GARY SHELDON - CONCERT REVIEW |
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YOUNG PEOPLES CONCERT REVIEW Festival orchestra gives ringing performance for kids July 18, 1996 By Nancy Gilson
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For the children at this year's Lancaster Festival, Gary Sheldon and the Lancaster Festival Orchestra - with bells on - offered an evening of globe-trotting music at the outdoor amphitheater at Ohio University-Lancaster last night. "Carmen Sandiego" was the theme, and bells, or any sort of instrument hit like a bell, was the perpetrator. From the French Danse Macabre to the Indian Bell Song to the American Liberty Bell March, the orchestra performed a program more substantial and interesting than most children's concerts. Two of the most fascinating musical selections belonged to Lancaster Festival composer-in-residence Leslie Burrs and a group of Indonesian children. Burrs performed his 1986 pieces Prelude - Before Sundawn and Mr. Dawson's Strut, energetic, contemporary-sounding music inspired by American composer William L. Dawson. Seven Indonesian children, ages 6 to 14 and all residents of Columbus, created a choir playing Andklung, a traditional bamboo instrument. Unaccompanied by the orchestra, they looked like they were rattling bird cages, but they produced a winsome, exotic sound. Lancaster Soprano Stephanie Tingler beautifully performed Delibes' rigorous Bell Song after a funny mistaken identity bit. Bobby Weinapple, portraying Inspector Clue-not, dragged her from the audience on stage, claiming he'd captured Carmen Sandiego. She threw off her trenchcoat and huffed her outrage until Sheldon told her the audience had come to hear her sing. Then, as any diva would do, she was all smiles. The Character Carmen Sandiego Is A Trademark of The Learning Co., Inc. Used with permission. Musical Program and Concept © Gary Sheldon |
GARY SHELDON - CONCERT REVIEW |