Announcer> A production of South Carolina ETV.

(bus brakes squeaking) David> What are you doing here?

Student> The show.

David> What show?

Student> Music Collage .

David> Music Collage ?

<Yes> What is that?

Different types of music they're playing.

<It is> Like, classical.

David> What are you doing here?

Student 2> We're going to the concert.

David> What concert?

Student 2> The Collage concert.

David> The Collage ?

Have you ever seen a symphony before?

Student 3> Yep, I have.

Student 4> I have.

David> You have?

Student 5> Yes.

David> What's that like?

Student 5> It's about jazz.

David> Jazz?

Really?

I've heard symphonies were boring.

<Nope> No?

Student 6> I think it's fun.

David> You think it's boring, right?

Student 5> Kinda.

David> Kind of boring.

Sort of like that, huh?

Student 3> I think it's fun.

David> Well, let's see what happens, all right.

<Okay> All right.

(classical music begins) ♪ The magic of Collage as we, as we have it here, is that it goes in every direction.

You have music that the children are already familiar with.

And then the music that we are trying to have them become more familiar.

In other words, things that they have grown up with that they know they like and the things that they, have perhaps not grown up with, that we want them to become more familiar with, such as symphonic music.

So really, as you chart Collage from beginning to end, you see a jumping back and forth into these two realms.

That, that the children know and that, that they don't know.

So, right away, the... we have to think of a good start.

How is that child who's brought into the Peace Center and said, "Well, I don't know.

I think this might be, might be good.

It might be not.

And I've heard symphonies are a little boring," etc.

How can I grab that child from the start?

So they come in and the curtain is closed and the lights suddenly go black.

Now immediately, that's a surprise to a child.

The child didn't expect this.

A concert is not supposed to be surprising.

("The Batman Theme") ♪ The curtain opens, and immediately we produce something that is familiar to them.

And we produce Batman.

Not only Batman the music, but actually, visually, we bring Batman to them.

So immediately the child is on our side, loves Batman.

♪ Batman descends from the heights of the stage, down to the podium.

And by golly, if it isn't true, Batman actually conducts.

♪ ♪ So now, you've already produced the opening, the paths, shall we say, that brings the child to the point we want.

Then for the next 20 minutes, we go back and forth into small segments between the symphony and... popular music, shall we say.

The music the children know they like.

♪ ♪ ♪ Then from Batman, we go to gospel singers.

We see gospel in one of the boxes.

Now fully, half of the children in the audience know gospel, like it.

And the enthusiasm is immediately, usually clapping, to the gospel.

(clapping) ♪ Touch nah ♪ ♪ Nah nah nah nah nah ♪ ♪ Touch nah ♪ ♪ Nah nah nah nah ♪ nah nah nah ♪ ♪ Touch nah ♪ ♪ How do I touch the Lord ♪ Gospel in one of the boxes.

Last note of that is the first note of the next one.

What do we do?

We come back to the orchestra.

They see the Brahms "Haydn Variations," just the wind section, all delineated by lighting.

Not too long, it's about a minute and a half.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We've gone from Batman, gospel, we love that.

Winds, oh, how interesting and that is interesting.

It's delineated and we keep going back and forth through these small sections.

♪ Now we go to Dixieland jazz.

We go off in another space in the hall.

So there's the interest of space for the children.

♪ ♪ Again Dixieland, fun, easy to listen to.

♪ From Dixieland, we jump back to the orchestra.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I could have chosen a more serious, cello excerpt.

I chose a Sousa march, "The Thunderer" because it's fun.

It's light, it's easy to listen to, and it's the cello section that's doing it rather than the usual brass section.

So again, it's slipping a, an element of the orchestra before the child, in music, that's very easy to listen to.

♪ ♪ We could have produced, as we do with other sections, full lighting, but I wanted as many times as possible in this concert to emphasize the visual.

And so we do the percussion in black light, and you can see the wonderful sticks.

And not only can you hear with the rhythmic element, of course, the percussion is the rhythmic group of the orchestra, but you actually can see it.

