orchestra21

This weekend the WCFSO Lollipops – our traveling, free concert series for toddlers and kids – celebrates thirty years of continuous performances. We’re marking the occassion with a special performance and all-day installation of our instrument petting zoo at the Waterloo Center for the Arts.

One of my deepest professional passions is bringing music to life for young people, so it has been a great honor and pleasure to provide Iowa kids with their earliest experiences of live music through my involvement in this invaluable community program. Now the feeling is personal as well: On Saturday my eighteen-month-old son Benjamin will be among the throng of excited kids helping the WCFSO kick off our next three decades of Lollipops.

[Image from a WCFSO performance for youth by Noah Henschied]

GPOYW Let us take you into the intense, vivid world of Bartók’s Miraculous Mandarin EDITION

[Roll over the image to hear our breakdown of this remarkable piece and to see me conduct an excerpt from it.]

GPOYW Still one of the coolest experiences I’ve had onstage EDITION

[Image by Noah Henscheid, more here]

GPOYW These guys were fired up about Beethoven 5 today EDITION

[Shot with Instagram outside the Brown Theater in Louisville]

GPOYW Facing the other way EDITION

[Image by Noah Henscheid]