October 15, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Musical story times with Oregon Symphony musicians will begin at Multnomah County Library branches Wednesday afternoons in November, as a result of an ongoing partnership between the Library and the Symphony’s department of Education and Community Engagement. Beginning with weekly events at the Sellwood Library, Symphony musicians will perform live to music-related stories read by Youth Services Librarians Marci Davis and Brianne Williams. Comcast and Health Net are co sponsors of the Symphony Storytimes.
Symphony Storytimes are scheduled on consecutive Wednesdays Nov. 3, 10, 17 and 24 at 3 p.m. The free Storytimes will be followed by an opportunity for kids to play the musical instruments themselves, as well as to make arts-and-crafts versions of the instruments. The Sellwood branch of the Multnomah County Library is located at 7860 S.E. 13 th Ave., Portland. The Storytimes project will continue in 2005 at the North Portland Library in January, Midland Library in February and Hillsdale Library in March.
Each of the Storytimes will feature stories enhanced by music from one of the four families of musical instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion. The first Storytime, hosted by Symphony bassist Jason Schooler on Nov. 3, will feature the string family musically illustrating stories such as “Where the Wild Things Are” and “The Maestro Plays.” On Nov. 10, oboist Karen Wagner will introduce kids to the instruments of the woodwind section with stories like “Edward the Emu” and “Top Cat.” The following week, on Nov. 17, Principal Horn John Cox will talk about the different instruments of the brass section featuring stories like “Little Toot” and “Music Over Manhattan;” the series concludes on Nov. 24 with percussionist Tom Sessa demonstrating the instruments of the percussion section with stories such as “Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat” and “Rock-a-Baby Band.”
Each player will choose music for his or her Storytime session that illustrates the narrative of the story in an imaginative, compelling way. In addition, each musician from the orchestra will introduce themselves to the children when the storytelling is over, explain how their instrument “works,” demonstrate how to hold it, and help the children try out a real instrument brought to the session for them to use. Kids can then participate in a crafts activity in which they make their own instrument out of common household materials; kids and parents will also be given a specially printed bookmark with suggested readings and recommended CDs that features the instruments they have been studying. These recommendations tie into the library’s inventory of books and CDs.
The concept for the musical Storytime grew out of the Symphony’s three-year participation in the Creative Empowerment Program, funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which explores ways in which people learn to open their minds to creative expression and the exploration of new ideas. The Creative Empowerment Program emphasizes the use of one’s own prior emotional experience in creating a “point of entry” to the study of a new subject, which has led to the creation of a new Storytimes model for children that combines music with literature as a means of enhancing the learning process.
For more information call 503-228-4294 or visit the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org.
