Scientific Symphony
Night on Bald Mountain
Mussorgsky
Finale
The United Symphony
Richman
Finale: Ode to Joy
Symphony No. 9
Beethoven
Marche miniature
Suite No. 1, Op. 43
Tchaikovsky
The Elephant
Carnival of the Animals
Saint-Saëns
“Humming Chorus”
Madame Butterfly
Puccini
Mars
The Planets
Holst
E.T. Adventures on Earth
Williams
Table of Contents
Program Notes: Our Composers and their Music
Lesson: Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony
Listening Map: The Elephant
More Activities & Resources for Teachers
Anatomy of a Symphony
Student Program Template
What is a Conductor?/Maestro James Fellenbaum
What is an Orchestra?/Meet the Orchestra
Concert Behavior
Acknowledgements
This ear symbol will give students something to
listen for in select pieces.
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Watch for these test tubes to give you interesting facts or
vocabulary words.
What is a Composer?
A composer is a person that writes music. He or she can write music for groups as large
as a symphony orchestra, or as small as a single instrument. Many times in orchestral
works the composer tells a story. All of the different instruments of the orchestra are the
actors in the story. A composer can write music based on many different things, such as a
dream, a place, a person, or a poem. Sometimes they even create music by mixing many
different pieces. A composer has the ability to hear a tune in his head and write it down as
notes for instruments.
The following program notes were written for the students.
Night on Bald Mountain
Modest Mussorgsky
(1839 - 1881)
Modest Mussorgsky was a Russian
composer that was one of a group known as
“The Five” or “The Mighty Handful.” This
was a group of composers who met in Saint
Petersburg, Russia and all tried to write
music that had a unique Russian sound.
Many of Mussorgsky’s works were based on
Russian history and folk tales. His most
famous pieces are the opera Boris Godunov, Pictures at an
Exhibition and Night on Bald Mountain.
Mussorgsky was born into a wealthy land-owning family. He
began taking piano lessons at the age of six from his mother.
At the age of 10 he and his brother began to attend boarding
school in Saint Petersburg. While there he composed his first
piano piece at the age of 12. One year later Mussorgsky
entered a Military academy and continued on to a career in
the military.
Night on Bald Mountain was finished in 1867, but it was
never performed during Mussorgsky’s lifetime. Mussorgsky
was not a professional musicians and so another Russian
composer, Rimsky-Korsakov, re-orchestrated many of his
pieces. The version of Night on Bald Mountain that is heard
today is the one rewritten by Rimsky-Korsakov.
Night on Bald Mountain was featured in the 1940s Disney
Film Fantasia.
Orchestrator—A composer who takes a piece of music and writes parts of that
music for each instrument of the orchestra to play.
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Finale
The United Symphony
Lucas Richman
(1964 - present)
Lucas Richman has been Music Director of the
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra since 2003. He has
conducted many other orchestras including the
Pittsburgh Symphony, Pacific Symphony, New York
Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia
Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, San Antonio
Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Omaha
Symphony, Canada’s National Arts Center Orchestra,
and orchestras in Germany and Croatia. Richman has
also worked on many movies as their conductor for the soundtrack.
His recent films include: As Good As It Gets, Face/Off, Seven,
Breakdown, The Village, The Manchurian Candidate and Kitt Kittredge:
An American Girl. In 2011, he won a Grammy award for conducting
the Best Classical Crossover Album, Calling All Dawns, by Christopher
Tin.
Mr. Richman likes to work with young musicians and has conducted
the Disney Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, the Young
Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh City Music
Center Youth Orchestra. He has also composed orchestral works
specifically for children and created an animated character, Picardy
Penguin, who introduces young children to classical music.
As a composer, Mr. Richman has had his music performed by over 200
orchestras across the United States. In 2005 he was named Composer
of the Year by the Tennessee Music Teachers Association and in 2010,
John Williams (another composer on this program) personally invited
Mr. Richman to serve as the conductor for the three-month national
summer tour of Star Wars in Concert.