So you're emphasizing now what has to be this marriage, not to separate them, but a marriage between listening and this, this vision.

♪ (applause) ♪ An educational concert is actually a very dangerous thing.

Because unless you succeed, you fail.

You can't have, a neutral result.

They've got to walk out with a pleasurable association with it.

So I only have 45 minutes to, to have those children.

I don't have a year, but I do have 45 minutes.

And I do have many things at my command.

To simply, when they walk out and in the years to come that the association between classical music... and themselves and the Peace Center and the symphony orchestra is a pleasurable one.

If I've achieved that, then the concert has been a success.

If a child goes out and says to his... his friend next to him and says, "Ah, that orchestra ain't that bad," then we've succeeded.

♪ (applause) ♪ I think, it's very important to... again, as I said, show the sections but contrast to show all the types of music.

If we had played "The Gloria" for half an hour, you'd lose them about where that piece stopped.

But because it was a minute and a half and it was back to back with all this very familiar, easy music, the contrast produces the excitement.

And you gain... entrance into the child's imagination and fascination.

Same thing with that brass, somewhat modern work.

♪ (applause) Solomon> Check.

Mic check 1-2, 1-2.

The mic has now been checked.

♪ I want you to throw your hands ♪ in the air ♪ ♪ and wave them like ♪ you just don't care ♪ ♪ And if your drug free ♪ and proud to be ♪ ♪ let me hear you say ♪ oh yeah ♪ Audience> Oh yeah!

♪ Oh yeah ♪ Audience> Oh yeah!

♪ Now somebody, everybody, ♪ everybody scream ♪ (audience screaming) David> Rap is very important.

Rap is a language that many of the children understand.

It's crucial that we get rap in there.

It's something many of them respect, understand and whether we like it or not, that's not the issue.

The issue is they do.

And the issue is that they understand it.

So again, we're in the process of erasing this line that's separates for us in the children's mind between what's boring and what's not.

A very difficult thing to do.

(Solomon rapping) ♪ That's what I have to ♪ give for your head ♪ ♪ My name is King Sol ♪ and that's the fact ♪ ♪ All you people out there ♪ who use drugs your whack ♪ ♪ I'm not gonna go ♪ before I do ♪ ♪ I want to give it up ♪ for the D.A.R.E.

crew ♪ ♪ On the count of three ♪ On the count of three ♪ ♪ I want you to give it up ♪ to D.A.R.E.

y'all ♪ ♪ What's up D.A.R.E.

♪ ♪ ♪ I'm out y'all ♪ ♪ (applause) ♪ ♪ David> Violin piece is a, is a little bit of a musical joke for us.

Most of it is excerpts from either the violin excerpt literature that is symphonic excerpts, which we all audition on as violinists to get into symphony or it's very famous solo violin works.

♪ ♪ I asked the concertmaster Xiaoqing to put together a montage of small pieces to show off the strings at their most brilliant, putting one little excerpt back to back with the others.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A tremendous trombones group comes in.

plays just "The Saints Go Marching In" with the trombone.

And as you go back and forth between these various segments of classical and popular, classical and popular, you're gaining credibility.

♪ (applause) ♪ Now comes a very important part of the show.

I have to gain credibility myself.

I've got to have that child say, "This person might be worth listening to."

So I've got to do something.

My entrance has to be something which really gains the aura of the child.

So indeed, we come in via a rappelling stunt from way up at the top of the hall and I come flying in on the James Bond music.

So the child now saying "This is interesting...

I didn't expect the symphony to produce this.

I understand this climbing down ropes, I understand gospel, I understand this."

And the symphony is producing it.

♪ So I come down the rope and I go to the podium.

Now, the moment I go from that stunt to the podium and I conduct, I've got that child interest.

To them climbing down ropes is truly fascinating.

Now the child said, "Well, this person I'm going to listen to."

So I get to the podium.

We conduct a great "Rhapsody in Blue," chosen obviously for its jazzy element.

It's a tremendously clear soloistic element of the piano.

So we have the clarinets, we have the saxophones.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ And we play Rhapsody in Blue, and we project it on the screen so that the child now... is involved in the process of instrumentation.

