how low they sound.

We have the violins, which are the sopranos.

We have the violas, which are the altos, the celli which are the tenors.

And then we have our double bass section as the bass voices.

Thank you.

You may be seated.

Now, these instruments ca create sounds in multiple ways.

They can pluck the strings with their fingers like a guitar.

We call this pizzicato.

They can also pull the bow across the string for these long, sustained sounds, and they can juxtapose tha with short and accented notes, all by drawing horsehair across the string.

Fabulous.

Thank you strings.

Now, the next group that we have are the woodwinds.

Each of these instrument has its own tonal personality, bright or reedy or dark or lyrical.

We have the flutes.

The oboe.

The clarinet and the bassoons.

They are a great group of folks over there.

Thank you.

Woodwinds.

Then we have the brass who are known for their power and their brilliance.

There's the French horns wh have this noble and warm sound.

We have the trumpets who are bold and declarative.

The trombones are the tenor voice of the brass family.

And then the tuba, the deep foundation.

Finally we have the percussion section.

They strike and they shak and they scrape and they crash.

And they shimmer to create color and energy such as the timpani, the snare drum, the triangle and the crash symbols.

There is so much more in the percussion section.

Basically, if you hit it and it makes noise, you'r part of the percussion family.

There's all sorts of other special instruments that get added to the orchestra too, like the piano, or we have a harp on stage.

There's instruments from other cultures, like the castanets, and there's instruments two that have been lost to history that show up on the stage.

All of these families work independently, but they also work together.

And in this next piece you're going to hear, we'll have the orchestra com alive as characters in a story.

The next piece we're going to share with you comes from another another opera.

Has anybody ever heard of the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel?

Oh, good good good good.

Okay, well, I' going to go over the story here, but remember, it' based on the Grim Brothers fairy tale about a brother and a sister.

And they wander into the forest and they smell something delicious.

What do they smell?

Candy and cookies.

Right?

Well, they wander deeper into the forest, and they find a house that's made of sweets.

And inside lives a witch.

And at first she seems nice.

She's feeding them cookies and sweets.

But there's a reason she wants them to eat.

She wants to get them nice and fat.

She plans to bake them.

She's going to bake the children.

That is terrifying.

But that's what happens in fairy tales.

They can get a little weird.

There's this mix of a strange plac between magical and terrifying.

And that's exactly what you're going to hear in this music.

As you listen, I want you to pay clos attention to how the different instrument familie represent different characters.

See if you can tell where the children are, or maybe where the which is.

Listen to how the sound shifts when the mood changes, and how the percussion highlights some dramatic moments.

How the orchestra can tel a story without a single word.

Because this is storytelling through sound.

So let's step into the fair tale world of Hansel and Gretel.

We have one more piece that we're going to play for you, and it's one of my absolute favorite.

It's called Capriccio Espanol, which means Spanish caprice.

So what's a caprice?

It's a lively, imaginative piece of music.

It's playful, it's colorful.

Sometimes it's unpredictable.

It doesn't follow strict rules.

It dances, it sparkles, it shows off in this piece.

Absolutely shows off the orchestra.

Now, the piece has five movements.

A movement is like a chapte in a book or a scene in a movie.

Each movement has its own mood, its own character, its own energy.

But together they tell one large story.

So I'm going to guide you through each one of these movements.

The first one is called Alborada, and that's a traditional Spanish morning dance.

It's a celebration of the rising sun.

So you'll hear these bright, lively sounds, like fanfare gestures from the trumpets.

You'll hear sharp rhythms and bursting energy.

And I want you to listen especially for the tambourine.

That instrument ha existed for thousands of years.

It's even mentioned in the Old Testament, in the Bible.

And whenever you hear it, it almost begs that you shake with it.

Now that movement goes directly into the next one, which is called variation or variations.

You'll hear a single theme presented, and then it's transformed in five very different ways.

Each variation highlights different instrument and their expressive capability.

It's like watching the same character dressed in five different costumes during a movie.

Then we return to the again.

This time it's in a different key.

It's even brighter, even more dazzling, and it spotlights different instruments.

I want you to listen, especially for the violin, the harp, and the clarinet.

Pretty neat The fourth movement is called Sina Canto Gaetano, which means scene and gypsy song.

And this is where the orchestra truly shows off.

It begins dramaticall with a powerful snare drum roll.

And then one by one, different sections step forward in cadenza like passages.

What's a cadenza?

What's a moment where the spotlight shines on just one musician?

Or maybe a section of instruments and they play freely, almost like saying watch what this instrument can do.

So you'll hear cadenzas from the brass.

And then a violin cadenza, a dazzling flute cadenza, a virtuosic clarinet cadenza, and the most shimmering harp cadenza.

This movement builds and builds with excitement.

It becomes intense, energetic, nearly explosive.

And then we burst into the final movement, the Fandango.

The fandango is a traditional Spanish dance that's fast, it's festive, it's joyful.

And here is the brilliant part.

Themes from other movements return.

Everything connects, everything builds.

The piece was written by a Russian composer named Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and he had a very special gift for knowing how to maximize each instrument of the orchestra.

He can make it shine on its own, and he really can make it shine in combination with the whole community.

And this is one of the greatest show piece ever written for the orchestra.

But like I said, it's a little long.

So this is your moment to practice something very powerful.

I want you to listen deeply, something not often required in today's fast paced world.

I want you to take this time.

Get comfortable.

You might close your eyes and let your mind wander with the music, or you might even watch the musicians on stag make these sounds come to life.

Try and focus.

Notice how the rhythms make you want to move.

Notice how the colors shift.

Notice how the story unfolds without a single word being spoken.

I hope you enjoy this spectacular orchestral celebration.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Capriccio Espanol.

And.

Everybody, thank you so much and come back and see us at the South Dakota Symphony.

Thanks again.

Have a good one.

Bye bye.