If there’s a single event that parents and kids should enjoy together, it is the Garden of Memory mini-festival on June 21 at the Chapel of the Chimes Columbarium in Oakland. The Julia Morgan-designed space has special acoustic properties that allow separate performances in different niches and spaces to go on simultaneously without the sound carrying far. You wander about picking up music here and there and stumbling upon performances by some of the Bay Area’s adventurous and eclectic musicians. The event draws more than a thousand spectators every year.
“What I hear pretty often is, kids don’t like to sit still,” says Sarah Cahill, a pianist who specializes in new music, and who founded the event for New Music Bay Area. “They can walk around; it’s more than just a concert setting. It’s such a great place to explore. It’s like a treasure hunt. You can choose something to listen to and then move on.”
There are so many great acts to discover, that recommending individuals may be unfair. But for sure, kids won’t want to miss Katie Wreede’s Living Wind Chimes in the lobby, which children can play. “There are a lot of invented instruments that kids are going to like,” says Cahill. “So you can see Edward Schocker playing glass instruments. Maggi Payne is bringing in a theremin that kids can play. There’s also a guy who has a bicycle-powered instrument; Keith Porter has a kelp-powered trumpet.” (Really, that’s not a joke.)
And then there’s the art project known as CMT Creates Music, led by Tim Philips and designed to raise awareness about Charcot Marie Tooth disease. On the Garden of Memory website, they advertise:
“We will be showcasing 4 very large and curious instruments that physically embody the sounds they are creating; exploring a range of timbres and mechanisms. We’ll have the CHAPEL Bubble Organ and the CHIME Forest, bringing water and electricity together for your excitement. We’ll also have the calming, hypnotic Sound Swing, coupled with the unnerving and risky Stringtotter. Water, air, motors, glass, teeter totters, swings and golf balls should be enough to keep you entertained as we improvise with them to explore the unique soundscape of the Mausoleum.
For parents, the Cornelius Cardew Choir will be there performing Pauline Oliveros’ healing, emotionally stirring Heart Chant. “People like the informality. You don’t have to be a musician to join in, you just join the circle, put your hand on your heart and begin,” says Cahill. As hippie/Berkeley as that sounds, Oliveros’s music is out of this world; she’s one of the all-time great experimental musicians.
And when the kids are overstimulated, “there’s going to be food and drink outside, so when the kids are tired, they can go there and listen to Orchestra Nostalgico on the terrace. Crowden School will be bringing food this year.”
The event lasts from 5 p.m. to dark (usually 9 p.m.). If you’ve never been, drop your other plans. There will be maybe one other event this year that will be as fun and engaging an introduction to music as this four-hour block. Your kids will think they died and went to heaven.