On Friday, November 14th, the 3rd and 4th grade students visited the historic Egyptian Theater in DeKalb for a performance of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Every year, the KSO gives a school concert intended to entertain and educate 3rd to 8th grade students.
The experience begins with the musicians walking around the audience with their instruments and giving the kids an up close view of what they look and sound like. Fan favorites were the bassoon and the string bass, with many of the kids surprised at how large they are!
The KSO has a new theme each year which the concert is based around. This year, the theme was “The Many Moods of Music.” We often discuss how music can evoke feelings in music class, so this was a very fun and easy topic for the students to understand. Mrs. Wassmann, our social worker, even came along and brought her “mood meter”, which the students use to identify feelings in her lessons, and they placed the pieces on the chart.
The students enjoyed songs from many different time periods and genres. They heard, Hoedown - Copland, Brother John (folk tune), Symphony No. 7, 2nd Movement - Beethoven, In the Hall of the Mountain King - Grieg, Greensleeves-traditional, William Tell Overture - Rossini, Elfentanz - Price, Playful Pizzicato - Britten, Harry Potter Symphonic Suite - Williams/Brubaker, Symphony No. 94 “Surprise,” 2nd movt. - Haydn
Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space - Meyer,
Star Wars Suite for Orchestra: Imperial March - Williams, and Stars and Stripes Forever - Sousa.
When asked what their favorites were, I heard “Star Wars”, “Harry Potter”, “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and “Rosin Eating Zombies from Outer Space”. If you have a 3rd or 4th grader…ask them about the Zombies song. There is a big surprise in the middle of the piece!
I love that we can give our children this exceptional experience to hear professional level musicians in a beautiful theater right in our own backyard. There is nothing like feeling the powerful sound vibrations in a live musical performance. We talk about what expectations of behavior are like at a performance such as this, listening quietly, applauding at the end of the piece, and being considerate so those around you can also enjoy the performance. As always, our 3rd and 4th graders showed exceptional ROYAL behavior! Way to go Royals! We can’t wait to go back next year.