In the Finale of The United Symphony listen for each
instrument family. You will hear percussion, brass,
woodwinds, strings and then all of the instruments together.
What do the sound waves look like for each group of
instruments, what about with all of the instruments together?
Finale: Ode to Joy
Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770 - 1827)
Beethoven is one of the most famous composers who ever lived. He only
attended school through the end of elementary school. At the time when he
lived only a few children went on to Gymnasium (high school). He was a very
shy young person and learned to play the violin, the viola and the piano.
Another famous composer, Haydn, was Beethoven’s teacher and Beethoven
also had a chance to meet Mozart and to learn from him. He lost his hearing
but still kept composing. He was able to imagine the whole orchestra
playing a symphony in his head, before writing it down on paper. Beethoven
would also press piano keys down using something held in
his mouth, in order to feel the vibrations of each note.
Unlike many other composers Beethoven was famous all
over Europe during his lifetime. When he died 20,000
people came to his funeral and long after Beethoven lived
composers modeled themselves after him. Beethoven
wrote a total of nine symphonies.
Symphony—A piece written for a symphony orchestra, it is usually divided into
four movements or parts
Movement—A section of a symphony which may make musical sense by itself,
but requires the other movements to complete the composer’s thoughts. You may
think of a movement as a chapter in a longer book.
For the final
movement of his
Symphony No. 9, Beethoven did something unheard of in a symphony—he
added singers to the orchestra, a chorus and four soloists. The text for this
movement uses part of Ode to Joy, a poem by Friedrich Schiller. This is the
first example in music history of a composer using the human voice on the
same level with instruments in a symphony. Symphony No. 9 in D minor is
sometimes called the “Choral Symphony” because the end of the piece uses a
chorus.
When the music premiered, Beethoven appeared on stage to help conduct. He
was completely deaf by this time in his life and at the end, the orchestra
stopped and he was still conducting. One of the singers had to turn him
around to receive his applause from the audience. The audience gave him
five standing ovations and included handkerchiefs and hats tossed in the air,
and raised hands so that Beethoven could see the applause he could not hear.
When the compact disc was developed it was made to accommodate the Ninth Symphony—74
minutes.
Symphony No. 9 is used in the opening ceremonies for the United Nations
The original manuscript of this work sold in 2003 for 3.3 million U.S. dollars
Symphony No. 9 continued...
The Ninth Symphony has been used in films, television, and popular
music. It has also been performed in recent Olympic Games and as the
national anthem of some of the teams participating. Japan uses the
piece as a part of the annual celebration of the new year. It is a uniting
piece due to the idea expressed through Schiller’s text that “All persons
become brothers.”
Finale: Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Please make sure your students learn this piece prior to the concert. They will
have a chance to sing as the KSO plays.
Marche miniature
Suite No. 1, Op. 43 in D minor
Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky
(1840 - 1893)
Tchaikovsky grew up in Russia in a very large
family. His father was a mining engineer and
he had a sister and twin brothers. His brother
Modest became a writer and wrote a biography
about Pyotr’s life. Tchaikovsky was a very
smart child and by the age of six he could
read in Russian, French and German. The
music of Beethoven had a great effect on
Tchaikovsky and like Beethoven, Tchaikovsky
learned to play the piano. Tchaikovsky also
studied the flute and the organ. Also like Beethoven, he used
Schiller’s poem Ode to Joy as the words for a cantata he composed
for his graduation. Tchaikovsky loved to travel and also worked as
a music critic for two Moscow newspapers.
Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer like Mussorgsky and is
known for writing music with a particular Russian sound. He is
famous for writing well known music for ballet like The
Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty.
The fourth movement of Suite No. 1 is a miniature march.
Listen for the high pitches of the woodwinds and the triangle.
Look at the length of the instruments. Does how long or
short an
instrument is
have an effect on how
high or low that
instrument plays? In
music we talk about
high or low using the
word pitch. What do
the sound waves look
like for these high
pitches?
