If Peter & the Wolf and Young Person's Guide are feeling a bit stale, spice up your children's programming with these delightful modern works for young audiences by living composers.
We love the classics, but sometimes they can get a bit...well...old. For many of us, we justify constantly reprogramming these old favourites because 'a new batch of kids' will be there to enjoy them. However the people that stay constant in the equation are our musicians. It's nice to shake things up every now and then and give everyone a chance to experience different stories and voices.
The works mentioned here are designed for advanced orchestras, and would work great for a youth, university or community orchestras. I've conducted most of these works, and the ones I haven't I've studied carefully. These are well-crafted and ready to go for your ensemble. There's enough variety here to cater to varied instrumentation and duration.
Challenge yourself to program something new for your next kids' concert!
🇦🇺 Australia
Duration: 40'
Instrumentation: Narrator + Full Orchestra 2(picc)222.4231.2perc(timp, marimba, glock).hp.str
Additional elements: Projected Illustrations
Availability: Full Information, Perusal Score & Purchase Info
Commissioned by: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
The Happiness Box tells the story of three best friends, a lizard, a monkey and a frog, who find a magical box and embark upon a journey through the jungle to discover the secret of happiness.
In an act of inspiring optimism, this delightful tale was originally written for Changi Jail’s child prisoners in 1942 by Australian POW David Griffin, and illustrated by fellow POW Leslie Greener, while they were interned in the camp. Greener’s beautiful illustrations from the 1947 edition of book accompany the narration and music.
As well as introducing children to the sounds of the orchestra, The Happiness Box's themes are timeless and universal: the value of kindness, resilience, industriousness, humour, courage, and most importantly: the value of friendship.
🇦🇺 Australia
Duration: 32'
Instrumentation: Male Narrator + Chamber Orchestra 1.1.1.1 2.1.1.1 timp+2perc harp strings
Additional elements: Projected Illustrations, Teacher Resources
Availability: Full Information & Purchase Info
Commissioned by: Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
This work is a story based on the best selling book by Li Cunxin, Mao's Last Dancer, also a blockbuster film.
The Peasant Prince is a compressed version of the same story by the same author in picture book form, illustrated by Anne Spudvilas. It won Australian Picture Book of the Year in 2008.
The work for narrator and orchestra is thematic in nature and develops these themes which are identifiable throughout.
The music tells the story of a young boy growing up in Mao's China in a poor family. He dreams of a better life, but is told he is destined to a poverty-stricken fate. Randomly plucked from his country town, he is selected to become part of Madame Mao's dance training academy. This adventure takes him away from all he has known, but through hard work, curiosity and openness he becomes a world-renowned ballet dancer, eventually creating a better life for his family.
🇦🇺 Australia
Duration: 8'
Instrumentation: Narrator + Chamber Orchestra 1(inc picc).1.1.1 2.2.0.0 timp+1perc harp strings
Additional elements: N/A
Availability: Full Information & Purchase Info
Commissioned by: Symphony Australia
The little gecko is the tale of a small lizard who gets a terrible fright when they lose their tail. After a frantic search meeting many other animals along the way the gecko returns home to it's mum, distraught. All is well when the little gecko realises it's tail has grown back.
This is a great piece to feature a skilled xylophone player - whose instrument plays the role of the gecko. There are also sounds of jumping kangaroos (string glissandi), shimmering water (harp) and birds (piccolo).
🇦🇺 Australia
Duration: 10'
Instrumentation: Narrator + Orchestra 2(inc picc).2.2(inc bass).2 - 4.2.3.1 timp+1perc strings
Additional elements: Projected Illustrations (with copyright permission)
Availability: Contact David
Commissioned by: Zelman Symphony Orchestra
Noisy Nora is a musical illustration of a delightful tale for young children (and grown-ups). The story first appeared as a picture book in 1976 by the American author and illustrator Rosemary Wells, who is perhaps best known today for the popular "Max and Ruby" series. Nora is a "middle child", and finds herself caught between the needs of her baby brother, Jack, and the demands of her assertive older sister, Kate. Nora's solution is to make her presence felt by getting in the way and throwing things around.
Incidentally, David was a student of Julian Yu (see above).
🇺🇸 USA
Instrumentation (Chamber Version): 1111 – 1111 – perc. – hp – str quartet + bass – narrator
Instrumentation (Orchestra Version): 2222 – 3221 – t + 2 – hp – str – narrator
Additional elements: Audience arrange/compose final version; audience participation; Teacher Resources; Projections (optional)
Availability: Full Information, Perusal Scores & Purchase
“Compose Yourself!” – composed in 2002 for the Naples Philharmonic – is a 50-minute showcase for symphony orchestra, designed to introduce young audiences to the wonders of the orchestra. Additionally, it engages them in the compositional process, resulting in a unique world premiere created each and every performance.
Supremely crafted and well-paced, Compose Yourself! delights the students with bottle-music, hosaphones, snake-charming oboes, powerful trumpets, and more, always educating, and always entertaining, so that the children are learning, loving, and laughing about classical music throughout.
Looking for something with more of a narrative? Looking for further ways to engage the audience, Stephenson wrote a new and fanciful story to go along with the music already composed for Compose Yourself! This new story became “Once Upon a Symphony”, and tells the story ofSally and her adventurous trip with her grandfather. They encounter all sorts of delightful musical treats on their journey, with visual and sonic delights surrounding them at every turn. Sally also learns how to compose a piece of music, and ultimately the tale of her travels with grandpa indeed becomes the dream of a lifetime.
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A true story about why we do what we do, and the power of music and process to transform ourselves, our ensembles and our audiences.
If Peter & the Wolf and Young Person's Guide are feeling a bit stale, spice up your children's programming with these delightful modern works for young audiences by living composers.
Keep your audience on their toes - or not. They'll be hard pressed to keep tapping in time to these off-balance marches!
