Judy Boggus, co-chairwoman of the Children’s Concert Committee of the LaGrange Symphony Guild, said the concert aims “to show that stories can be spoken, written, acted out or sung. We want to connect music with story.”
The event will consist of six pieces, with narrative shorts from Gayle Ross, an American Indian storyteller, and concert host Carol Cain. Pieces to be performed include “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” “Trail of Tears,” “Night on Bald Mountain” and “Harry Potter.”
Boggus said the committee is pleased to have Ross be a part of the event.
“She is a nationally acclaimed storyteller who has performed from school classrooms to colleges and to the Kennedy Center,” Boggus said.
Lee Johnson is the composer of “Trail of Tears.” He is Callaway professor of music at LaGrange College, where he is also a composer and operates a recording studio. He is the conductor for the LaGrange Youth Symphony Orchestra, and an arranger.
“Trail of Tears” follows the history of the Cherokee Indians, and takes the audience on a trail of history.
“We are connected with the story,” he said.
Johnson wrote the piece several years ago, and thought it had “run its course but apparently it decided it wasn’t finished after all. Gayle Ross and I have worked together, up-dating the piece and adding in story segments,” he said.
Johnson worked in a part for himself on the piano during the concert, which excites him, “as I will be able to be an active part and working under (conductor) Pat Cobos.”
Johnson, who is the father of five, knows first-hand at the importance of bringing music through education into the lives of children.
Though he recalls wanting to be a “spaceman when I was 4 years old,” Johnson said he has always wanted a career in the music field.
“I come from a musically inclined family. We were expected to learn how to play two instruments, and by the time I was in middle school, I had composed my first piece,” he said.
Johnson said his own children “are kids. They listen to what they want, but they do have an extraordinarily developed ear for concert music.”
“I believe in Louis Armstrong’s theory that there are two kinds of music: bad and good. Music can encourage and teach and motivate.”
Cain, a native of Hogansville, is theater arts teacher at West Side Magnet School in LaGrange. She was Troup County teacher of the year for 2000 and was a finalist for Georgia teacher of the year in 2001.
— The concerts for school children are at 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Thursday and 10 a.m Friday at Callaway Auditorium.
A public performance is at 6 p.m. Thursday. Tickets are $5 for adults, $2 for students in the sixth through 12th grades, and free for students fifth grade and under.
For details, call (706) 882-0662 or e-mail info@ lagrangesymphony.org.
Becky Holland can be reached at bholland@ lagrangenews.com and (706)884-7311, Ext. 229.
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