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The Elephant
Carnival of the Animals
Camille Saint-Saens
(1835—1921)
Saint-Saëns was a French composer pianist, organist and writer. He was
brought up by his mother and aunt and began playing the piano at age three.
As he grew up he performed everything by memory which was considered an
unusual talent at this time. Saint-Saëns was a world traveler visiting such
countries as Algiers, Egypt, Italy, England, South America and the U.S. He first
visited America when he was 71 years-old. While in the U.S. he gave concerts
in Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, New York and San Francisco. SaintSaëns wrote over 300 works and was the first major composer to write music
especially for movies.
The Carnival of the Animals was written in 1886 in just a few days while SaintSaëns was on vacation in Austria. It includes 14 movements. He thought the
piece was silly and did not want it played during his life-time so his friends
heard it only once. Today it is one of his most famous pieces.
Listen for The elephant to make a thunderous entrance swinging his
trunk from side to side. What instrument does Saint-Saëns use to
represent the elephant? Are the sound waves for this low instrument
long and wide or short and close together? The pounding chords of
the piano depict the earth-shaking footsteps of the Elephant.
Ogden Nash wrote a set of humorous verses to accompany each movement,
which are often recited when the work is performed. In 2010 the poet, Jack
Prelutsky wrote new verses to accompany the music. Here are the two poems :
The Elephant by: Ogden Nash
Elephants are useful friends,
Equipped with handles at both ends.
They have a wrinkled, moth-proof hide,
Their teeth are upside down, outside.
If you think the elephant preposterous,
You’ve probably never seen a “rhinosterous.”
Elephants by Jack Prelutsky
A elephant never forgets to remember
The things he remembers to never forget.
An elephant knows that it snows in December,
That summer is warmer and water is wet.
An elephant’s ears are a genuine wonder,
An elephant’s trunk is an elephant’s pride.
His footfalls are often mistaken for thunder—
If you’re in the neighborhood, do step aside.
When elephants gather, the ground starts to tremble
Beneath the great weight of their ponderous feet.
Be glad there are elephants left to assemble—
Without them our planet would feel incomplete.
“Humming Chorus”
Madame Butterfly
Giocomo Puccini
(1858-1924)
Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas La
Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly and Turandot are some of the
most popular operas still performed today. When Puccini was 17
he saw a performance of Aida (an opera by Italian composer
Verdi) and was inspired to become an opera composer. Puccini
was from a very musical family and his operas were very popular
during his lifetime.
Madame Butterfly was first performed in 1904. It is set in
Nagasaki, Japan and may have been based on a true story. In
Madame Butterfly a young Japanese girl falls in love with an
American Naval Officer. Her name is Ciocio-san (pronounced cho
cho—sahn) which means butterfly in Japanese. Officer Pinkerton
leaves shortly after their wedding and three years later Butterfly is
still waiting for him to return. She receives a letter that he is
coming back to Japan and is excited to introduce him to his son
who was born after Pinkerton left. Butterfly sees Pinkerton’s ship
in the harbor and stays up all night waiting for him to arrive.
The Humming Chorus is sung as Suzuki and her baby wait
and night falls.
Opera—A play having all or most of its words set to music, with arias,
recitatives, choruses, duets, trios, etc. sung with an orchestra accompanying. Operas usually have elaborate costumes, scenery, and dancing.
One of the arias (songs) from Madame Butterfly was sung in 1998 as
Midori Ito lit the Olympic Flame in Nagano.
Mars
The Planets
Gustav Holst
(1874 - 1934)
Gustav Holst was an English composer who wrote over 200 works
including operas, ballet, hymns and songs. He also enjoyed working
with young musicians and was a music director or taught singing for
several schools and colleges during his lifetime. Holst learned to play
the piano and violin and began composing when he was about 12. He
also learned to play the trombone, as his father thought it might help
his son’s asthma. Holst hoped to become a pianist, but he had a
nerve condition that affected the movement of his right arm and he
gave up the piano for the trombone. He was very good at the
trombone though, and played with the Carl Rosa Opera Company and
the Scottish Orchestra.
