.......Steven Errante, Conductor
WILMINGTON SYMPHONY Junior Strings
Jane Tierney, director
Stageworks Youth Theatre
Gina Gambony, director
Featured soloist, Daniel Hueholt, piano
Winner of 34th annual
Student Concerto Competition Junior Division
Bring the kids and introduce them to the joy and excitement
of an orchestra concert. Stageworks Youth Theatre is
accompanied by the Youth Orchestra in a unique
presentation of the fanciful tale “Peer Gynt” featuring
Bunraku-style puppets. Stageworks Youth Theatre has
adapted Henrik Ibsen’s play into a family-friendly puppetry
performance, while the Youth Orchestra accompanies
with music from Edvard Grieg’s memorable score.
The music composed by Grieg for this tale is some of
the most well-known classical music in our time. “In the
Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning Mood” have
been used in countless cartoons, videos, games, and
live performances.
The character of Peer Gynt was first described in a
Norwegian fairy tale by the same name. Ibsen’s play
and the orchestral composition by Grieg premiered
in Oslo in 1876. While Ibsen crafted a story satirizing
the tragic outcomes of the supposed “Norwegian
personality,” ourperformance will highlight some of
Peer’s characteristics that may be called the “youth
personality”: laziness, procrastination, and dreams
of adventure.
The puppets employed in this performance were received
from the estate of California puppeteer Betty Stewart,
following her passing in 2007. Stageworks was selected
among various organizations across the country to take
ownership of Ms. Stewart’s very popular Peer Gynt
bunraku-style puppets. Ms. Stewart directed performances
with these puppets on the west coast, often with live
orchestral accompaniment. This joint project between
Stageworks and the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra
is a great homage to Ms. Stewart’s work, a wonderful
opportunity for young performers and musicians, and a
great gift to our community.
Now in its ninth season, the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra conducted by Steven Errante is a youth education program of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra. Its musicians are ninth- through twelfth-grade string, wind, brass and percussion students who perform several concerts during the course of the concert season. The mission of the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra is to enrich the lives of Cape Fear area youth by providing talented young musicians with unique orchestral training and performing opportunities.
Free tickets are available at the door.
The Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra and other educational programs of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra are presented with grateful appreciation for support from the Landfall Foundation, the Corning Inc. Foundation, Target Stores, and the Grassroots Arts Program of the NC Arts Council, a state agency.
What are Bunraku-Style Puppets?
Bunraku-style puppets are full-view-manipulation puppets which, in certain respects, are inspired by puppets from the Japanese Bunraku theatre tradition. These puppets usually feature the entire body of the character, and often have small rods at the elbows, wrists and/or feet, allowing control of the limbs. Sometimes, mechanisms of varying degrees of complexity - located at the back of the puppet and incorporating rods and/or strings - allow the puppeteer to control the head or other parts of the body. The puppet can also be handled by more than one puppeteer, enabling animation of all of its limbs. A bunraku-style puppet derives more or less directly from the puppets of Japanese Bunraku theatre (see above), depending on how many of its characteristics have been drawn from this tradition.