Students get chance to experience classical music during symphony

More than 2,500 Aiken and Edgefield County fifth-graders attended the Symphony Orchestra on Thursday and Friday, and before Friday's second performance, Hammond Hill Elementary School student Coral Crittendon was already thrilled as she watched the musicians warm up.

"I think it's going to be enchanting," she said.

Most of the kids had no idea previously that classical music could be so much fun.

"I love how our maestro engages the children," said Sandra Perry with the Aiken Symphony Guild, which hosts the program each year. "When he started conducting in Japan, he was doing children's concerts."

Beginning his second year with the symphony, Shizuo Z Kuwahara clearly enjoys talking to the kids. He didn't know classical music until he was 18, and he appreciates the opportunity to share the music with 10-year-olds.

"Each composer brings a different aspect of emotions they can pull out by listening," Kuwahara said. "It's like treasure."

The conductor also liked working with two Aiken students who through competitive auditions performed with the orchestra - home-schooled senior and cellist Malcolm Dyer on Thursday and Schofield Middle School seventh-grader and violinist Regan Gregory on Friday.

"It's an opportunity for us to challenge these kids, so they can perform with orchestras at this level," said Kuwahara. "They did very well. Aiken has strong musical teachers."

Sponsors for the concerts included Security Federal Bank, the Etherredge Center, the Pepsi Bottling Group and the S.C. Arts Commission.

Bob Van Buren, the current Guild president, appreciates the experience of watching so many children attend what for most is their first exposure to classical music.

"The only classical music I listened to at their age was when my grandfather would play in the car, when my grandmother would let him," Van Buren said. "I enjoyed it, even though it wasn't rock and roll. I see such excitement in these kids, and hopefully, one or two of them will be inspired to make a career in music from what they've heard today."

Terry said the Symphony Guild provides a resource guide to prepare the students for the concert. As a result, said Belvedere Elementary School teacher Deborah Young, the kids get a lot of information in class.

"But to see it is a whole different thing," she said Friday. "We have wonderful reactions from them each year. They're very surprised, especially when they hear that (classical music) can be the background music in movies. I like them to feel the emotion of the music. We'll have a lot to talk about when we get back."

Contact Rob Novit at rnovit@aikenstandard.com.