Gustav’s younger brother Emil became a Hollywood film actor under
the name Ernest Cossart. Holst, however, hated publicity. He
wouldn’t answer questions for the press and whenever he was asked
for his autograph he would hand out cards that read, “I do not hand
out my autograph.”
The Planets includes seven movements:
Mars, the Bringer of War
Venus, the Bringer of Peace
Mercury, the Winged Messenger
Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity
Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age
Uranus, the Magician
Neptune, the Mystic
Pluto is not included in the work, because it was
not discovered until 1930. Which other planet is left out?
The planets was first performed in 1920 and was recorded with the
composer conducting in 1922 with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Holst was one of the first composers to record his music.
Compare the volume (how loud or soft a piece of music is played)
of Mars and the Humming Chorus. In music we call
volume dynamics.
Dynamics : In music, these are the terms which indicate to the musician
how loud or soft to play the music. All of these terms are written in Italian.
pp - pianissimo (pee-an-iss-e-mo)- extremely soft
p - piano (pee-an-o) - soft
mf - mezzo forte (met-tso for-tay) - medium loud
f - forte (for-tay) - loud
ff - fortissimo (for-tiss-e-mo)- very loud
You use dynamics when you speak every day - you may whisper in the
library, but call loudly to your friends on the playground.
E.T. Adventures on Earth
John Williams
(1932-present)
John Williams is an American composer, arranger,
conductor and pianist. He was born on Long
Island, New York and began his musical studies at
the age of eight. His father was a jazz
percussionist and the family moved to Los Angeles
in 1948. Williams later attended the Juilliard
School as well as UCLA. After school he served in
the US Air Force where he wrote music and conducted the Armed Forces Band. He then made his
way into Hollywood as a studio pianist.
Throughout his life John Williams has composed music and served as the
music director for mare than seventy-five films including: Jurassic Park,
Home Alone, Hook, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indiana Jones and
the Temple of Doom, Return of the Jedi, E.T., Superman, Star Wars, Jaws,
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and War Horse.
Williams usually writes two film scores a year and often blends traditional
musical elements with popular music. He also writes music for the
concert hall, including a symphony and several concertos.
In 1980, Williams became the conductor of the Boston Pops
Orchestra, a position he held until 1993. In addition, Williams
composed the NBC news theme “The Mission,” the “Liberty
Fanfare” for the re-dedication of the Statue of Liberty, “We’re
Lookin’ Good!” for the Special Olympics in 1987, and the
themes for the 1984, 1988, 1996 and 2002 Olympic Games.
Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe
Awards, 21 Grammy Awards and was honored by the Kennedy Center in
2004. The only person who has won more awards is Walt Disney.
Williams’ music for E.T. was so powerful that director Steven Spielberg
changed the on-screen action to fit the music. This does not usually
happen in movie-making. Williams said his challenge in writing music for
E.T. was to help people feel sympathy for the odd looking creature.
E.T. tells the story of Elliott, a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial
(E.T.). E.T. is stranded on Earth and Elliot and his brother and sister try to
help him return to his planet while keeping E.T. hidden from their mother
and the government.
E.T.’s face was inspired by the faces of Carl Sandburg, Albert Einstein and Ernest
Hemingway.
E.T. was released in the US in 1982 and the 30th Anniversary edition will be released
on November 12, 2012.
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LESSON 1: BEETHOVEN’S NINTH SYMPHONY
TO BE TAUGHT PRIOR TO KSO VISIT
BY
TRACY WARD
MATERIALS: Lesson, Solfege Visual, Scientific Symphony CD
PREPARATION:
Lead students in discussion the various ways that musical sound is produced (playing an instrument, body percussion, singing).