They see the instruments on the video screens as we play them.

♪ ♪ ♪ And of course, the last bar is the United Airlines commercial.

So again, we've chosen a piece that they understand.

♪ ♪ Now we've got to do something else.

We've got to go, perhaps to a film or an element of a film that they all have by the fact of going to these theaters have said, "we love this."

So this year we... we are very interested in dinosaurs and, obviously playing off the film Jurassic Park .

So we, we play the, the theme music and we show, not the film, but actually, these live dinosaurs now, or these machines, these robot dinosaurs on the screens.

So now the child is making another connection.

I see... without thinking about it, the symphony orchestra is the thing that plays that wonderful music on the big screen.

We're making a... a connection there in the child's mind, something they probably haven't realized.

After all, it's a symphony orchestra that plays that soundtrack that brings that world to them.

We end Jurassic Park, and now is my one chance to talk to the children.

I've got to be awfully careful with that, because if I go to them and I'm patronizing, then I immediately lose them again.

I basically ask them what they think the conductor does?

What does the conductor do?

Sometimes I hear or pretend to hear that the conductor does nothing.

Somebody said "Nothing."

Now that gives me the chance to challenge them.

So I say, all right, if you think the conductor does nothing, if you think that what we do up here is so easy, you come up.

So now the audience as a whole, all these children are challenged.

And we bring the three to the orchestra and they conduct the Khachaturian "Saber Dance."

And that perhaps is one of the most interesting, fun elements for us is to see the face of that child trying to keep that huge orchestra around it going, and absolutely terrified yet amazed by this process.

(audience laughing) It's clear, right?

And you start right over there on the timpani.

Right over there, see?

Just the count, here we go.

We're gonna do One, two, three, four.

Okay.

Here we go.

One, two, three, four.

How's that?

(audience laughing) All right, here we go.

Very loud.

♪ Oh hey!

(audience applauding) ♪ Pretty good, huh.

♪ Pretty good.

That's good.

♪ That's good.

♪ And then, of course, for the children to see their own colleagues messing up, up there doing great up there is what is fascinating.

♪ ♪ ♪ Go ahead.

♪ Hey, what about that?

(applause) One time for all three.

Very good.

Okay.

(applause) One of the wonderful things about music is we can all participate in it.

Nobody is excluded, ever, in the world of music.

So, let's all get up.

And let's sing "The Star Spangled Banner."

Now, really sing.

Okay, here we go.

♪ ♪ O say can you see ♪ ♪ by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed ♪ ♪ at the twilight's ♪ last gleaming ♪ Everybody can contribute.

Can be part of the musical process.

So we sing together "The Star Spangled Banner."

A huge flag comes, again visual.

♪ ♪ And the rockets' red glare ♪ ♪ The bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Gave proof through the night ♪ ♪ that our flag ♪ was still there ♪ ♪ O say does that ♪ ♪ star-spangled banner ♪ ♪ yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land ♪ ♪ of the free ♪ ♪ and the home ♪ ♪ of the brave ♪ ♪ (applause) Last note of "Star Spangled Banner," goes into "William Tell."

Everything back to back.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ There are no stops in the show, and the only talking is at one time and designed that way.

People have come to me said, "You got to talk more.

You got to announce more.

You've got to tell them what you're doing.

You got to do this.

You got to do that."

Absolutely not.

It's got to speak by the rhythm that the children are used to now.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I ride out on a rather large, motorcycle.

Again, I'm gaining the credibility of the child.

And the show ends, with what I hope is a confirmation that this conductor can do something other than sit and do stuffy music.

(motorcycle engine revving) ♪ (crowd cheering) ♪ (applause) > My favorite part was when the conductor came down like James Bond.

> I Like the Dixieland jazz part.

> My favorite part was the percussion.

> When he let the kids come up and conduct.

> The Thunderer.

> I like the strings.

> The trombones.

> When the, conductor drove off on the Kawasaki at the end.

> Real fast music.

> The Overture to William Tell.

> The D.A.R.E.

rap.

