Friday, May 1, 1998
Picnic, concert start youth on road to love of arts
MUSIC: Outreach effort seeks to expose students to cultural
experiences
By Megan Dickerson
Daily Bruin Contributor
Think "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off." Cameron stares at a painted
masterpiece, a canvas populated by ladies and gentleman of leisure.
His eye draws closer and closer, until he realizes that the piece
of art is composed of millions of dots, indistinguishable when seen
even at a pinky’s length.
While Cameron’s discovery of pointillism is no big news to an
art student, it serves as an apt metaphor for what will happen at
Sunday’s "Picnic and Concert with the Orchestra," a UCLA
Philharmonia Orchestra performance created especially for
children.
Like a "Teddy Bear’s Picnic" twist on Georges Seurat’s "Sunday
Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," hundreds of parents
and children will descend upon the quad outside Schoenberg Hall.
Themed "Animal Friends" and sponsored by the outreach program
Design for Sharing (part of UCLA’s Center for the Performing Arts),
the concert will feature Rimsky Korsakov’s "Flight of the Bumble
Bee" and Saint-Saens’ "Carnival of the Animals."
Accomplished performer and UCLA music professor Robert Winter
will narrate the pieces, choosing young volunteers to act out the
parts of the animals. The family picnic, which begins at noon, will
also include a traveling petting zoo.
As for the puzzling pointillism metaphor, the big picture – so
to speak – starts to materialize when one talks to UCLA
Philharmonia Orchestra conductor Jon Robertson. A man with a
baritone voice and thoughtful eyes, he holds deep convictions when
it comes to musically educating the young.
"I think planting the seed is, in a sense, far more important to
me than finding out if the crop grew the way you wanted to go,"
says Robertson, chair of the music department. "They will remember
this 10 years later, or five years later. I don’t think any kid
comes and has an experience that they won’t remember."
For the past few years, Robertson and Winter have collaborated
with Design for Sharing. The non-profit program sends children to
arts events in Southern California and sends UCLA music students to
area schools for free music lessons.
"If they’re enjoying the performance, it’s easier to tell," says
Brian Boyce, a third-year music student. He also teaches percussion
at a Compton school. "They’ll pretend to use their umbrella as a
saxophone and things like that."
However, performing for children is not without its
pitfalls.
"It’s a tougher crowd because they’re more honest," Boyce says
with a smile. "If they’re bored they have no problems falling
asleep."
In a world where music programs are first to fall under the
budgetary ax, Design for Sharing provides quality cornerstones for
music education.
"Our programs are really of a top caliber," says Bonnie Yaeger,
president of Design for Sharing. "They get this exposure to the
various arts, and they have an opportunity to come to UCLA and see
what it’s all about."
For most children, the trek to the UCLA campus is their first
exposure to a college environment – but this doesn’t mean Robertson
and Design for Sharing mean to proselytize a new generation of UCLA
music students.
"I think that few should perceive of music as a major. It’s very
difficult to succeed in," Robertson says. "But on the other hand,
we have a tremendous responsibility to create audiences."
The "Picnic and Concert" and like events provide pieces of an
expanding musical education puzzle. While the effects may not
materialize in days, or even months, they will make a long-term
difference, Yaeger says.
"We hope they are learning something about how to be in an
auditorium, how to relate to the experience of being in a theater
so that they’re not intimidated by it," Yaeger says.
Yaeger recalls a 14-year-old girl’s frank recollection of a
Design for Sharing jazz concert .
"’To tell you the truth,’" she said. "’I never heard anything
like that before, and I can’t really tell you I loved it. But the
truth is, I’m only 14 years old, and maybe somewhere down the line
I will want to hear it again.’"
"Isn’t that amazing?" Yaeger asks. "I mean, the kid got it. She
really understood."
While Robertson and Yaeger worry that their work is "only a drop
in the bucket," they also realize they are painting small portions
of a piece of art that can only be appreciated with the distance of
time.
"If we capture one kid out of an audience, then we know we’ve
done a good thing," Yaeger says. "Without trying to sound
highfalutin’, I think that has been helpful for our society as a
whole. The arts really are important."
MUSIC: "Picnic and Concert with the Orchestra" begins at noon on
May 3, concert following at 1 p.m. Admission is $7, and food will
be sold. For more information, call Design for Sharing at (310)
825-7681.
UCLA Art and Architecture
Jon Robertson conducts during last year’s "Picnic and
Concert."