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Interview: Magic Maestro Music Teaches Kids The Story Is In The Music |
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Written by Fatherville Interview
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Fatherville.com Interview with Stephen Simon, co-producer of the "Stories in Music™" series from Magic Maestro Music (www.magicmaestromusic.com) .
Fatherville.com: What is the concept behind Stories in Music?
Stephen: Peter and the Wolf has always set the standard for narrated works with symphony orchestra, but music of a descriptive nature has always inspired me. It's so colorful to hear Smetana describe the Moldau River in his native Czechoslovakia through his tone poem "The Moldau" or Richard Strauss tell the story of that impudent imp "Til Eulenspiegel" in his tone poem of the same name. This concept brought me to the understanding that music could truly tell a story in a vibrant, exciting way; and, it occurred to me that for young people who are not so sophisticated in their musical education, these "paintings in sound" might have greater impact if one added a narration. Prokofiev set the bar in "Peter and the Wolf," a story of emotional extremes and brilliant music. Why not, then, apply this technique to other stories as well. My purpose in creating "Stories in Music" is to inspire a love of the sound of the symphony.
Fatherville: What inspired you to take a children's story like "Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel" and infuse it with a musical sound track?
Stephen: Mike Mulligan" was a story I knew from my own childhood, and Mike's name suggested the sound of bagpipes to me. Because the sound of the pipes is irresistible, and because the bagpipes are never paired with the symphony orchestra, I liked the challenge. Choosing "Mike" was a way of introducing a "new" instrument and advancing the cause of symphonic sound,
Fatherville: Which project took the longest to finish?
Stephen: The projects all take about the same amount of time. Composing the music can take as much as three months. Adding the various tracks, deciding on texts, "composing" biographies, adding the different musical versions and completing the arrangements take longer than recording the original piece, perhaps six months or more. Finding a recording time can take months. It's like a giant puzzle, and it can take as much as a year or more to complete a disc. Producing it and getting it onto the market can take even longer.
Fatherville: How long does it take to complete one project? After the project is "done" how do you know it's really done? Don't you sometimes wish you had scored something a little differently after you hear it?
Stephen: How does a painter know his painting is "done"? My mother was an artist, and for years, I watched my mother "over-paint" on pictures I thought were finished. I usually have enough confidence in my ability to recognize when an orchestration is finished. The feeling of whether a disc is finished is more visceral than anything. Bonnie and I can feel it, and when we agree, it's "done."
Fatherville: How can parents use "Stories in Music" to teach their kids not only about the story but about music too? How does the CD become a tool for teaching music?
Stephen: Parents usually enjoy reading to their children. Children always enjoy listening. The music is descriptive of the action, of the events, of the people, of the emotions, of the feelings all of us have as human beings. That music can convey all of this is the message I want to deliver, and that this is a part of the cultural value of music as an art form.
Fatherville: Would a parent need to have a musical background to appreciate your CDs?
Stephen: No; the parent can be as interested, as informed, as entertained as the child. This can occur, even if the parent has studied music professionally. Bottom line: Music + Story = Entertainment.
Fatherville: What is the single greatest reward you get (aside from monetary) from creating these CDs?
Stephen: I love to listen to them - over and over again. I love the music, the story, the way the narration fits into the whole, the performances, the way the puzzle comes together and the way the disc continues to entertain - even after years of listening. These Stories in Music should become part of the child's musical life and continue through the years.
Fatherville: Do you include children during the process of scoring the Stories In Music for the purpose of getting feedback?
Stephen: I have a feeling that you are using "scoring" as a way to describe completing the disc with the various tracks. If that is your meaning, the answer is "sometimes". Scoring is the actual process of putting the orchestration together. This is something I have to do alone. It is a highly skilled process and children would have no way to contribute. Children are valuable critics after the work is completed. If it is not successful, I alone must return to the drawing boards and re-work the score. "Stories in Music" was directly derived from our experiences in presenting concerts for young audiences. Each of these works originally premiered as part of their Washington Chamber Symphony's family concert series at the Kennedy Center. We incorporated many of the interactive and educational elements as we made these recordings and developed the accompanying program books.
