Nearly 4100 4th Graders Attend Free Concert at Disney Hall sponsored by Pasadena Showcase House
Jenine Baines
October 20, 2009
"The connection between kids with learning disabilities and music is a very direct one," says Dembowski who has been part of the team at the Frostig Center´s day school for children facing such challenges as dyslexia, non-verbal learning disabilities, and ADHD for the past nine years. "I´ve learned that our students are not necessarily ´disabled,´ so much as they learn differently. I think that, in the future, music will be proven to play a big part in understanding learning difficulties and help unlock the potential of ´different´ minds."
But what Dembowski hadn´t necessarily factored into his decision to bring his students to hear the Los Angeles Philharmonic perform composer Camille Saint Saëns´ Carnival of the Animals was the students´ overwhelmingly enthusiastic response to the performance itself.
"I think that was one overlooked reason for going -- to take children to a very special place to see a very special group of musicians playing a piece of music that made us laugh, think, and be entertained," Dembowski reflects. "The kids were much more excited than I had anticipated, and I think it speaks to the power of music, and live music in particular."
The children´s comments after the performance supported Dembowski´s claim. "What I loved the most was the swan," said ´Arina´. "It was like a harp." Meanwhile ´Conrad´ liked the "majestic" lion and the fossil. "It really sounded like a fossil," the boy explained. "It was totally awesome."
Enthusiasm for the performance was by no means limited to the children at the Frostig School. Dr. Tianna Tang of Wilkerson Elementary School in El Monte believes student Alexia Figueroa summed up the morning best for the 90 children who accompanied her to the concert. "We went to an amazing place with beautiful music," said the fourth grader.
Altogether, nearly 4100 4th grade students and their teachers attended A Musical Carnival, which featured pianists Gavin Martin and Joanne Pearce Martin and actress Marlene Martinez. David Afkham – assistant conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and one of four young conductors chosen by the LA Phil to participate in its Dudamel Fellowship Program – led the orchestra and regaled his young audience with a showstopper line about one of the percussion family´s less familiar instruments, the glockenspiel. Two productions took place, one at 10:00 a.m. and another at 11:15 a.m.
"We are thrilled that Disney Hall was filled to capacity for both performances," says Eileen Reilly, Youth Concert chairman. "It´s wonderful to work with so many schools that share PSHA´s belief in the power of music to enhance and change a child´s life forever."
"Every year, Grand Avenue is filled with row after row of school buses," adds PSHA President Delise Menik. "I don´t know who´s more excited at that point – our Showcase volunteers who greet the children and guide them to their seats or the children themselves."
Rich Dembowski would probably place odds on the children. "Hey, we had a blast," he says simply. "I think that´s why kids with learning disabilities respond so enthusiastically to music. They are by definition creative thinkers."
Funding for the Youth Concert is provided from proceeds raised annually at the Pasadena Showcase House of Design, one of the oldest, largest and most successful house and garden tours in the nation. Tickets to visit this year´s Pasadena Showcase House of Design – which will take place from Sunday, April 18 through Sunday, May 16 – will be available starting February 1, 2010. For more information, visit www.pasadenashowcase.org or call 626.578.8500.
The Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts also thanks The Green Foundation for its donation of $50,000 to help fund this year´s Youth Concert.
ABOUT THE PASADENA SHOWCASE HOUSE FOR THE ARTS
Since 1948, Pasadena Showcase House for the Arts (PSHA) has awarded more than $17 million in gifts and grants to support the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and numerous non-profit organizations and local symphonic, cultural and educational musically oriented programs for youth. In addition, PSHA supports three programs of its own: the Pasadena Showcase House Music Mobile TM, an award-winning program introducing 3rd graders throughout the San Gabriel Valley to the instruments of the orchestra; The Pasadena Showcase House Youth Concert, a free performance by the LA Philharmonic for 4th grade students at Walt Disney Concert Hall; and the Instrumental Competition, where exceptionally talented musicians, aged 16 to 24, compete for over $30,000 in monetary prizes to further their music education.