Remind students that they each have an instrument, the voice, that they carry with them at all times. They can always make
music!
Teacher: Hum the theme of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and ask students if they recognize it. “Let’s use our singing
instruments, our voices, to perform Beethoven’s music.”
Show students the visual and have them hum the tune along with the teacher (without solfege yet) while the teacher points,
following the melody on the visual.
Now have students sing the melody with the syllables. (They will be asked to sing this at the concert, and they will have a visual
to help them remember it.)
Ask students how many phrases (musical sentences) there are in this theme. (Two.)
Are they the same or different? (They begin the same way but are different at the end.)
Sing the first phrase (teacher only), and stop at the end of it. Does it sound finished? Why or why not?
Sing the second phrase and have the same discussion about it. Tell students that when something ends on do, it sounds
complete, while something that ends on re often does not sound complete. You may wish to have the students sing the phrases
in two groups to highlight the question-answer element of this melody.
Now have the students listen to the recording and ask them what instruments they hear. Is there a certain order to the way
Beethoven uses the instruments? (It
is played by the basses, next by the
cellos and violas, and then by the
violins.) The theme
travels from lowest to highest in the
string section.)
You may wish to have students play
Beethoven’s melody on resonator
bells, Orff instruments, recorders or
boomwhackers! (The colors of the
visual are the same as the colors of
the boomwackers.)
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ACTIVITY: THE ELEPHANT
TO BE TAUGHT PRIOR TO KSO VISIT
BY
TRACY WARD
DIRECTIONS:
Distribute a copy of the listening map to each child and/or make an overhead transparency. Have the children identify several
animals as selected children pantomime the animals’ movements.
Have the right half of the map covered during the first listening so that only the pictures are visible. Point to the instruments
featured as they are heard. Tell the children that the piano plays the accompaniment throughout the piece. Have the children
determine why the string bass was chosen to play the melody (large, heavy, deep sounding, resembles an elephant).
During the second listening, point to the notes on the right half of the map. Have the children practice clapping the notes and
then clap the notes as they listen to the piece. Explain that the notes are for the melody in the A section. And for the
accompaniment in the B section.
Have the children play the notes on unpitched percussion instruments as they listen to the music again.
NOTE: KSO musicians who visit as a part of the Classroom Connections program will be prepared to play this piece asking
students to determine which of the two instruments should play the melody and which should play the harmony. The KSO pair
will feature a high and low instrument.
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More Activities for Teachers
1. Visit http://
www.nasa.govpdf/146858main_Investigate_Mars_Educator.pdf
for lesson plans from NASA about Mars. The Curiosity is scheduled
to land on Mars in August, 2012. New footage from this Mars
landing will be shown at the concerts during the music!
2. Perform a Sound Wave Experiment: Place a glass pie plate filled
with water on an overhead projector. Drop objects of various densities into the pie plate. Have children observe and draw what they
see. If sound works like water, how do different types of sound
(high-low, soft-loud) create different types of sound waves in air?
3. Watch Beethoven Lives Upstairs
4. Watch Jim Gamble’s Puppet Productions DVD of Camille SaintSaens’ The Carnival of the Animals.
Resources for Teachers
Books:
Krull, Kathleen. Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times
(and What the Neighbors Thought) Harcourt Brace and
Co. 1993. ISBN-10: 0152164362. Short, informal
biographies of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.
Lithgow, John. Carnival of the Animals. Simon and Schuster.
2004. ISBN-10: 0689867212. A rhyming story to tie
the sections of Camille Saint-Saens’ work, Carnival of
the Animals, together.
Prelutsky, Jack. The Carnival of the Animals. Alfred A.
Knopf. New York. 2010. ISBN: 978-0-375-86458-2
New verses written by Jack Prelutsky for The Carnival
of the Animals.
