October 31, 2003
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Portland, Ore. … Story times with live musical accompaniment by Oregon Symphony musicians will begin at Multnomah County Library branches in November, as a result of an innovative ongoing partnership between the Library and the Symphony’s Education and Community Programs department. Beginning with weekly events at the Albina Library, Symphony musicians will perform live to music-related stories read by Youth Services Librarian Jane Corry; the events are scheduled every Tuesday in November with upcoming events Nov. 11 at 7 pm, 18 and 25 at 11 a.m. This free series of stories told through music will be followed by an opportunity for kids to play the musical instruments themselves, as well as to make arts-and-crafts versions of the instruments. The Albina branch of the Multnomah County Library is located at 3605 NE 15th Ave., Portland. The Storytimes project will continue in 2004 at the Hollywood Library in January, Central Branch in February and Gresham Library in March.
Each of the Storytimes will choose stories that will be enhanced by music from one of the four families of musical instruments: woodwinds, strings, brass, and percussion. The first Storytime, co-hosted by Symphony percussionist Chris Perry and Corry on Nov. 4th, featured the percussion family musically illustrated the stories “Rat-A-Tat-Tat” and “The Three Billy Goats Gruff” among others. On Nov. 11, trumpeter Sally Kuhns will introduce kids to the trumpet and brass section. The following week, on Nov. 18, oboist Karen Wagner will talk about the different instruments of the woodwind section; the series concludes on Nov. 25 with bassist Don Hermanns adding his musical interpretation to Maurice Sendak’s classic “Where the Wild Things Are.” Each player will choose music for his or her Storytime session that illustrates the narrative of the story in an imaginative, compelling way. In addition, each musician from the orchestra will introduce themselves to the children when the storytelling is over, explain how their instrument “works,” demonstrate how to hold it, and help the children try out a real instrument brought to the session for them to use. Kids can then participate in a crafts activity in which they make their own instrument out of common household materials; kids and parents will also be given a specially printed bookmark with suggested readings and recommended CDs that features the instruments they have been studying. These recommendations tie into the library’s inventory of books and CDs.
The concept for the musical Storytime grew out of the Symphony’s three-year participation in the Creative Empowerment Program, funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which explores ways in which people learn to open their minds to creative expression and the exploration of new ideas. The Creative Empowerment Program emphasizes the use of one’s own prior emotional experience in creating a “point of entry” to the study of a new subject, which has led to the creation of a new Storytimes model for children that combines music with literature as a means of enhancing the learning process.
For more information call 503-228-4294 or visit the Symphony’s Web site at www.orsymphony.org.
