By Nana Wolfe-Hill, Director of Educational Programs at Eastern Music Festival
EMFkids, part of the world-renowned Eastern Music Festival & School, is proud to offer TWO Triad Smarty Pants readers four tickets each to the family favorite – Peter and the Wolf. The concert, fun for the entire family, is a collaboration between EMF and the Greensboro Ballet, and will be narrated by Fox 8’s Neill McNeill. The concert has one showing at the historic Carolina Theatre in downtown Greensboro on Saturday, July 24, at 11am. Join us in the lobby at 10:30 am for some fun, pre-concert activities.
Details on how to register for this giveaway are at the end of the blog. You must be a TSP newsletter subscriber to win. This promotion will run until Noon on Friday, July 9, and the winners will be announced on our site on Sunday, July 11.
Peter and the Wolf was composed by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 after his return to the Soviet Union. It is a beloved children's story (with both music and text by Prokofiev), spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra. The story, while enjoyable at face value, is also designed to teach children about the orchestra with each character associated with a particular instrument and theme:
• Bird: flute
• Duck: oboe
• Cat: clarinet
• Grandfather: bassoon
• Wolf: horn
• Hunters: woodwind theme, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum
• Peter: string instruments
The Story
Peter, while at his grandfather's home in a forest clearing, goes out of the yard, leaving the garden gate open. The duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go swimming on the nearby pond. She starts arguing with a little bird ("What kind of bird are you if you can't fly?" – "What kind of bird are you if you can't swim?"). Peter's pet cat sneaks up on them, and the bird —warned by Peter— flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck swims to safety in the middle of the pond.
Peter's grandfather scolds Peter for being outside in the meadow ("Suppose a wolf came out of the forest?"), and, when Peter defies him, his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate. Shortly afterwards "a big, grey wolf" does indeed come out of the woods. The cat quickly climbs into the tree, but the duck, who has excitedly jumped out of the pond, is chased, overtaken and gulped down by the wolf.
Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. He asks the bird to fly around the wolf's head to distract him, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by his tail. The wolf struggles to get free, but Peter ties the rope to the tree and the noose only gets tighter.
Some hunters, who have been tracking the wolf, come out of the forest ready to shoot, but Peter gets them to help him take the wolf to the zoo in a victory parade that includes himself, the bird, the hunters leading the wolf, the cat and grumpy grumbling Grandfather. In the story's ending, the listener is told that "if you listen very carefully, you'd hear the duck quacking inside the wolf's belly, because the wolf in his hurry had swallowed her alive."
About EMF
In case you didn’t know, Eastern Music Festival & School is much more than just EMFkids. It’s a school for aspiring young musicians (aged 14-22) and an internationally-acclaimed summer musical festival. With more than 100 events this season, EMF has lots of great music in store and most of it is extremely family-friendly.
EMF has two pre-professional orchestras, known as the Young Artists Orchestras, that perform Thursday and Friday evenings in July. They offer a special Family Night package that lets adults bring children aged 12 and under for just $5 per adult and $1 per child (limit two children per adult). This is a great value for a great evening of music! And, it’s a great way to introduce your family to classical music.
And, of course, there are plenty of events for date nights, too! Saturday night orchestral concerts with world-famous guest artists like cellist Lynn Harrell, violinists Gil Shaham and Tianwa Yang, and pianists Barry Douglas and William Wolfram; chamber music during the week, the popular Friends & Great Performers Series, and EMFfringe interspersed throughout the festival. The popular EMFfringe series features alternative music featuring everything from Americana to alt country, blues, rock, jazz and gospel. Some of the featured artists this season include Mark O’Connor, Doc Severinsen, The Waybacks, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Anders Osborne, Bonerama, and much more.
Events take place every night during the season and at various locations all over the Triad, predominantly on the campus of Guilford College and in downtown Greensboro, and at other Greensboro, Burlington, Elon, High Point, Winston-Salem, and Boone locations.
Please visit www.EasternMusicFestival.org to learn more about EMF’s 49th season and EMFkids events. Tickets are on sale now!
To register for these tickets, click here. Good luck, Smarties!
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