Kids Have That Special Knack

Our annual Steppin’ Out programs were a smash—six capacity audiences in Hutchins Street Square, Lodi, and Atherton Auditorium, Stockton, for a total of approximately 6,000 youngsters. Our program, “Construction Zone: Musicians at Work!” focused on some of the forms music takes: fugue, theme and variations, sonata form, ABA form, and rondo.

The young audiences were wonderful, and they were really “getting it.” And yet, as any experienced teacher will tell you, even if we feel we’ve accomplished a great “teaching moment,” the kids will soon find a way to bring us back to earth. At one point we had showed how the “A” section returns “in disguise” in Shostakovich’s Scherzo movement from his Fifth. After the demo, we played the piece through and I knew the kids were understanding the architecture of the music. So I turned to them while we were performing and asked “where are we now?” The answer came back—“Lodi.”

Kids have that special knack.