PHOENIX (Oct. 4, 2024) – The Phoenix Symphony is creating musical experiences for children and families with its Family Series, starting Oct. 12. Take a magical ride through the world of orchestra music with four engaging concerts to introduce young ones (and those young-at-heart) to the magic of live music with your very own professional Phoenix Symphony musicians! This 2024/25 Family Series takes place at Madison Center for the Arts in a casual, interactive space where kids can engage with the music and musicians.
Enjoy pre- and post-concert activities include meeting musicians in the lobby, crafts and musical activities. The Phoenix Symphony is partnering with Mesa Youth Creative Agency to create a visual art piece in the lobby by the families attending.
Family Series concerts:
· Oct. 12 at 2 p.m. - Viajando por Las Americas/Traveling through the Americas
· Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. - Día de los Muertos
· Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. - A Fiddler’s Tale
· May 10 at 2 p.m. – Let’s Dance
A subscription to all four concerts is $80. Tickets are available on the Phoenix Symphony’s website.
Oct. 12 - Viajando por Las Americas/Traveling through the Americas
Alex Amsel, conductor
Aaron Copland, dubbed the “dean of American composers,” composed much music inspired by the landscape and people of the American West. “Hoe-Down” is the well-known final scene from his ballet Rodeo in which the Cowgirl and the Roper finally kiss in this love story of the Southwest. Arturo Márquez, one of Mexico’s eminent contemporary composers, captures the flavor of the comparsas that parade through the streets in joyful, sometimes riotous, celebrations during Carnivàle just before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.
Concert Repertoire Includes:
Márquez: Conga del Fuego Nuevo
Copland: “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo
Nov. 2 - Día de los Muertos
Alex Amsel, conductor
“Día de los Muertos,” or “The Day of the Dead,” is a two-day holiday celebrated on Nov. 1-2 in Mexico in which families remember departed loved ones and create offerings to honor them. La Calaca, a work by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, depicts the figurine of a human skeleton in colorful clothing that appears during Day of the Dead celebrations.
Concert Repertoire Includes:
Ortiz: La Calaca
Feb. 8 - A Fiddler’s Tale
Alex Amsel, conductor
Igor Stravinsky’s L’histoire du soldat or A Soldier’s Story, a morality play for narrator, dancers and orchestra, is one of the most famous works by one of the 20th century’s greatest composers. Trumpeter, bandleader and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Wynton Marsalis pays homage to it with A Fiddler’s Tale, in which a talented jazz fiddler is seduced by the Devil, disguised as a record producer, into forsaking his art to play lucrative but meaningless commercial music. Unhappy over abandoning his true talents, the fiddler breaks the Devil’s hold and rediscovers music of genuine beauty.
Concert Repertoire Includes:
Wynton Marsalis: A Fiddler’s Tale
May 10 - Let’s Dance!
Alex Amsel, conductor
Dance is nothing without music, and many great composers have written music for dance or inspired by dance that become some of their most popular works. Obertura Tanguera by Argentinian composer Esteban Benzecry is rooted in the melodic and rhythmic turns of modern tango. Leonard Bernstein’s Three Dance Episodes from On the Town uses three scenes from his original ballet about three sailors on 24-hour shore leave in New York City.
Concert Repertoire Includes:
Bernstein: Three Dance Episode from On The Town
Benzecry: Obertura Tanguera