Instruments come to life at Lake George Music Festival Children’s Concert

What is music, what is sound, and how does a conductor keep an orchestra of boisterous instruments under control? These questions were answered Saturday evening in Shepard Park as the Lake George Music Festival Orchestra performed the New York premiere of Paul Dooley’s “The Conductor’s Spellbook.” The 2016 composition, says Music Festival Director Roger Kalia, is a modernized version of “Peter and the Wolf,” a 1936 work written to entertain children while introducing them to the strings, woodwinds, percussion and brass instruments of an orchestra.

“The Conductor’s Spellbook” tells the story of a young boy, Tony Stradivarius, who gets lost during a school field trip to the symphony. The story narrator, Christine Wisch, explained that Tony’s class attended last year’s Lake George Music Festival concert in Shepard Park, and he was left behind. There he witnessed something magical. The instruments, one section at a time, came to life until every instrument was alive and raucously playing. Tony finds a heavy book on the conductor’s podium, “The Conductor’s Spellbook,” and there he found the spells to control the orchestra.

The performance called for audience participation as the narrator asked for help in casting the spells that would bring instruments to life. Music, Tony Stradivarius discovered, is a science and art; it is organized sound. Sound is created by vibrations, and the narrator explained how vibrations were made with each instrument — the drawing of a bow across violin strings and the rattling of a horn player’s breath inside the instrument.

The Lake George performance of “The Conductor’s Spellbook” was the Music Festival’s Children’s Concert, a free outdoor concert that marks the Festival’s mid-point. “One of the things I love about this concert is that it’s for the community, it’s for you,” says Kalia. “I remember when I was in middle school and my high school band and middle school band would take us to see the New York Philharmonic… I was just blown away by the different sounds. This is your opportunity to really hear world-class musicians from all over the country.” The annual Children’s concert features an instrument “petting zoo” that allows children, and adults, to try different instruments.

The Lake George Music Festival, now in its eighth season, brings together musicians from across the country and the globe to perform at venues throughout the Lake George Area. The 2018 Festival continues with daily performances through next week. Friday, Aug. 24, the Lake George Music Festival Symphony Orchestra will hold its Grand Finale concert in the Lake George High School auditorium. They will perform Dvořák’s New World Symphony and the premiere of a work commissioned by the Festival, Chris Rogerson’s “Four Meditations for Orchestra.” Tickets for the Grand Finale Concert are $20 and may be purchased at the Lake George Music Festival website.