> Actually, I didn't just like it, I loved it.

I mean, I've never been to a real symphony orchestra before.

I saw them play at Furman a couple of years ago when I was about six or so, but I didn't really remember it all that well.

I think I'm going to remember this because of the James Bond and the Batman, and I thought it was really cool and everything.

> I was just like a kid.

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, look at that.

Look he's flying now from the ceiling.

> He delights the children with his Batman and his motorcycle.

And they really enjoy that part.

And they'll tell you that's their, most favorite section.

But I believe that they enjoy the music.

> Always a wonder to see what he's going to do, each year we see him.

> It's one thing to play a film strip or to play a tape or a recording and let them hear the instrument, but it's much more interesting for them to actually see that instrument being used in a performance.

> I like the part where they highlighted the different instruments so they could really focus on that, and I know they'll come back and say, "I saw the strings.

I knew what you were talking about."

> It's more or less a visible thing now rather than something that they just hear.

> You could see in their eyes that things had clicked where they had seen sections and little bits and pieces, but all the pieces of the puzzle fit today.

> I really enjoyed the Suzuki, to see the children involved.

I think that's very important for the children to see other children participating.

David> We've achieved the sensation.

They're enthusiastic... "That symphony ain't that bad."

Now we've got to through follow up, which will take years.

We've got to get them to the point of hearing a Brahms symphony.

And that, of course, is done by the symphony not asking the children to come here, but we go to them.

We go into the schools, and we prove the second step, that... that Beethoven can be fascinating.

That we don't need necessarily to do five stunts and 600 lighting cues for Beethoven to be fascinating.

This last stunt, that, that I've done, Really it took some, a little soul searching.

> He came in, holding his arms a bit funny, as if he was sore.

And we came to find out that he had nearly broken both of them in a hang gliding lesson.

So we immediately decided that, that should be the stunt that we wanted to effect for this year's Collage .

David> To let yourself off a 60 foot balcony above the audience is quite, fearful moment.

But there's a very good reason for it.

And I stress that, it's to gain the credibility with the children.

I have real, we have all of us trouble with credibility with these children.

They don't believe adults.

They've never believed adults.

It's historic.

But if you can do something which inspires or which they might not dare to do, then you gain their confidence.

I'm not entirely comfortable with heights.

I know some people jump off balconies and helicopters and planes without any trouble.

I don't.

Heights are not a natural place for humans to be.

So it took some great... a couple of weeks of heavy training in various auditorium to get up there and finally get over the balcony.

You've been down it.

<Right> And you don't want to conduct.

> No, I can't hear music.

That's why Eric has to call those cues to me.

David> You have... you have no desire to come back.

Okay.

Every time I, I grab the bar and let myself finally over and have to let go of that bar.

And of course, that's when the equipment you see whether the equipment is going to work or not.

And there's a, that moment of truth where you have to let go.

And I always, there's a terrible refrain in my head that once I fall and crashing to the ground and I'm good and cold and dead, the production people will say... "Gosh, that never happened before like that."

So today, when I, in the dress rehearsal, when I came down the rope and everything's going very well, and suddenly I come to a grinding halt halfway down.

And I had no idea what, what had happened, why there was a halt, whether something had broken or, you know, there's that moment there where... it could be something serious.

And of course, then I looked down and there was a knot in the rope, and we'd stopped.

And the amazing thing was that when the, when the... when the production people came to the, to my rescue, the first thing out of their mouths was... "Gosh, that never happened before."

> I think he has a very creative mind.

> I really liked it and I bet everybody else enjoyed it too.

> It was very entertaining and exciting.

> It was a total surprise.

> I didn't know it would be this much music.

> After they started playing it, I realized, hey, I know that.

> I didn't expect this much variety.

> It was really good, I enjoyed it.

> I never thought it was going to be this great.

> I really like the show and I'd like to come back next year if I could.

> I think the wonderful thing about exposing children to the arts in elementary school is that it teaches them to have an open mind.

Because they can be exposed to something that they would never try.

And it opens their mind, and it gives them not only a music experience, but it gives them a skill to get them through life.