What would it be like if you were 10 years old and composed a piece of music that was played by the New York Philharmonic? For a few New York City school kids, including one fifth-grader, it’s a dream come true, thanks to the orchestra’s Very Young Composers program.
Composer Jon Deak, who played bass with the New York Philharmonic for more than 40 years, says the idea for Very Young Composers came when he and conductor Marin Alsop visited an elementary school in Brooklyn several years ago.
“As we were going in, I saw all the children’s art on the walls, which was so superior,” Deak says. “I said, ‘That’s it, Marin! We’ve got to get kids to compose music on the level of this art right here, because look: Doesn’t that look like a Picasso? Doesn’t that look like a Paul Klee?'”
I caught this one yesterday morning running errands and it brought tears to my eyes. Read (or much better listen to) it all–KSH.