The Animated Orchestra
The Animated Orchestra is an interactive and engaging piece for family and educational concerts.
In the story, the orchestra is supposed to perform the score to a cartoon, but the film of the cartoon was sent to the wrong address! To salvage the concert, the narrator describes the scenes and the orchestra plays the music as the audience imagines the missing cartoon.
The never seen hero of the cartoon is a playful and curious ferret named Ari. The audience is frequently called upon to provide Ari’s characteristic ferret sound: “dook-dook-dook-dook”. The setting for the cartoon is an instrument repair shop owned and operated by a sleepy, older gentleman who lives above the shop.
Ari sneaks into the shop late one night and discovers that an instrument repair shop is a ferret paradise, full of interesting instruments to explore. The story moves into the concert hall as the audience, orchestra, and conductor literally act out the cartoon's climactic scene, including an unforgettable “orchestra wave,” followed by an always popular “audience wave.”
Instrumentation: - 3(pic),2,2,2 - 4,3,3,1 - Timp+2, Harp, Strings, Narrator
Timing: 29 minutes
Photos by rr jones, “Ari” sketch by Thomas NovotnyHistory
The Animated Orchestra was commissioned by Marin Alsop and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music to commemorate the festival’s 50th anniversary. It was premiered in August of 2012 with Marin Alsop conducting the festival orchestra. The author/composer narrated.
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