# Younger Peoples Ideas...?



## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

Hi Folk's,

As some of you may know this past summer I did some work with the London Mozart Players. This consisted of three evening concerts as well as workshops during the day. The workshops were designed to introduce young people to classical music.
During these presentations there were descriptions of the different sections of the orchestra as well as the role of the conducter. There was also a part of the workshop where some of the children participated by playing some rythm instruments. They were fun workshops but limited both because of the size of the group (200 or more) as well as time.
I have read, on this forum ,posts by some of the younger people who feel they are seen as "geeks or nerds" by some of their peers for their interest in or passion of classical music.
My wife and I were discussing this tonight and she wondered what kind of ideas the younger people might have for attracting their peers to this music?


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## Manuel (Feb 1, 2007)

If the attendants are below 12, I think you only need to play nice tunes. Or have violinists play Sarasate, Wieniawski and pyrotechnicals alike.

If the boys are over 12, my impression is you need to show them classical music is not just lame tunes and music for granmas. Use something like my _Shostakovich Emergency Kit_.
Most teenagers have already been exposed to hard sonorities (like heavy metal) and they happen to like that. Show them there's something like that in classical music.


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## hawk (Oct 1, 2007)

I am learning that classical music has roots in what we could call folk music. Also there are Native American composers who have infused classical composition with Native themes
Louis W Ballard and Brent Michael Davids are a couple. Though I have not knowingly heard classical music composed by Native people knowing it is out there allows me to feel personally connected to this form of music. Also all cultures have "folk music". If this is presented to newcomers to this music might it encourage the same feeling of the music being part of them/their culture as I mentioned above?

Manuel I agree that showing how classical can be as exhilirating and exciting as other musics can be helpful. What about a more interactive hands on approach? 

At a school I visited recently they have an orchestra made up of any kind of instruments available. Mostly drums didgeridoos flutes rattles bells berimbau etc. Different kids take turns creating a composition. They instruct a conducter (another kid) to guide the orchestra a particular way. Though this is not done with classical instruments it does offer some framework and hands on experience. The man who came up with this idea is himself a classical composer.


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## Aristocrat (Dec 10, 2007)

Well, I'm 15 and I'm a big fan of classical music. I think that young people don't really know what classical music is. As soon as they hear those words, the image of upper class snobbery appears, and they are immediately repulsed by the idea. However, as soon as I force them to listen to the second movement of Shostakovich's Piano Concerto no. 2, or one of Chopin's Etudes, they are quite entranced. Perhaps you could show them a variety of classical music, stretching from early Baroque works to the music of the late romantics, impressionists and more modern composers, like Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Prokofiev. It would help to banish the idea that all classical music sounds like it Beethoven or Mozart. 

Also, you said something about composers drawing inspiration from Native American tunes. How about Poulenc? His music is heavily inspired by ideas from South East Asia.


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