Free Family Concert and Instrument Petting Zoo:
Carnival of the Animals

Maestra Green

Program

Kennett Symphony of Chester County
Mary Woodmansee Green, Music Director
 
West Chester Dance Works, Diane Matthews, Artistic Director
 
Daniel Song, piano
Eric Guo, piano
Amanda Galick, flute
 

SAINT-SAËNS

Carnival of the Animals

Soloists

West Chester Dance Works, Diane Matthews, Artistic Director

West Chester Dance Works' mission is to provide the community an opportunity to experience the art of dance with its diversity of ideas, feelings, and style. We make a commitment through outreach programs and performances to display the various art forms and talents to enrich and expand the horizons within our community. The company encourages courtesy, respect, independent thinking and self-confidence. Dance Works promises to promote through dance a healthy environment for the growth of children and adults alike. We are excited to be joining the Kennett Symphony Orchestra for the second year with the production Carnival of the Animals. For more information about the company go to www.wcdw.org.

Daniel Song

Daniel Song, piano

Daniel Song is a 12-years old 7th grader at Radnor Middle School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. At the age of 5, He started to play the piano at the Nelly Berman Music School studying with Nelly Berman and for the past 5 years Daniel has been studying with professor Resnianski in the same school.

He performed at many public venues in New York, Philadelphia, West Chester PA, Camden NJ, Forth Worth TX, Salt Lake City and others. At the age of 8, he played at Carnegie Hall as a winner of Young Musician Competition. He was a finalist in the children division of Greenfield Competition held by Philadelphia Orchestra in 2004. Same year, he received a Grand Prize of Young Musician Competition held by Korean Musician Association at Philadelphia. In 2006 and 2008, he won the first prize in the children division of West Chester University Piano Competition. His performance was featured at WYBE channel in a program of Young Classic Musicians. He regularly participates in numerous public community concerts and performances for funding scholarship for his music school. In 2007, he won two competitions and performed as a winner of Young Artist Competition with Ambler Orchestra and Old York Road Symphony Orchestra, respectively. In the spring of 2008 he was invited by Mary Woodmansee Green, the music Director and Conductor of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Kennett Symphony of Chester County, and The Mary Green Singers, to perform with Kennett Symphony Orchestra.

In the winter of 2008, he was chosen to play at Nixon Hall at Cleveland Institute of Music for the radio program From the Top hosted by Christopher O’Riley at NPR channel as a winner of Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award provided by From the Top and Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Also, in the spring of 2008 he was invited again to perform at Carnegie Hall for From the Top Live from Carnegie Hall television recording prepared by WGBH channel at Boston and PBS channel. In May of 2008 Daniel performed at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia as a winner of the Nelly Berman-Golden Key Music and Art Festival. In June of 2008, Daniel participated in Piano-Texas International Academy and Festival where he performed in several concerts and played in Master-classes for Peter Donohoe and Eleanor Wong as well as studied with the executive director of the festival Dr. Tamas Ungar.

At school, he is a concert master as a violinist at school orchestra. Besides music, Daniel enjoys team sports such as tennis, soccer, baseball, and swim team relays. He is an avid reader of wainscot style novels and enjoys watching epic series.

Eric Guo

Pianist Eric Guo, age 16, is a junior at Lower Merion High School. He started to play piano at age 4 in Japan, and currently studies with Igor Resnianski at The Nelly Berman School of Music. Former teachers include Mrs. Kurihashi, Mrs. Ayako, Mrs. Clinton, Dr. Kevin Orr, and Dr. Ori Steinberg.

He has won many awards at piano competitions at the state level, including 2nd in the 2005 MTNA Florida State, the 1st in the 2005 FFMC Convention Junior Piano Concerto competition, 2nd in the 2007 MTNA Pennsylvania State, and 2nd in 2007 West Chester Piano Competition.

In May of 2008 Eric performed at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia as a winner of the Nelly Berman-Golden Key Music and Art Festival. He will also perform in Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2009.

Amanda Galick

Amanda Galick is a senior at Boyertown Area Senior High School. She has been a flute student of Robin Kani, a graduate of the Juilliard School and principal flute of the Allentown Symphony, Pennsylvania Sinfonia, and Bach Festival Orchestra, for the past six years. This past summer, she was selected to study with Amy Porter, graduate of the Juilliard School, at University of Michigan’s MPulse Ann Arbor Flute Institute. She has had opportunities to study in master classes with composer and flautist, Gary Schocker, and David Cramer and Kazuo Tokito, of the Philadelphia Orchestra. She attended the summer Performing Arts Institute in 2006, where she studied flute for four weeks with Chris Vanneman, a graduate of Eastman and Yale, and in 2007, was selected to participate in Northwestern University’s High School five-week Summer Music Institute, traveling to Chicago to study with Walfrid Kujala of the Chicago Symphony. This past summer, she had the pleasure of working with renowned flutist, Amy Porter, for two weeks at the University of Michigan’s Mpulse Ann Arbor Flute Institute.

Amanda participates in numerous musical competitions. She has been a featured soloist with the Reading Symphony Orchestra and the Warminster Symphony Orchestra, as the first place winner of both of their Young Artist Competitions. She is the second place winner of the Kennett Symphony Instrumental Competition, and just recently won second place in the Ringgold Band Youth Competition, where she will solo with the Band this summer. In the senior instrumental division of the Reading Musical Foundation Scholarship Competition, she was the first place winner of the David Bilger Woodwind Award. She has also obtained many scholarships from the Foundation for continued summer study. Amanda has played with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, the Delaware County Youth Orchestra, and the Reading Symphony Youth Orchestra. She often performs for church services and community organizations, such as the Historical Society of Reading and the Rotary Club of Wyomissing. She has been an active participant in the PMEA district and regional festivals for band and orchestra annually. She is Drum Major of the Boyertown Area Sr. HS marching band this year, and also participates in her school’s show choir, choir, orchestra, pit orchestra, jazz, and concert band. For the past two years, she has expanded from her classical roots, performing regularly with the high school jazz band, winning awards from The University of the Arts, Temple University and the Oley Jazz Fest for her creative solo improvisations. Amanda has also studied piano, composes, and was a winner of the Classical Symphony of Philadelphia’s Young Composer’s Competition in 2005.

About the Music...

Camille Saint-Saëns

Le Carnaval des Animaux (The Carnival of the Animals)

Listen to an excerpt

From Wikipedia: Le Carnaval was composed in February 1886 while Camile Saint-Saëns was vacationing in a small Austrian village. It was originally scored for a chamber group of flute/piccolo, clarinet (B flat and C), two pianos, glass harmonica, xylophone, two violins, viola, cello and double bass, but is usually performed today with a full orchestra of strings, and with a glockenspiel substituting for the rare glass harmonica.

Saint-Saëns, apparently concerned that the piece was too frivolous and likely to harm his reputation as a serious composer, suppressed performances of it and only allowed one movement, Le Cygne, to be published in his lifetime. Only small private performances were given for close friends like Franz Liszt.

Saint-Saëns did, however, include a provision which allowed the suite to be published after his death, and it has since become one of his most popular works. It is a favorite of music teachers and young children, along with Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf and Britten's The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. In fact, it is very common to see any combination of these three works together on modern CD recordings - a handy tool for class work.

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