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Show Boys and girls in many of our elementary schools in Davis County have been "N learning to become Opera buffs through the Americana Singers of Young Audience 4 Concerts. The Americana Singers are one of the Young Audience Concert Groups that provide opportunities for our Young people to hear professional musicians on their level. Young Audiences is a nation-wide, non-profit organization which presents musical concerts to school children during hours as part of their regular m curriculum. 5y Last Year 38 concerts and 24 intensity programs were presented in Davis County. 5? Young Audiences hires the best musicians available to not only perform for the Hy children, but to share the excitement of the instruments and their heritage. It is a i beautiful and vibrant program that exposes our children to the joys of music. Each ;' concert is tailored to the age of the audience and great care is taken to keep the e audiences small enough to allow intimacy with the performers. (Usually, three I concerts are given in each school & one for grades K-2, one for grades 3 & 4 and one , for grades 5 & 6. A striking atribute of Young Audience concerts is the warm rapport between the musicians and their young listeners. The music is presented as informally as k possible to encourage discussion between the musicians and children. During each .performance the children ask questions, touch some of the instruments and "Live 1 out" some of their musical fantasies. It is through this close human contact that children are best introduced to the world of music. We know that this warm introduction stimulates them to play instruments for their own enjoyment and gives them skills to become appreciative listeners for the rest of their lives. We know our program is successful as we watch your children clap, shout I "Bravo" and reach out to touch the artists as each concert ends. An example of a Young Audience Concert is the Americana Singers performing at Whitesides Elementary in Layton. The quartet features Camille Cook, Soprano; Susan Cook, Contralto; Greg Griffitsh, Tenor; and Don Becker, Baritone; with Cherie Omer as director and accompanist for the group. This is the second year the Americana Singers has performed throughout the five school districts in and around Salt Lake City through the auspices of Young Audiences, Inc. Last year they presented a Bicentennial program and this year the program uses a circus theme as a tool to introduce the children to music teriterminology, opera, and the voice. njl The program was written by the director, Cherie Omer, and a Farmington resident, Connie Crofts. ' The circus ringmaster enters and greets the children with an invitation to come to the circus with the other performers by way of imagination and creativity, then brings in the other performs (a juggler, snake charmer, clown, and strongman). The performers sing arias from operas and call children out of the audience to sing recitatives of their own in answer to questions sung to them about the circus. 1 If The program includes puppets that teach how to sing correctly and a sing-along I lp bout various musical terminology accompanied by a rolled up poster that stretches out to illustrate the song and reinforce what the children have been . taught during the program. In order to demonstrate the principle of counterpoint, 1 the performers divide the audience into four different groups and each one sings a different melody. The bass leads the popcorn song, the tenor the peanut song, the L contralto the soda pop song and the soprano the cotton-candy song. For the older :hildren the musicians peform the famous quarter from Riggoletto. The performers are all professional musicians and three of them sing with the Tabernacle Choir, one with the Mormon Youth Choir. I Other Young Audience concert groups are: Pli The Piano Duo, Brass Quintette, Renaissance, Woodwind Quintette, String Quintette, Each group is unique, exciting and stimulates students to enjoy great music. . Following is a teachers evaluation of the Piano Duo Concert. FANTASTIC! Students are still talking about "those two girls!" They have ?ione us all a great service they have motivated our students! i My sixth-grade students thoroughly enjoyed the performance. They talked at - Jjreat length about the "young" talent and the devotion they exemplified. Many kxrommitted themselves to more practicing on individual instruments. I feel it was Snspiring for all of us. I feel this was one of the most inspiring "Young Audience Concerts" we have yet L'eard. The musicians were very professional but still related well with the udience. They seemed to thrill the students (and myself) to the degree of inspiring lis all to something better and more perfect. 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