Public Performances*
Rochester Public Library
February 4, 11:00am
Wareham Public Library
March 17, 11:00am & 12:30pm
Marion Public Library
March 24, 11:00am at Tabor Academy Headmaster’s House
Partners Village Store in Westport
April 28, 2:00pm
Dighton Public Library
July 24, 1:00pm in Town Meeting Room
*The Symphony Tales performances listed here are open to the public, but please contact the venue directly as some may require pre-registration due to space limitations.
Symphony Tales
This past summer we added a new program called Symphony Tales which is geared toward young children ages 4 through 7. In this program, children attend a reading of a popular children's book while being accompanied by a live, musical performance by an NBSO musician. We are currently booking performances of Symphony Tales in schools and libraries throughout the South Coast area.
While many "musical story times" exist around the country, most of these programs use music as an enhancement to the storytelling experience. Designed to reinforce the fundamental literacy skills that children need in order to become strong readers, Symphony Tales is the first program to link the music to the prosodic elements of the text in order to achieve specific early literacy goals. The program uses the popular children's book, Scritch Scratch a Perfect Match, written by local author Kimberly Marcus. Children have enjoyed Kimberly's endearing story about a dog who finds a friend to help rid him of a pesky flea. As the story is read, the cello speaks the text using musical notes and rhythms.
In the Symphony Tales program, conductor Dr. David MacKenzie composed the music specifically to imitate the prosodic elements of the text, such as stress, pitch, contour, rhythm and tempo. This concept of linking the prosody in text and music is based on current findings in cognitive psychology that show that both music and language have a shared neural perception system. Recent studies have shown that the development of musical perception skills strongly contribute to the development of linguistic skills, phonemic awareness, phonological memory and vocabulary development in young children.
Following the performance, we involve the children in two interactive, rhythmic speaking and movement activities that draw their attention to the prosodic elements of two key text phrases from the book. At the end of the program, we bring the children up to play a cello that is sized just for them. If you would like more information about this new music and literacy program, email Terry Wolkowicz or call 508-999-NBSO (6276).