By David Trinko
The Lima News
You knew this wasn’t any ordinary symphony crowd when the high-pitched sound of chatter easily drowned out the warmups of the bassoons, oboes and violins before it started.
It was just as evident when the crowd started clapping — sometimes along with the beat, sometimes not — in the midst of an electric violin solo by Tracy Silverman.
That’s kind of the point and most of the fun of the Young People’s Concert, performed Friday by the Lima Symphony Orchestra at Veterans Memorial Civic Center’s Crouse Performing Hall. It’s the unofficial kickoff of the symphony’s season, with the “Electric Love” concert with Silverman slated for 7:30 p.m. today at the Civic Center.
There were 2,752 pupils slated to attend two performances Friday. They represented 38 schools scattered across Allen, Auglaize, Hancock, Mercer, Putnam and Van Wert counties. It brought together a mix of public, private and homeschooled children.
Silverman certainly caught the attention and imagination of the students.
“I liked when the guy in the blue suit came and he played the violin,” said Ava Thompson, 9, a fourth-grader at Liberty Christian who had a front-row seat Friday morning.
Marielynn Kelly, 11, a fifth-grader at Liberty Christian, said she was mesmerized watching the percussionists play the drums, since she also plays the drums.
The annual event was sponsored by H & B Family Foundation, Elks Lima Lodge 54, Lima Rotary Club, Citizens National Bank, The Lima News, Nutrien, Ohio State University-Lima, Paulding-Putnam Electric Cooperative, Procter & Gamble and Union Bank.
Guest conductor Karl Hirzer walked the children through what makes symphony music special. After performing Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture,” he broke down the melody.
“It’s the part that’s kind of stuck in your head. The exciting thing about a symphony orchestra is that composers can take melodies, and they can do all kinds of things to them,” Hirzer said. “They can have them played by different instruments. They can be played slower or faster. They can be loud and soft.”
The different sections of the symphony then gamely demonstrated it, at first with just the flutes, piccolos and clarinets performing, then the violins before showing the same melody played in a lower register and more slowly by the cellos, double basses, tuba, trombone, bassoons and contra bassoons.
While educational, the event was clearly entertaining too. Little girls could be seen moving their hands to the sound of the music. Some boys swayed their arms to mimic Hirzer’s conducting. Others reacted to the music, jumping backward as the menacing music of Sergei Prokofiev’s “Romeo and Juliet Suite No. 2” began to play its haunting, low notes.
It’s a captivating tradition that brought back memories of longtime conductor Joseph Firstz, who led the orchestra from 1967 until his retirement in 1996, leading similar sessions back in my youth.
Hirzer, at 35 already the conductor of the Saskatoon (Canada) Symphony, had a little more youthful interaction with the children than Firstz would have. He talked to the children about Silverman “shredding” on the violin.
“I don’t know about you, but I think this orchestra sounds pretty, pretty awesome,” Hirzer said. “What do you think?”
The extraordinarily enthusiastic crowd cheered for nearly 10 seconds. Perhaps they’ll stick with it and become symphony regulars one day.
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See past columns by David Trinko at LimaOhio.com/tag/trinko.
David Trinko is editor of The Lima News. Reach him at 567-242-0467, by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @Lima_Trinko.
