For many, the word “symphony” evokes the names of famed composers such as Brahms, Mahler, and Tchaikovsky, each of whose talents will be duly represented in the springtime repertoire for Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) musicians.
But if you have young children, it’s entirely possible that the word “symphony,” for them, will soon bring to mind a whole new set of names, among them Mary Poppins, Pocahontas, and Mulan.
“We looked hard for a show that we thought would appeal to the entire family,” says QCSO Executive Director Benjamin Loeb of April 9’s The Magical Music of Disney concert, taking place at Davenport’s Adler Theatre. “And this one has been done all over the country, and has great music and really interesting visuals,” with snippets from Disney’s animated oeuvre synchronized to the symphony’s performance of its scores.
“But we also didn’t want the family concert to just stand alone,” Loeb adds. “We wanted it to be part of a whole weekend of great community-engagement and family-engagement opportunities.”
Consequently, beyond hearing some of the most memorable music from the Disney canon, Adler/RiverCenter guests over the April 9 and 10 weekend will be treated to a musically themed family carnival, concert sets by the QCSO’s youth ensembles, and a community event in which symphony professionals and amateur musicians will, for the first time in the area, be performing side by side.
And as if all this weren’t enough for one month, these QCSO-sponsored activities take place just one week after the organization’s final Masterworks concerts of its 2015-16 season, and one week before the season-ending concert in the symphony’s and WVIK’s more intimate Signature Series.
“There’s no question it’s a really busy month,” says Loeb. “But it’s gonna be a lot of fun.”
Part of the busy-ness comes from the annual Masterworks season-closer, with this year's an impressively glorious and intimidating one: a program titled The Resurrection, in which Gustav Mahler’s 90-minute Symphony No. 2 will be performed in its entirety, sans intermission. (The concert will be held at the Adler at 8 p.m. on April 2, and at Augustana College’s Centennial Hall at 2 p.m. on April 3.)
Rarely staged, as it requires more than 100 musicians and 100 choral members to do full justice to Mahler’s composition, Symphony No. 2 is being performed by the symphony for the first time in 27 years, and finds its members accompanying guest soprano Linh Kauffman, mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala, and the members of Quad City Choral Arts and the Handel Oratorio Society. Collectively, this marks one of the largest assemblages of musical talent ever seen on either the Adler or Centennial Hall stages.
“We’re really proud to be doing it again,” says Loeb, “and I think it’s an accomplishment that the entire community should be proud of – that this relatively small community can have an orchestra that can play a piece this big and this challenging. It’s going to be a special event for anybody who hears it.”
As will, Loeb adds, April 16’s final concert in the 2015-16 Signature Series, cheekily titled Joy of Sextets. This 7:30 p.m. engagement at Davenport’s Outing Club will feature Arnold Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and Johannes Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1 performed by five of the QCSO’s springtime principals – violinists Naha Greenholtz and Deborah Coltvet Klemme, violists Deborah Dakin and Benjamin Davis, and cellist Hannah Holman – plus symphony Music Director and Conductor Mark Russell Smith, himself an accomplished cello player.
“There are two fantastic chamber works that are very hard to perform,” Loeb says of the Joy of Sextets compositions, “and we have fantastic musicians playing them. And if they want, attendees have the opportunity to have a really lovely dinner before the concert, right there at the same place.”
Yet while loyal symphony patrons have come to expect a repertoire of classical greats in the Masterworks and Signature Series programs, Loeb says that he and fellow board members have also “been trying to figure out ways to create access for more of the community to come to symphonic concerts. And family concerts, which have been successful across the country, seemed like an opportunity for us.”
One such event, Loeb says, “had already been planned over a year ago”: the Side-by-Side Concert, taking place at the Davenport RiverCenter at 3 p.m. on April 10. The program will feature the professional musicians performing alongside all five of the Quad City Symphony youth ensembles – the Youth Symphony Orchestra, Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, Youth String Ensemble, Prelude String, and Youth Choir – in an event boasting more than 150 musicians total.
“But then later,” says Loeb, “we had this idea of also creating a community-wide event in which anybody in the community who played an orchestral instrument would have an opportunity to perform with the Quad City Symphony.” That notion led to the recent schedule addition of April 10’s Community-Wide Side-by-Side, a 6 p.m. collaboration in which amateurs and professionals will tackle Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky’s legendary 1812 Overture. (For those familiar with the piece, Loeb insists that, yes, “I think we’re gonna have lots of cannon sounds.”)
“We’ve already got about 100 community members signed up,” says Loeb during our March 23 conversation, “and we’re expecting to get more in the next couple weeks, and there are about 50 members of the symphony playing. Our goal is to have the biggest orchestra in Quad City history. I don’t know how we’re gonna prove it,” he adds with a laugh, “but we’ll see.”
Regardless, says Loeb, “Other orchestras have tried this in Baltimore and in Richmond [Virginia], and it feels like a great way for us to engage our community and also have a lot of fun. And we’re hoping that after people sit down and play next to a symphony musician, they’ll want to come back for a concert.”
Of course, this year, another hope is that people who attend the QCSO’s April 9 engagements will want to come back for April 10’s side-by-sides. Because before the latter are performed, the symphony will begin its family-friendly weekend on Saturday with both the Adler’s The Magical Music of Disney concert and its sister event, the RiverCenter’s Family Music Carnival.
From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., carnival patrons can enjoy such activities as a musical-instrument “petting zoo,” a drum circle, music trivia, laser-harp demonstrations, and making percussion instruments out of recycled materials, along with performances by members of Ballet Quad Cities and RiverBend Handbell Ensemble.
“We had this idea of creating a festival, of sorts, where there would be music-related and cultural activities throughout the day,” says Loeb. “Where people could participate in fun, free, family-friendly activities, and then jump over to the Adler for this great family concert.”
And if your kids are fans of The Lion King, Beauty & the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and numerous other studio hits, great is what April 9’s 2 p.m. The Magical Music of Disney promises to be. A two-act celebration of the Mouse House’s musical repertoire, this Disney-licensed production finds classic movie moments projected onto a large screen while the symphony performs selections that include “Disney Classics Overture,” “Pirates of the Caribbean,” and “Aladdin Orchestral Suite.”
“We’re really trying to expand our seasons in ways that make a new audience want to hear the Quad City Symphony,” says Loeb, “and make the community really feel that they’re a part of it. For instance, we’re encouraging everyone, especially kids, to come in costume for the family concert. If they want to dress as their favorite Disney character, it’s gonna make the event all the more fun.”
So you can probably expect plenty of Snow Queen Elsas at the QCSO’s first family concert, especially considering that Miss Iowa Taylor Wiebers – who will also sign autographs at the Family Music Carnival – will be on hand to perform Frozen’s Oscar-winning “Let It Go.”
As Loeb states, “It’s like having a real-live princess at our concert.”
For more on the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and its springtime events, call (563)322-7276 or visit QCSO.org.
