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."