First Kids & Families Podcast Released
SFCV is excited to bring you the first in a series of family friendly podcasts. KDFC Radio’s esteemed announcer Dianne Nicolini and SFCV’s Lisa Petrie will highlight don’t–miss events of the week, and other news from the kids beat. Watch our Web site for the podcasts, and for more information on the additional channels we’ll be serving.
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Carnival Hits the Road With CSMA Pianists
A select group of students from Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) in Mountain View will be transformed into roosters, elephants, swans and such, in a special performance of Saint-Saëns, The Carnival of the Animals on May 3 at 7 p.m. Completing the stable are the pianists, of course, played by 15-year-old twins Nicholas and Benjamin Shea, who jet off to Boston to play the piece a few days prior. Says Mom, Sylvia: “The boys were invited to perform with the Ip Piano School, in a special concert at Boston University. Their teacher at CSMA, Alla Dobrish, thought it would be a good opportunity for the kids at Mountain View to perform it as well.”
So began intensive work on the part of students and their private lesson teachers, along with conductor Carrie Campbell, and coach Dobrish, who put together this project in a short amount of time, with almost professional-level expectations. “It's been a great way for us to involve not only different students, but also a number of our faculty in a sort of ‘group project’,” says Campbell. “We are hoping that these types of collaborations will become a bigger part of what we do here at CSMA.” Music school director Mary Holmes even gets into the fray as the narrator.
The Shea boys, who started at the school at the age of seven, are handling their difficult parts with ease, challenging each other as only siblings can. They enjoy playing with the ensemble since it is their first experience with chamber music, and say it can be even more fun than solo work. Let the Carnival begin!
Flicka and Heggie Host Family Matinee
When it comes to exposure to culture, kids in the Bay Area can choose from a treasure trove of riches. And most of us probably take it for granted that we have such international stars and ensembles living right here — astounding artists such as soprano Frederica von Stade and composer/pianist Jake Heggie, who don’t hesitate to give back to young people and music education.
On May 1, San Francisco Performances presents the two stars in a family matinee at 2:00 pm, in an affordable and charming program, which includes high school singers from UC Berkeley’s Young Musician’s Program, Priscillia Alva, Thérèse-Marie Chaix, Adam Green, and Christabel Nunoo, with special guest Hannah Gorman. See event info here.
“Flicka” as she is fondly known, has had a 41-year-long career in opera and art song, including singing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She has a special friendship with Heggie, composer of numerous operas such as Dead Men Walking, and more than 200 art songs, some of which have been written for Flicka and pal Kiri Te Kanawa. The two regularly perform recitals for Bay Area education non-profits, give masterclasses and donate their fees to charity. On that note, please consider hearing Flicka as a guest soloist with the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, at their benefit Gala on May 14.
The family show is a wonderful melee of show tunes from Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Bernstein, a smattering of light opera by Ravel and Rossini and contemporary songs by Heggie and Copland, with cute themes such as “Animals” to tie it together and make it accessible to the very young.
For more information on this wonderful singer and her projects, click here.