5. Nature has its own woodwind instruments. Discuss with students
how the wind “whistles.” What in nature can create music? Have
students make a list of natural woodwinds (rustling leaves, wind,
wind against a moving car, etc.) Have students write a poem about
nature’s woodwinds.
Venezia, Mike. Getting to Know the World’s Greatest
Composers Series. Children’s Press. 1996. ISBN-10:
0516200699. Biographies for younger readers use
cartoon illustration, photographs and paintings to
describe the life of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.
6. Have students make a simple woodwind instrument from glass or
plastic bottles. By blowing across the top opening against the
opposite edge, the air inside the bottle vibrates producing a tone.
Have students experiment by putting different amounts of water into
the bottles and listening to the resulting tones. Discuss how
different amounts of water effected the pitch of the tone produced.
Websites:
http://www.classicsforkids.com/shows/showdesc.asp?id=96
radio show about Beethoven’s Symphonies
http://www.makingmusicfun.net/htm/
mmf_great_composer_worksheets_index.htm
Word searches for famous composers
http://www.ehow.com/make-homemade-instruments/
http://isisweb.8m.com/holst/planets.htm
Website has a chart for each movement of the planets
7. Visit http://keepingscore.org/education/lessonplanlibrary for
lesson plans to go along with Scientific Symphony. Look for Animal
Poetry for lessons to coordinate with Carnival of the Animals and
Composition in Letter and Song: Ode to Beethoven to go along with
Beethoven Symphony No. 9.
Additional Resources Available:
8. Have students research Beethoven’s
www.knoxvillesymphony.com
pianos and create an advertisement to sell
one. Remember that they often did not
Kid Pages for Mars
Listening Map for Beethoven, Symphony 9
have legs, that he pounded hard on the
Additional Resource Books
keys, and often spilled ink inside.
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State Standards Addressed:
1.0 Singing
2.0 Playing Instruments
5.0 Reading Music
6.0 Listening and Analyzing
7.0 Evaluating
8.0 Interdisciplinary Connections
Complete Vocabulary and Glossary
Descriptions of the Strings, Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion 9.0 Historical and Cultural
Meet the Orchestra
Anatomy
SYMPHONY
of a
Q. What’s the difference between a jet
airplane and a trumpet?
A xylophone is made of wood.
If it’s metal, it’s a Glockenspiel.
A. About three decibels.
Timpani
I
Trumpets
t takes 84 musicians – almost more than you can shake a baton at –
to produce the KSO’s great sound. You’ll often see more or fewer
people on stage at a given performance, depending on
what instruments the piece calls for.
Just like athletes, musicians wear uniforms and “play”
for a living – and it can be hard to tell who’s who
without a scorecard. Here’s a quick guide to
your KSO, along with some classic jokes
from the musicians.
Q. What’s the difference between an
oboe and a bassoon?
Trombones
Percussion
French Horns
Violas
A. You can hit a baseball farther with
a bassoon.
A tuba weighs about 25 lbs.
Harp
Piano
Clarinets
Q. What’s the range of a violin?
A. About twenty yards, if you have
a good arm.
Oboe players make their own
reeds, whittling them from
moistened strips of cane.
Tuba
Piccolo
Flutes
There are more violins in the orchestra
than any other single instrument. The
violins play in two different groups,
with the first violins playing the highestpitched part and the second violins
playing the second-highest.
The largest double bass that ever
existed was almost 16 feet tall
and was built to celebrate the
Cincinnati Music Festival in 1889.
Bassoons
Cellos
Oboes
Basses
Violin strings were originally made of
catgut, but now are made of metal.
First Violins
Second Violins
Design and text by
In the 1600s, some conductors kept the beat by
banging a large wooden staff against the ground.
Now, conductors use a light, wooden baton.
Q. What’s the difference between
a bass and a cello?
