Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Continues its Family Series with Anansi the Spider and the Moss Covered Rock

By -

Griot storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston joins “theatriclowns” Mark Lohr and Tim Marrone

Baltimore, Md. (February 13, 2009) – The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will present Anansi the Spider and the Moss Covered Rock, narrated by griot storyteller Charlotte Blake Alston (pictured), on Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Alston will be joined by renowned “theatriclowns” Mark Lohr and Tim Marrone as they tell the West African folktale that depicts the story of a spider that tricks the other animals into doing his own work. Please see below for complete program information.

Storyteller, narrator and singer Charlotte Blake Alston, has performed stories and songs to universities, museums and performing arts centers throughout the United States and Canada for years. Celebrated for her special ability to bring to life traditional and contemporary stories from the African-American oral tradition, Charlotte Blake Alston is the ideal choice to perform Anansi.

The BSO Family Fun Zone, added this season to all Saturday morning Family Concerts, will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Meyerhoff lobby. Children and their families can take advantage of numerous free, age-appropriate pre-concert activities, including Port Discovery Children’s Museum’s interactive World Rhythm Drum Circus, the Maryland Zoo’s ZOOmobile, an instrument petting zoo and face painting.

Charlotte Blake Alston, narrator
Charlotte Blake Alston is a storyteller, narrator and singer whose interest in literature, the oral tradition and the arts began in childhood when her father read to her the work of writers and poets and encouraged her to learn and recite the dialect poems of African American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar. After 21 years of teaching from the preschool through graduate levels, she chose to devote more time to touring and performing.

Today, Ms. Alston breathes life into traditional and contemporary stories from the African and African American oral and cultural traditions. Her solo performances are often enhanced with traditional instruments such as djembe, berimbau, nkoning, mbira, shekere or the 21-stringed kora. In 1999, she began studying the kora and the West African history-telling traditions of Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Her teacher is the highly respected Senegalese griot (jali), Djimo Kouyate. Her repertoire is wide and programs are adapted to any age audience or grade level.

She brings her stories and songs to national and regional festivals, schools, universities, museums, libraries and performing arts centers throughout the United States and Canada, as well as local and national radio and television. She is the first storyteller to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra on both their Children's and Youth concert series. Since 1994, she has been the host of "Sound All Around"; the orchestra's pre-school concert series and continues to appear as a guest host and narrator on family concerts. Charlotte also hosts "Carnegie Kids", Carnegie Hall's Preschool concert series and has been a featured artist on the Carnegie Hall Family Concert Series in NY since 1996. She has been a featured teller at The National Storytelling Festival, The National Festival of Black Storytelling, and at regional festivals throughout North America. She has been a featured artist at both the Presidential Inaugural Festivities in Washington, DC and the Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Children's Inaugural Celebrations in Harrisburg, PA.

COMPLETE PROGRAM INFORMATION

Musical Adventures: Anansi the Spider and the Moss Covered Rock
For children ages 3-6 and their families
Charlotte Blake Alston, narrator
Mark Lohr and Tim Marrone, “theatriclowns”

Saturday, March 14, 2009 at 11:00 a.m. – Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall
Lobby opens at 10:00 a.m. for Family Fun Zone.

Tickets for this program range from $11 to $20 and are available through the BSO Ticket Office, 410.783.8000, 877.BSO.1444 or BSOmusic.org.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In &quo
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

The Art of String Quartets by Brian Ferneyhough

By -
Image
When an artist sets paint to canvas, there are brush strokes used for different effects. Sometimes those strokes are subtle, imperceptible; they produce works of art like the Mona Lisa . Other times the very obvious nature of the stroke is the art, as in works by Van Gogh. With some composers of music, the notes on the page are their craft. How those notes translate into an aural experience is what defines some composers as great artists. Brian Ferneyhough has a masterful command of the techniques of putting notes on the page. These techniques are sometimes so subtle, even though written in black and white, they escape detection. Some of what he attempts with his music is just that, to escape detection, to bury the framework, diverting the ear away from the structure, so only the music is heard . The subtlety is so fine it is almost imperceptible. Even though he studied at several institutions, he is considered self-taught, studying scores from Boule
Read more