Fatherville: What is the single most popular "Stories in Music" CD to date?
Stephen: "Stories" as recordings are too new to know (the first release just came out in fall 2004). When we performed them in concert as we did for 15 years before we began recording, there were diverse opinions, Because the works range from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" with narration to "Casey at the Bat," the favorites often depended on the age of the audience members. Everyone seems to love the format, and there is no "most popular" at this time.
Fatherville: If you could focus in on just one musical concept what concept would you want kids to take from listening to the "Stories in Music" CDs?
Stephen: I believe that the symphony orchestra is among humankind's most beautiful, interesting, effective means of communication. It deserves our attention, study, preservation and enthusiasm. I hope the "Stories in Music" series may help in this pursuit.
Fatherville: Who are your musical inspirations?
Stephen: My musical heroes include the entire Groves Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians. Do I have any special inspirations? No, but I do "change my spots" depending on which music I am working on at any particular time. I enjoy finding works to conduct that audiences may never have heard. Clementi symphonies and Bruch's lesser-known concerti are among these. Music is not just a profession for me. It brings me enormous joy, and I love the wide variety of performance opportunities that it offers. From playing in the elegant concert hall to the informal gym, it's the music that propels me to a constant high. And that's exactly what I want to convey to young people.
ABOUT STEPHEN SIMON
Stephen Simon, co-creator of the Stories in Music™ series, is one of the most prominent symphony conductors in the United States. He is renowned as a specialist in the music of George Frederic Handel, and for 25 years he fostered numerous innovative and energetic performances as the music director of the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center.
Maestro Simon spearheaded the Handel revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and he was music director of the Handel Society of New York. His performance editions of little known operas and oratorios introduced Handel to American audiences, as did his numerous recordings. His recordings of Handel's oratorios and operas won wide acclaim, including a Grammy Award nomination for Best Choral Recording (1971). He also established the Handel Festival at the Kennedy Center. The Handel Festival Orchestra received rave reviews in Europe and on tour in the Northeast. For many years he was a regular guest conductor at the Handel Festival in Halle, Germany, Handel's birthplace.
In his role as Music Director and Conductor of the Washington Chamber Symphony, Simon brought a varied repertoire and joyful new interpretations of known and unknown works, treating audiences to Beethoven Symphonies with Beethoven-sized orchestras and new works the proved that not all contemporary works are painful. He also resurrected forgotten symphonies by composers such as Clementi and Voricek (the Czech Mozart!). During these years he also conducted and co-created with Bonnie Ward Simon extremely successful multi-generational programming for young people, their parents, and grandparents. The Chamber Symphony Concerts for Young People series enjoyed over a decade of sold-out concerts at the Kennedy Center, educating and delighting parents, grandparents, and children ages 6-12.
Simon recorded The Complete Mozart Piano Concerti with the legendary Mme. Lili Kraus as the soloist for CBS/SONY, and the award-winning Complete Beethoven Piano Concerti with pianist Anthony Newman performing on a fortepiano of the period with an orchestra of original instruments for Newport Classics. Stories in Music is Simon's first series of recordings for young people.
Stephen Simon has loved music from boyhood, and remembers listening the great church organists of Manhattan on Sunday afternoons when he was a child. He attended Oberlin College, received his B.M. from the Yale School of Music, and studied conducting with the legendary Josef Krips in San Francisco. He subsequently became Music Director of The County Symphony in Westchester, NY, where he founded the A Summer of Music on the Hudson concert series on the Jay Gould estate known as Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, New York.
Simon is currently orchestrating the humorous bel canto opera, La Contessa dei Vampire, by American composer David Clenny. This new edition will premiere at the Chieti Opera House in Italy in February 2005. In addition to guest conducting, arranging and composing, he is involved in two other major recording projects.
Dad and super-conductor Stephen Simon and his wife Bonnie have produced two "Stories in Music" recordings featuring the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The idea of their series is to introduce children to symphonic music, and to show how a story can be told through music. Discover more at the Magic Maestro Music website.
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