“I think it’s a staple for everything,” Brown said. “I want a tie between literacy, theater and the performing arts. All of that to be accessible for every child between the ages of 7 and 17.”

This is the second year the orchestra has worked with the Shoestring Children’s Theater Company for the (annual ASO) Children’s Concert. The concert combines acting with music.

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“What we do is we take orchestral music and put a different spin on it,” (ASO Executive Director Rich) Duston said.

Award-winning children’s author and playwright Ravay Snow writes original scripts based on the music chosen by the orchestra. This year’s theme is cartoon music. Around 30 children in the Shoestring Theater Company put on a performance to the orchestra’s music.

“It gives them a different perspective on theater. It adds a whole new entity working with live music,” Brown said.

At the end of the performance, the most exciting things for the kids is the chance to go on stage and play the instruments. It’s called the “musical petting zoo.”

“They all head straight for something they want to smack and the harp, that’s a big one,” Duston said. “We fill stage with all these kids and the orchestral musicians stick around to let them play the instruments.”

It’s also an opportunity for the children to learn something new.

“Kids deal better with hands on and jumping into an experience, and with this they get to jump completely in. I think it’s exciting,” Brown said.

Read the full article here.
Not only is the concert free, but the children’s participation in the program is free as well. The concert will take place on March 13 at 4 p.m. at Simchat Torah Beit Midrash synagogue in Aurora. This is the 12th year the orchestra has performed the concert.

See the latest offerings here.

When: Saturday, April 24, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Where: Dumitri’s on the Green at Heather Ridge Country Club

Anyone reflecting on the last decade in classical music would have to consider many developments. Some were expected, like the continuing decline in secure jobs for professional musicians; some were surprising, like the near-disappearance of the CD store (along with CDs themselves, it sometimes seems, as downloading increasingly takes hold).

But I keep coming back to the crisis of relevance that the events of 9/11 stirred. In retrospect, that challenge was beneficial. In a country where popular culture is omnipresent and powerful, opera companies, orchestras and chamber ensembles have to combat the perception that classical music is elitist and inaccessible. These issues had been developing years before 9/11.

In its aftermath many classical music artists and institutions found ways to respond. Maybe I am making too much of 9/11 as a prod to this self-examination and renewal. But what seems indisputable is that outreach and education programs have become central to the missions of many artists and institutions.

Read the full article here.

The ASO is thrilled to return to Heather Gardens for its annual Chamber Concert. Featuring small groups and soloists from the orchestra in this intimate setting, this year the orchestra brings the rich variety of Romantic Impressionism to our audience.

All tickets only $8

Heather Gardens Community Center
2888 S. Heather Gardens Way
Aurora, CO 80014
map here

• Violin Concerto in A minor by Alexander Glazunov
• “Polish” Symphony No. 3 in D major by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Overture to Kovanchina (”Dawn on the Moscow River”) by Modest Mussorgsky

• Saturday, November 7, 2009 – 7:30pm — location STBM

Adult tickets only $12
Students & Seniors only $9
Purchase tickets online here

Continuing the ASO’s annual world tour of international holiday traditions, this year we celebrate the works from the U.S. and Canada with some of your all time holiday favorites, featuring fabulous local singer Heidi Schmidt. Come sing along!

• Saturday, December 5, 2009 – 7:30pm — at STBM
• Sunday, December 6, 2009 – 2:30pm — at the Gateway Center for the Performing Arts

Order tickets here.

Featuring a lasagna luncheon, cash bar and entertainment.
Reservation price is $50 ($21 benefits the ASO and may be tax deductible).
Join the ASO for a mystery to solve in our brand-new fund-raising event. Expect our victim to be stabbed, poisoned, electrocuted and suffer heart failure – at least! Expect to be a suspect. Expect to dance a conga line. You’ll never believe that murder could be so much fun!

Get your tickets here or from any ASO Board Member!

For playhouse information, call 303-455-1848

Performance at STBM

Join the ASO and Shoestring Children’s Theatre Company as we bring some of your favorite childhood music to life, plus favorites for the entire family!

The full symphony and a cast of children bring you another original production.

After the concert all families are invited to our “musical petting zoo” and try the musician’s instruments. Talk to the orchestra and cast members and find out what your children are most interested in!

Because this is a free event there is no ticketing.

REMOTE CONTROL
Meet the Speedwell siblings, Scout, Ariel, Mary, Shelley, Frankie, Roberta, Louis, and Jessamyn. Ordinarily, their intellectual parents limit TV watching to only one half-hour of EDUCATIONAL television a week.
Then, one glorious weekend, their parents are out of town! The children watch cartoons all morning and it’s awesome! But they have an unexpected problem that challenges their decision making skills to the limit:

WHO WILL CONTROL THE REMOTE?
Spectacular images and music evocative of classic cartoons from Disney, Warner Brothers, and Charles Schultz hypnotize the Speedwells…They are excited by kung-fu princesses, lazy trolls, underwater animals, out-of-control robots, and many more cartoons.
A certain rabbit even makes an appearance!

And then things REALLY get crazy — their mother gets home!

Remote Control is performed as part of the Aurora Symphony Orchestra’s free spring children’s concert, and incorporates music from Grieg, Wagner, Rossini, Menken, and other composers whose work has been used extensively in cartoons. The original play was written by Colorado children’s author/illustrator Ravay Snow, and the dramatic production is courtesy of the Shoestring Children’s Theater Company, directed by Sara Brown.

Wagner – Ride of the Valkyries
Grieg – Peer Gynt Suite 1
Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue
Rossini – Barber of Seville Overture
Respighi – Pines of Rome

March 27, 2010, 7:30pm
Performance at STBM
Get tickets to this one of a kind event here.