Grade schoolers get in tune with classics

Elementary school students from Omaha and nearby towns recently met Mozart.

Yes, Mozart the composer. (Or at least someone who looked like — and called himself — Mozart).

The composer accompanied the Omaha Symphony Chamber Orchestra and conductor Ernest Richardson for a “Mission: Imagination” concert Oct. 7 at St. Wenceslaus, a Catholic grade school in west Omaha. Students from five other schools were bused in for the concert, too.

Many know Mozart was a flamboyant guy, but who knew he was so funny? He had the preschool through second-grade students laughing, singing and playing instruments they had made. At one point, youngsters even got to conduct.

The symphony has been presenting the popular “Mission: Imagination” concerts for more than a decade. Symphony officials estimate they reach more than 37,000 kids each year with their educational programs, which often are a child's first encounter with classical music or musical instruments.

Alas, poor Mozart trips and bumps his head before he finishes writing the music for a piece the orchestra is to play. He loses his memory, and the orchestra has to teach him — and the audience — about music to help him remember his identity.

The symphony's chamber orchestra repeated the show an hour later for third-graders and home-schooled students, and on Oct. 8 gave two more concerts at St. Mary School in Bellevue. Students from five other schools in Omaha, Papillion, Glenwood and Malvern, Iowa, also attended that show.

The “Mission: Imagination” concerts are a labor of love for the Omaha Symphony, said Adam Goos, manager of education and community partnerships. Goos co-wrote the program with Jessica Slais, the Omaha Symphony's music librarian.

Goos also portrays Mozart.

Writing new programs every year is a challenge, Goos said, because of the age range of the students in the audience. Sometimes what a third-grader thinks is funny goes right over the heads of younger children. But he also doesn't want to make it boring for the older audience members.

“You think what you write will work out, but you never know,” he said with a smile. “It's always a challenge.”

This year's program featured music by Johann and Josef Strauss, Johann Strauss Jr. and Jacques Offenbach, as well as Mozart.

The students who watched the concerts had prepared during the weeks leading up to the show by listening to Mozart's music and making their own percussion instruments.

Third-graders in Peg Kallman's music class at St. Mary Catholic School in Bellevue spent two days creating paper-plate tambourines, paper-cup and juice-bottle rattles and paper-bag shakers.

They decorated the outsides before filling them with beans, pasta, rice and other things to create instruments that would make different sounds.

“The kids really get into it,” Kallman said.

Ethan Yale, 8, who also attended the 2008 “Mission: Imagination” concert, decorated a bottle shaker. He said he liked the music last year because it was “really peaceful.”

Classmate Addey Connealy, working on her tambourine, said she was looking forward to this year's program because she likes Mozart.

“He's weird,” said Cate Lillion, another tambourine maker.

“But he's cool,” added Addey.

After attending this year's concert on Oct. 8, Addey and Ethan were smiling and enthusiastic about what they had experienced.

Addey said her favorite part was the student participation. “I liked singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' to Mozart's music,” she said.

Madeline Shaffer, 10, of St. Wenceslaus School, wrapped it up nicely. “It was really cool.”

And that's all that the symphony — and Mozart — could have hoped for.

Contact the writer:

444-1067, carol.bicak@owh.com

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