Lucas Richman, Music Director and Conductor
of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra
A. The bass burns longer.
For their generous support
of our Young People’s Concerts Program,
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra gratefully acknowledges
Knoxville Symphony League
Tennessee Arts Commission
City of Knoxville and Knox County
We would also like to recognize our partners in education:
Richard Mitchell, Knox County Schools
Knox County Schools
Tracy Ward, A.L. Lotts Elementary, Teacher’s Guide
Sheree Beeler, Shannondale Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Melissa Flanagan, West Hills Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Faye King, Hardin Valley Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Fall 2012
Young People’s Concert
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra
Terri King, Karns Middle, Education Advisory Council
Lee Ann Parker, Bearden Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Jason Patrick, Belle Morris Elementary, Education Advisory Council
For more information about the Knoxville Symphony
Orchestra and its programs, please visit our website at
www.knoxvillesymphony.com.
Lucas Richman, Music Director
James Fellenbaum, Resident Conductor
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra
Presents
Conducted by James Fellenbaum
Night on Bald Mountain
Finale from The United Symphony
Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Finale: Ode to Joy
Modest Mussorgsky
Lucas Richman
Ludwig van Beethoven
Suite No. 1, Op. 43
IV: Marche miniature
Piotr Tchaikovsky
The Elephant
from Carnival of the Animals
Camille Saint-Saëns
“Humming Chorus”
from Madame Butterfly
Giocomo Puccini
Mars from The Planets
Gustav Holst
E.T. Adventures on Earth
John Williams
What is a Conductor?
The conductor of an orchestra is the leader. They must know a great deal about music, the great
composers, and their works. Also, conductors must have the personality and skill to direct many
players at once and to turn them into a team. Often conductors hold a baton that they use to mark
the beats of the music for the orchestra to follow. Conductors may sometimes play more than one
instrument, but they do not need to play every instrument. Instead, they understand how each
instrument works and the special qualities of each instrument. Most importantly, the conductor
learns each piece of music well enough to guide all the players in an exciting performance.
James Fellenbaum
baton - A wooden stick, approximately 1 ft. in length, that the conductor uses to
communicate with the orchestra. The baton helps the musicians see the conductor’s motions
so that they can play better together.
James Fellenbaum was born in Alexandria, Virginia. His father and mother could play piano a little bit, but weren’t very musical. James
started to play the guitar and piano at an early age, but did not continue with them. When he was in fourth grade, he decided he wanted to learn to
play the cello. He originally wanted to play the double bass, but the string teacher told him he was too short! (The famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma also
wanted to play the double bass when he started, but he was too short too!!) In middle school and high school, James played soccer, wrote
interesting English papers, enjoyed learning about psychology, and kept practicing the cello. He liked the cello so much that he went to college to
study music.
He got a degree in Cello Performance, but meanwhile he discovered that he liked conducting. He began to study conducting, and went to
Northwestern University in Evanston, IL to earn a Masters Degree in Conducting. While in Evanston he continued to play the cello, conduct an
orchestra at a Chicago University and was Music Director of a Youth Symphony for high school and middle school orchestra players. After living in
Evanston for many years (and in Texas for a few years), he moved to Knoxville in 2003.
James is the Resident Conductor with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, where he assists the Music Director and conducts community concerts,
Young People’s Concerts, and has conducted on the annual Fourth of July concert. He is also the Music Director of the
Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra and Director of Orchestras at the University of Tennessee. He enjoys working with
performers of all ages, and conducting the students in the Youth Orchestra and at UT allows him to work with young
musicians. James conducts the UT Symphony Orchestra, UT Chamber Orchestra, as well as UT Opera performances, which he
really enjoys.
Besides the KSO and UT, James has conducted in many places around the world. Some places are close by like Johnson City,
TN and Kingsport, TN. Other places in the U.S.A. include Waukegan, IL and Fort Wayne, IN. And, he has also
conducted overseas in Russia, Bulgaria and Satu-Mare, Romania.
