Shows By Kids, Shows For Kids

Tonight at 4:30 and 7:00 at the Tennessee Theatre, The Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestras will be presenting their FREE winter concerts. The hidden significance of this news is its scope: one single concert is no longer sufficient to contain all of the ensembles' audiences, let alone its repertoire. Credit goes to Youth Orchestras Manager Kathy Hart, who has been mentoring youth through violin instruction and orchestra leadership in Knoxville for longer than she or I would care to say... She was Artistic Administrator for the KSO for some time, also, escorting guest artists around town, so she is at home with big stars AND Knoxville's musical youth. Save some of the credit, of course, for THE KIDS THEMSELVES, whose interest in classical music warrants five different ensembles. The 4:30 show will showcase the Preludium, led by Erin Archer, the Philharmonia, under Nina Missildine, Miss Kathy's Sinfonia, and Dr. Wesley Baldwin's Youth Chamber Orchestra.

The 7:00 show will be the Youth Symphony on its own, with James Fellenbaum directing a performance of concerto competition winners and Alexander Borodin's excitable 2^nd Symphony in its entirety. That is a rarity in and of itself, the group having played an entire full-scale work only twice before, but what's even rarer is the fact that both concerto winners are playing works by Kabalevsky! Cellist Jerry Zhou will play a movement of Mr. Kabalevsky's 1^st Cello Concerto, and eighth-grader Autumn Arsenault will perform a movement of the 3^rd Piano Concerto. (Yes, I said EIGHTH GRADER).

The KSO's adult contingent will be playing its Very Young People's Concerts this coming week! Picardy Penguin's back in town with a special performance of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. The guest artist for Maestro Richman's first Gala Concert back in ought-three was Martin Short. A hit from his show was a semi-serious rendition of Short narrating this work. I don't think Mr. Short will be narrating the show this time, but we'll find out in a few hours, as the rehearsal for this show is right before the Youth Orchestras concerts. We will also perform Mozart's Overture to The Marriage of Figaro and Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee. I tell you what, I'd give anything to see weather warm enough for bees to be flying around. Of the three performances of this concert, there is only one with tickets still available, the Thursday, Feb. 26^th show at 11:00 at the Tennessee Theatre. Other shows are that same morning at 9:30, and Tuesday the 24^th at 9:30 at the Clayton Center for the Arts in Maryville.