ROCHESTER, NY — Professional storyteller Jay Stetzer will help bring to life the childhood of several prominent composers — Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Rossini, and others — in the next “Musical Elevenses” concert, to be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, January 29, in the Eastman School of Music’s Kilbourn Hall (26 Gibbs St.). The concert, titled “Young Composers: the Under-18 Crowd,” is part of a new series of Saturday-morning concerts at Eastman intended specifically to give children and families the chance to experience live classical music.
Stetzer — a musician, dancer, mime, visual artist, and storyteller who earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Eastman — is well known to Rochester audiences through his popular radio program “Tales in Two Minutes,” which airs on both WXXI-FM and WJZR-FM. He will be joined onstage by several Eastman faculty members and students, who will perform remarkable works written by these composers before the tender age of 18. Stetzer will provide short, insightful, and entertaining anecdotes to link the composers and the music. Eastman faculty members participating in the concert include Jean Barr (piano), Lynn Blakeslee (violin), Charles Castleman (violin), Pamela Frame (cello), John Greer (voice/piano), George Taylor (viola), and Phillip Ying (viola).
The “Musical Elevenses” series is the brainchild of Lynn Blakeslee, professor of violin. Each concert in the series lasts just one hour, is informal, has no intermission, features a variety of musical styles and instruments, and is free and open to the public. The title “Elevenses” is gleaned from the popular children’s storybook character Paddington Bear. It is a British term for a snack taken at midmorning, usually around eleven o’clock. Blakeslee believes this new series is a perfect “snack” for young students (preschool-high school) and their parents who fill the halls of Eastman each Saturday morning — as well as for people of all ages who simply enjoy good music and fun. The previous two “Musical Elevenses” concerts each have attracted more than 250 concertgoers.
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