Download Perfect Square: Kinder Konzerts Commission, Premiere, and

Perfect Square: Kinder Konzerts
Commission, Premiere, and Regular Season
Creating Kinder Konzerts
• Choosing the Story
• Selecting the Composer & Criteria
for Orchestration
• Building the Teams
• Premiere Event
• Serving the Community: Regular
Season
Criteria for Choosing the Story
• Easily understood by 4 and 5 year
olds
• Moves forward without extraneous
sub-plots
• Includes action, rhythm, and
repetition in a 8 to 10 minute time
frame
• Provides potential for
interdisciplinary connections for
pre-school learning
• Appealing tale with some “magic”
Author Michael Hall
Selecting the Composer
• Request & review resume, scores,
and recordings of applicant’s work
• Request one-minute sample
orchestration based on Story
• Evaluate sample: is it engaging, easy
to listen to, able to delight ages 4
and 5?
• Prospective Composer
demonstrates interest in the Story
theme/content
Composer Charles Lazarus & guest
Criteria for Orchestral Commission
Orchestration is up to the Composer with loose guidelines:
• Ensemble: 8 instruments, part
of the Minnesota Orchestra
• Instruments included: at least
one from each of the four
orchestral families
• Pairing within instrument family,
contrasting bigger/smaller,
single/double reed, valve/slide,
etc.
Building the Teams
Building the Teams
Building the Teams
Perfect Square Premiere
Perfect Square Premiere
At the Premiere, children met musicians
and gathered autographs…
…on Kinder Konzerts musician trading cards
Author Michael Hall signed his book,
Perfect Square, in the lobby
Serving the Community
First Concert of Season - 480 children attended
Serving the Community
Serving the Community
Serving the Community
Serving the Community
“Often a single experience
will open the young soul to
music for a whole lifetime.
This experience cannot be
left to chance; it is a duty to
provide it.”
Zoltán Kodály 1929
Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra
“Perfect Square” : Kinder Konzerts Commission,
Premiere, and Season
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1. Has your organization commissioned a piece of music? If so, what
were the challenges? If not, would you consider doing so?
2. Does your organization manage long term music education
programs?