James likes watching sports and sports programs on TV and visiting interesting websites on his computer. He really likes
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science-fiction movies, like The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix and the Star Wars movies. He also has a cat named Scherzo
(named after a kind of music), a cat named Pirate (not named after anything musical), a giant white dog named Zubin (named
after a famous conductor) and a one year-old daughter, Kiri (named after a famous singer).
EBONEE THOMAS
What is an Orchestra?
Today’s symphony orchestra varies in size from
city to city, but usually has about 100 players.
Orchestras are different from bands because they
include string instruments. The string section is
the largest section of players in the orchestra,
with about 60 people. The
woodwind section is made up of approximately 12
or more players, and the brass section
typically has 10 players. Finally, the percussion
section ranges in numbers, depending on the
amount of percussion parts used in a piece.
The anatomy of a symphony sheet included in
your teacher’s guide shows how you will see the
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra seated when you
come to the Young People’s Concert. The players
are seated in a semicircle facing the conductor,
with the strings right in front. The woodwinds
are usually behind the strings, and behind them
are the brass. The percussion is normally seated
at the back of the orchestra on the right and left
corners of the semicircle.
Meet the Musicians
GABRIEL LEFKOWITZ
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•
•
•
•
Meet the New
Concertmaster of the
KSO
Gabe is also a composer
and a conductor
Attended Columbia
University and The
Juilliard School
Concertmaster of the Boston Youth
Symphony for 5 years
Has performed with several popular rock and
indie bands in New York including an
appearance on Saturday Night Live
•
•
•
•
Meet the KSO’s
New Principal
Flute
Originally from
Texas
Has played with
the Sarasota Orchestra, The Florida
Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Omaha
Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, San
Antonio Symphony and the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, Florida Grand Opera,
Houston Symphony, and the New World
Symphony
Attended Southern Methodist University
and the New England Conservatory of
Music
JEFFERY WHALEY
•
•
•
•
•
•
Meet the KSO’s new Principal Horn
Jeffery grew up in Sevierville, Tennessee
A long time ago he played in the Knoxville
Symphony Youth Orchestra
Teaches French Horn at East Tennessee
State University
Has played with the Symphony of the
Mountains, Wichita Symphony Orchestra,
Wichita Opera, and Omaha Symphony
Orchestra
Enjoys performing
new music and
recently played new
pieces written for
horn, oboe and
piano
Concert
Behavior
The musicians who are
performing for you would
like to have your help in
making this a wonderful
concert. It is important to
remember that the
orchestra is in the same
room with you, not in a
movie or on TV. If you talk
or make other noises, they
can hear you. If you get up
and leave in the middle of
the performance, they can
see you. These things
could make the musicians
take their minds off of
their music and they may
not be able to perform at
their best. These things
can also be distracting to
those around you.
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Job Description - Audience
SPONSORS:
Please help make this a good
performance by showing how to be
a good audience.
Be quiet as the lights dim and the
concert begins.
Clap when the concertmaster
enters at the beginning of the
concert.
Rotary Club of Knoxville
Knoxville Symphony League
Clap when the conductor enters at
the beginning of the concert.
Clap to welcome any soloists
during the concert.
During the performance watch the
conductor. When the conductor
puts his hands down and turns to
face the audience the piece is
completed.
At the end of a piece, clap to let
the musicians know you like what
you hear.
Tennessee Arts Commission
City of Knoxville and Knox County
SPECIAL
THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS IN EDUCATION:
Richard Mitchell, Knox County Schools
Knox County Schools’ Board of Education
Tracy Ward, A.L. Lotts Elementary, Teacher’s Guide
Sheree Beeler, Shannondale Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Melissa Flanagan, West Hills Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Knoxville Symphony Orchestra
P.O. Box 360
Knoxville, TN 37901
865-523-1178
www.knoxvillesymphony.com
Faye King, Ball Camp Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Terri King, Karns Middle, Education Advisory Council
Lee Ann Parker, Bearden Elementary, Education Advisory Council
Jason Patrick, Belle Morris Elementary, Education Advisory Council